Lancaster Mennonite senior claims his second Lancaster County Junior Golf Tour title in the last three years
Phil Glatfelter was at C0nestoga Country Club on Thursday for the LCJGT championship. Here’s his report from Friday’s New Era:
Matt Burkhart wasn’t terribly impressed with his round.
But his round was good enough to give him a two-shot victory in the Lancaster County Junior Golf Tour Championship on Thursday at Conestoga Country Club.
“I really didn’t hit it that great,” said Burkhart, who shot a 37-36—73 to beat out Austin Wolf and Dan McCrudden.
“It was an up and down day. Three-over isn’t that good of a score. But (if) you win the tournament you had to do something right.”
It was the second title in three years for Burkhart, who will play in his senior season for Lancaster Mennonite this fall.
None of the top three players were thrilled with their games Thursday, despite their high finishes.
“It was as good as I needed to do, I guess,” said Burkhart, playing in the last foursome of the day with McCrudden, Andrew Arnold and Casey Osborne.
“It wasn’t my best round,” said McCrudden, who was the tour points leader entering the championship and ended up sharing the season crown with Burkhart.
“I was just kind of plugging away. I got a birdie on 17 which was kind of nice, but other than that it wasn’t too much — just pars and bogeys.”
“It was a really rough front (nine). I shot 40 on the front nine. … It was kind of steady on the back but I didn’t play well all day, didn’t make anything,” said Wolf, who had even less good things to say about his season.
“It was a very, very rough summer. But I’m working hard and that’s all I can do.”
Wolf got to work on the back nine, as did Burkhart, shooting even-par 35 and 1-over 36, respectively.
That enabled Wolf, playing in the next-to-last group, to slide ahead of Arnold, who was just a shot back of Burkhart until a double-bogey on No. 18.
Burkhart pulled away from a four-way tie as each player in the final group shot a 2-over 37 on the front. He took the lead from Arnold for good on the 360-yard par-4 16th hole, the fifth of seven straight pars to close his round.
“I just made a bunch of pars coming in,” said Burkhart, who had near-misses for birdie on Nos. 11, 12, 13, 17 and 18.
“I had plenty of birdie opportunities coming down the stretch and didn’t really make any.”
The championship looked to be between Arnold and Burkhart, who remained within a stroke of each other on the back nine until the 18th hole.
Arnold held the lead for two holes after a birdie on the par-5 514-yard 10th hole, then again for two more holes after a birdie on the par-4 411-yard 13th.
But Burkhart pulled even with the only par of the foursome on the par-3 15th — the other three hit into a green-side bunker to the right — before grabbing the lead on the 16th.
Arnold’s tee shot on 18, a 360-yard dogleg left, was straight but went through the dogleg into a sand trap.
When his sand shot fell far short and right of the green, it was up to Burkhart to simply record another par for the win — though it turned out bogey would have been enough.
Burkhart’s iron off the tee found the rough through the dogleg, his approach landed safely on the green and he two-putted from about 45 feet.
In other divisions, Craig Hornberger shot a sizzling 35-33—68 from the white tees to win the junior boys title, Jourdan Brill won the girls championship (43-49—92) and Ryan Dornes won the junior-junior boys (43-43—86).
Hornberger, Brill and Dornes also were the season points winners.
Burkhart, meanwhile, won three of the four LCJGT events he played in.
Later Thursday night, the county’s representatives in the Junior War of the Roses, scheduled for Friday, Aug. 8, at Bent Creek Country Club, were selected. They are:
Seniors — Andrew Arnold, Matt Burkhart, David Denlinger, Dan McCrudden, Casey Osborne, Devin O’Grady, Alex Palmer and Austin Wolf.
Juniors — Devin Cenekofsky, J.D. Dornes, Bobby Good and Bobby Stengel.
The Junior War of the Roses is a competition between the top junior golfers from Lancaster and York counties.
