Philmont Country Club – North Golf Results

            The halfway point of our season brought us to Philmont Country Club,  a course designed in 1906 by golf’s first renaissance man, Willie Park Jr. - a two time Open champion, golf equipment inventor and maker, golf writer and world renowned golf architect. He once wrote, “ A man who can putt is a match for anyone” and as we found, the greens at Philmont are the test that separates the wheat from the chaff.

             In Division 1, Amateur Players Tour co-founder Matt Minder added another 1,600 airline miles to his dizzying total as he flew in to play his first Philly Metro event. With his game hardened through a yearlong trek of traveling tour play, we tried to soften him up the night before with food and beverages and vague warnings about “birdie machines”. The day started with a light rain but Minder was undeterred and came out of the blocks with a solid front nine 37 and would hold a four shot lead at the turn. However, the match had already slightly turned on hole seven when Minder posted a bogey and George “The Birdie Machine” Steinmetz posted his first birdie of the day. Steinmetz(41-36-77) would open the back nine by posting birdies on 10, 12 and 13 to take the lead all the way to the house for the win.

              Division 2 was won by Doug Hilgenberg(40-40-80) who captured his first victory of the season with a steady round that put him firmly in the Player of the Year race.

             A four man playoff!!!! Division three was a log jam all day as the leader board turned over every hole.When the bell finally sounded four players were tied at 82. Christopher Mains. Kevin Martyn, Doug Coleman and Rick Knepp all carted up and went out to settle the score on a Par 5 from “The Loop” which had not been part of the tournament. With all four players seeing the hole for the first time, strategies were mulled over and Mains led off. He pulled driver and hit one of his patented bombs...unfortunately it was a dead block left and a provisional was called for. Martyn hit next and hit a solid drive that just ran off the fairway by a yard. Knepp followed suit with a slight pull left into the same area of the rough. Coleman stepped onto the tee lastly and found a high fescue area. His ball was found but he had to hack it out with a wedge and would find himself out of the hole. Even with an army of spectators looking for his ball, Mains could not find either ball and was also now out of the hole leaving Knepp and Martyn to go head to head. The rough was dense and high. Knepp was able to muscle out a low effective shot that set him up for a reasonable third shot approach. Martyn was only able to advance the ball 50 yards from his lie but he hit a cracker of a third shot to put him a pitch away. Knepp hit a solid shot to the front fringe leaving himself a 25 foot birdie putt. Martyn pitched and left himself 18 feet for Par. Knepp went first and powered his lag putt 8 feet past the hole leaving an opening for Martyn. Martyn missed the putt and tapped in for six. Knepp was able to step up and sink the pressure packed eight footer for Par and the Division 3 title.

               In  Division 4, Metro New York player Kermitt Bowen opened with the low front of 43 and was able to hold off a furious charge by Andy Repetto(48-40-88) who went on a back nine run to post a 40 and put the pressure on but he came up one shot short to Bowen who captured his second APT event of the year.

               Raymond Peart(47-45-92) shot a solid round and won by 5 strokes for his first ever Amateur Players Tour win.

Congratulations to all the winners!