OLEAN, N.Y. — It’s hard to imagine that the 86th Southwestern New York-Northwestern Pennsylvania Men’s Amateur Golf Tournament could have been much better, given the circumstances.
Start with the fact that despite the absence of some “name” players who had conflicts, the field of 120 at Bartlett Country Club was the largest since the turnout of 126 in 2009.
Then there was the weather.
During Thursday’s opening round of match play, a trio of thundershowers necessitated three stoppages that totaled as many hours.
Then, on Friday, though there was very little rain, thunder and lightning encircled the course and produced a 2-hour and 15-minute delay with the last match concluding at 8 p.m.
That aside, though, it was a very interesting tournament.
Bartlett’s Corey Haas started it by shooting a 4-under-par 66, tying for the Men’s Amateur’s lowest-ever qualifying score with Dan Stetz (1978), Chris Blocher (’99), T.J. Howe (2009) and Scott Brady (’13).
When Haas lost to Brady in Friday’s opening round, the focus switched to Blocher, whose 12 finals appearances had produced a tourney-record 10 championships, and 18-year old Spencer Cornelius the two-time Penn-York Junior Golf League champion.
Cornelius, from Bradford, who plays to a 1.5 handicap at Pennhills, was the tourney’s junior medalist.
INDEED, when the Championship Flight was reduced to the semifinals, Cornelius was the youngest of the Final Four, but not by much, as a pair of 20-year-old collegians — St. Bonaventure’s Peter Byrne and Mercyhurst’s Tyler Thomas — also made it.
The outlier was the 46-year-old Blocher, who’s a plus-1 handicap at Bartlett.
Cornelius, headed for Methodist University (Fayetteville, N.C.) on scholarship, earned the finals by ousting Thomas, 2-and-1, while Blocher defeated Byrne, 5-and-4.
In the finals, Blocher went 2-up after four holes and appeared the rout might be on … instead it was Cornelius who rebounded and was up four after 16 holes and he still led by three after the morning round. But, after the break, Blocher found his birdie stroke and the score was tied after five, and two holes later he was 1-up.
However, he never could pad that lead and Cornelius, who made a string of clutch putts, pulled away in the closing holes and clinched a 3-and-2 victory.
This week, he left for college where he will double-major in pro golf management and finance, having left a legacy for not succumbing to pressure against almost inarguably the region’s premier player over the past 15 years.
TOURNAMENT chairman Kyle Henzel was impressed with the turnout for the finals as a couple dozen full carts followed the Cornelius-Blocher pairing in the afternoon round.
But he was equally encouraged by a couple of tweaks made to the field.
One was the inaugural Over-65 Senior Flight which drew nine participants and was a separate event from the tourney proper with its own medalist and champion. Coudersport’s Mike Brady won both.
The others were a pair of consolation brackets for separate age groups. The Championship Flight has its own consolation for first-round losers, but Henzel added two others, an over-60 and a 45-59, for first-round losers in the other flights determined by the eight lowest qualifying scores in each age group.
“What I like about that, is it gives 16 players a chance for at least another round,” Henzel said.
THE ONLY complaints about this year’s Men’s Amateur had nothing to do with the tournament, but rather the weather’s effect.
“I thought Thursday was harder than today (Friday’s 2-hour and 15-minute delay),” Blocher said. “It took six hours (with the three delays), we played six holes, then we played three holes, then four holes, then we came out for one hole. It was more tiring yesterday.”
(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
