JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
A little father-son piece for you, featuring the Denlingers — Dad Deryl, Lancaster Mennonite’s head golf coach, and son David, who plays for his dad on the Blazers’ team. Deryl is a two-time Lanco Amateur champ, and he’s headed back to Bent Creek Country Club this week for the 56th Lanco Amateur. He won it there in 1995. On Friday, he’ll be going up against his son, one of the top juniors in the county. Here’s my story from Wednesday’s New Era:
It was June 24, 1995, and Deryl Denlinger was standing behind the 18th green at Bent Creek County Club, watching Dave Richards stand over a three-foot putt.
“I thought Dave would knock it close, make birdie and beat me,” Denlinger recalled recently.
“When he missed, I was in shock.”
Richards’ miss was Denlinger’s gain, as he won his second Lanco Amateur title in three years, firing a 1-over 72 in the second round and holding off Richards, the tough-luck runner-up, by a shot.
Richards led by three shots standing on the 16th tee that day, but a double-bogey on 17 – which included a one-stroke penalty for an unplayable lie in a greenside bunker – cost him the title – and sent Denlinger to the winner’s circle.
“Dave doubled 17 and three-putted 18,” Denlinger said. “That was a gift. You’ll take them any way you can get them, I guess. I’m sure Dave is anxious to get back out there at Bent Creek this year.”
This year is Friday, when the 56th Lanco Amateur returns to Bent Creek for the first time since Denlinger edged Richards at the wire 13 years ago.
“For the guys who play in Lanco events,” Denlinger said, “this is our major. This is the one tournament we all look forward to.”
And when the field of 135 tees it up Friday morning, beginning at 7:30 a.m., there will be more than one Denlinger gunning for that major local title.
Deryl’s son, Lancaster Mennonite senior David Denlinger, will be participating in his third Lanco Amateur.
Deryl, who also won the Amateur in 1993, and lost in a playoff to Jeff Wintersteen in the 1994 Amateur, also happens to be Mennonite’s head golf coach, so he not only plays golf regularly with his son – you can find them at the Host Resort, like clockwork, on Sunday afternoons — but he also coaches him.
Friday, Deryl will complete the trifecta, going up against his own flesh and blood — with prizes and trophies on the line – at the place where he won his last Lanco major.
David was four years old when his daddy withstood Richards that day at Bent Creek, by the way.
“Playing against David is always tough because I have to focus on my game, while worrying about what he’s doing,” Deryl said. “As a player and as his coach, I almost want him to play better than me.”
Then he paused.
“But,” Deryl said, chuckling, “I still want to beat him.”
David is a plus-1.5 handicap at the Host Resort. Deryl is a 1-handicap, also at the Host.
“It’s always nice to beat my dad, but I really want to see him do well,” David said this week from Avon, Ohio, where he’s competing in the SAP Open, a three-round American Junior Golf Association event that runs through Thursday.
“I’m always rooting for my dad to win,” David said. “And if he’s playing well, that’s great. If I happen to be playing well too, that’s a plus.”
The Denlingers will not be in the same group on Friday; Deryl tees off at 1:30 p.m. and David goes off at 1:57 p.m. The top 40 percent of the field advances to Saturday’s final round.
One conspicuous absentee from this year’s field is two-time reigning Amateur champ Jarred Texter, the former Penn Manor and UNLV standout, who recently turned pro.
So there will be a new winner for the first time in three years when the prizes are doled out after the second round on Saturday evening.
“I’d have to play two exceptional days to win,” Deryl said. “But Jarred won’t be there, so everyone sort of has a chance to shine.”
Like David Denlinger, perhaps?
He’s part of a bumper crop of young guns who have blazed a new trail through the Lanco events over the last couple of years, with other golfers like Texter, Dan Walters, Shawn Hall, Zack Amole and reigning Lanco Player of the Year Zak Drescher.
“I’m not sure how some of the veteran guys feel about us,” David said, “but hopefully they appreciate the success of the Lanco junior golfers.”
Deryl Denlinger certainly does.
And Friday, when he returns to the site of his last major local victory, he and everyone else will be going up against one of them.
His son.
