Matthew Teesdale (l) is looking to become the sixth player to win the Open Championship and Patterson Cup in the same year. Jeff Osberg of Huntingdon Valley Country Club (c) and Michael McDermott of Merion Golf Club are looking for their second Patterson Cup titles. All three are in contention for the 2014 William Hyndman, III Player of the Year.

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Tavistock Country Club welcomes 112^th Joseph H. Patterson Cup

  The Joseph H. Patterson Cup always bears significant implications to the William Hyndman, III Player of the Year race. But this year, it feels like so much more.

  Only 65 points separate third from first in the standings. The Patterson Cup grants 250 to the winner. It also represents the final rounds in the Silver Cross Award — a 150-point prize. So when Tavistock Country Club hosts the tournament’s 112th edition Aug. 6-7, a lot can change in the chase.

  Commonwealth National Golf Club’s Matthew Teesdale is currently ahead of the pack. The rising Temple University senior recently qualified for the U.S. Amateur and won the Association’s Open Championship. He hopes to follow in the footsteps of Owls teammate Brandon Matthews, who accomplished both feats a year ago before capturing the Patterson Cup and Silver Cross Award (Teesdale finished second in both).

  Matthews isn’t competing this week.

  “It’s fun to keep it in the Temple family. Hopefully I can keep doing that,” Teesdale, 23, of Maple Glen, Pa., said. “It has a lot to do with [Temple men’s golf coach] Brian Quinn. He helps us tremendously with the swing and more so course management. He’s teaching me what shots to hit and where to miss and really minimizing the big numbers.”

  In the Silver Cross Award standings, Teesdale stands a stroke back of leader Michael McDermott, who ironically finished a stroke back of Teesdale in the Open Championship. McDermott ranks third in the POY race and knows how much weight the final Major carries. The Merion Golf Club member holds two Silver Cross Awards (2003, 2007) and a Patterson Cup title (2007). He is also a five-time William Hyndman, III Player of the Year.

  “You can get dizzy with the various leaderboards going on at the Patterson Cup,” McDermott, 39, of Bryn Mawr, Pa, said. “The field’s going to be really strong, and there are guys playing great golf. You certainly can look at Matt Tessdale and Jeff Osberg as really having a good year. I’m going to get to see Matt up close and personal in the first round, and if things go well for me, hopefully I spend some time with him in the second round, too.”

  McDermott and Teesdale, along with Philadelphia Cricket Club’s John Brennan, will tee off No. 1 at 8:40 a.m. At that time, Osberg will do the same on the other side of the golf course.

  Like McDermott, the Huntingdon Valley Country Club member knows Patterson Cup and Silver Cross success; he earned both in 2010. Osberg nearly claimed POY honors that year as well, falling 66.6 points short of eventual winner Michael R. Brown. The reigning Amateur Champion trails Teesdale by 59.2 heading into Tavistock.

  “There’s definitely a lot on the line. You have the Silver Cross and Player of the Year points, so expectations are high I guess,” Osberg, 30, of West Chester, Pa., said. “I didn’t play too well in the Open. Obviously, Teesdale and McDermott are playing great, with Teesdale winning and McDermott finishing second there. I think they have a pretty good lead on me in the Silver Cross as well. It’s definitely going to be tough to make up the ground, especially with those two.”

  Osberg is five strokes behind McDermott, four behind Teesdale in the Silver Cross standings. He’s shown that overcoming a substantial deficit can be done; Osberg roared from 11 back in 2010 at RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve.

  “The Silver Cross wasn’t even on my radar then, so I know it’s definitely possible to make up a decent amount of strokes,” he said. “What’s important is going out and playing well. All you need to worry about is how you do yourself.”

  The Patterson Cup is the Association’s premier stroke-play championship and final Major of the tournament season. A field of 144 players will compete in the two-day, 36-hole affair.

  Tavistock hosted the Patterson Cup in 2004, when the event was conducted in one day at two sites. Its own Michael Tash prevailed that year. He is one of eight former champions in the field. Others include Overbrook Golf Club’s James Kania, Jr. (2009) and Brad McFadden (1992), Mercer Oaks Golf Course’s Glenn Smeraglio (1998, 2008), Tavistock’s Jamie Slonis (2001) and Huntingdon Valley’s Greg O’Connor (2000).

  The Silver Cross is awarded to the player with the lowest aggregate score in the qualifying rounds of the Amateur Championship and the Patterson Cup.

  As always, the media and the public are welcome to attend.

  The second oldest Championship in the Golf Association of Philadelphia, the Joseph H. Patterson Cup memorializes a man who fostered the game in its infancy. Joseph Henry Patterson, a Philadelphia Cricket Club member, competed in the first out-of-town match played by a team of Philadelphians. Friends of Patterson donated the Cup, designed by J.E. Caldwell & Co., to the GAP in 1900.

Golf Association of Philadelphia
  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 150 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.