*Team Scorecards
Huntingdon Valley heads Team Championship Qualifier at LlanerchHAVERTOWN, Pa. — It was a warm yet wet homecoming for Jeff Osberg Tuesday. Warm because the Manayunk, Pa. resident returned to Llanerch Country Club (par 71, 6,778 yards), where he was a member for the last three years, to compete in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Team Championship Qualifier. Wet because steady rainfall soaked the course and contributed to a field scoring average of 83. Now a Huntingdon Valley Country Club member, Osberg shined and represented his new digs spectacularly, carding a 3-under-par 68 to earn the tournament’s individual title. He posted the day’s lone subpar score and boosted Huntingdon Valley to the top of the team leaderboard with a 298 total. “It’s nice coming back here. I love Llanerch,” Osberg, who will compete in Sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open in less than a week, said. “It always plays extremely difficult. Playing in the afternoon, you could see the scores from the morning, and I wasn’t surprised. I just feel comfortable here. I know how to play the greens. I know how to keep it in play. I never really got in trouble today.” Joining Huntingdon Valley in the Championship proper, set for June 25 at Lehigh Country Club, are Llanerch, Commonwealth National Golf Club and reigning GAP Team Matches champions Philadelphia Cricket Club. Three-time defending Team Champions Overbrook Golf Club, which holds a record 17 titles overall, failed to advance with a 322 total. Osberg, who finished third in last week’s Middle-Amateur Championship, knows what it takes to lead his team into the Championship proper. Two years ago, Osberg, then representing Llanerch, earned medalist honors in a Team Championship Qualifier at Trump National Golf Club — Philadelphia. Amid cloudy skies and relentless raindrops Tuesday, Osberg played Llanerch’s long par 3s superlatively. He hammered a 5-iron to 15 feet right of the No. 4 (205 yards) for birdie. He used the same club on the 221-yard No. 8 tee-box and converted an uphill 20-footer from the green’s front. “The first four holes here are the most difficult part of the golf course,” Osberg, 28, said. “I always say if I can get across the road to No. 5 at even par, then you know you’re going to have a great round.” Osberg did one better. He also inked red on No. 6 (par 4, 416 yards), hitting a pitching wedge 130 yards to five feet. Osberg’s lone frontside hiccup occurred on No. 7 (par 4, 393 yards). His sand wedge approach from 98 yards hit the flagstick, slid down the front slope and stopped 45 feet from the jar. After unexpectedly missing a tap-in birdie on No. 9 (par 5, 490 yards), Osberg whacked a wedge 135 yards to 10 feet for a 3 on No. 11 (par 4, 457 yards). He missed the par 3, 150-yard 17th green with a 9-iron and went on to register a bogey, but responded with a kick-in birdie on No. 18 (par 4, 296 yards) shortly following a monstrous drive that settled 30 feet from the flagstick. Huntingdon Valley last advanced to the Team Championship in 2004, when it captured the trophy at Lookaway Golf Club. It has a chance to erase that drought at Lehigh. “It’s probably one of the most fun days of the year. It’s an absolute blast to play with the other three teams,” Osberg said. With the additions of Osberg and Benjamin Smith, the reigning New Jersey State Golf Association Open Champion, Huntingdon Valley seems primed to add to its illustrious past. “There are a lot of good players that play there now, and there are a lot of good players that have been through there in the past,” Osberg said. “When you walk through the halls there, you see hall of fame plaques for guys who have done well in national events and Philadelphia events. It’s a great place to be. There’s a lot of history there.” Home-club hopeful Stephen Seiden carded a 2-over-par 73 to lead Llanerch into the Championship proper. “I knew pars were going to be excellent today with the weather coming in, but they’re good on this golf course no matter what the conditions are,” Seiden, 31, of Havertown, Pa., said. “The familiarity of the golf course helps you get it around and be comfortable with the lines off the tees. I got off the tee real well and consequently put myself in good shape to hit a lot of greens and to make some easy pars. And easy pars help the round keep going. It was nice to do that.”
“I played the longer holes really well, which was key,” Seiden said. “The greens were still firm, so you had to be careful with that.” Also aiding Seiden’s effort Tuesday was Sandy Amadio, a Llanerch member who endured the rain to forecaddie for his friend. “He’s an old veteran here. We get along well and I asked him to ride along with me to have some fun, and he likes competition,” Seiden said. “He made sure I didn’t make any silly mistakes. I’ve been known to do that.” Despite losing its top player in Osberg during the winter, Llanerch remains a strong force on the team circuit. It finished second in Section 4 of Division AA in the GAP Team Matches and now prepares to make a charge in the Championship proper. “Jeff’s obviously one of the elite players in this area, so when you lose someone like that, everyone’s got to come together and keep grinding away. Every score is important,” Seiden said. “No one puts too much pressure on themselves, and no one pressures other people to play well. It’s a nice, comfortable place to play. We have a pretty good, deep team, and our home golf course gives us a good eight, nine shot advantage over five or six guys.” The Team Championship Qualifier determines what four member clubs will compete in the Team Championship. Participants must field at least six players to be eligible. The low four scores of each team make up the qualifying total. In the event of a tie, the sixth player’s score is used. The Championship proper features eight-man teams playing an alternate shot format in the morning, with singles matches in the afternoon. Founded in 1897, the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) is the oldest regional golf association in the United States and serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. Its 143 Member Clubs and 57,000 individual members are spread across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. As Philadelphia’s Most Trusted Source of Golf Information, the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.
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A Walk Through Time
GAP is the oldest state or regional golf association in the country. It started courtesy of a friendly competition – the Team Matches – and has grown into the preeminent golf association in the country. Along the way, golf history has been made.
