Round 3
The 97th Maryland State Open championship at Fountain Head Country Club in Hagerstown, which concluded July 11, showed that it was a young man’s game.
At the end of the regulation 54 holes, four players between the ages of 20-23 were tied for the lead at even-par 210: Eventual winner Ryan Cole (23), an unattached pro from Frederick County; second-round leader Jimmy Grem (23), a professional at Eagle’s Nest CC in Timonium, whose last-hole bogey cost him the title in regulation; Evan Katz (20), from Bethesda CC, winner of the Harry Pitt Bowl as the low amateur, and Lee Detmer (21), an amateur from the Chevy Chase Club, who was third overall last year.
The 414-yard 18th was decisive in the final round for three of the players. While Cole birdied with a six-foot downhill putt that broke about a foot and Katz made birdie from 18 inches (“I made it easy on myself”) to get both to 210, Grem, who had come back to the field with three back-nine bogeys, took a one-stroke lead with a birdie at 17, only to drop back with that final bogey.
Using holes 10 and 18 for the extra session, Detmer went out at the first playoff hole when he drove into trees and picked up after losing to a par. Katz went out at the second when he missed a par putt from three feet, the ball narrowly sliding by the cup. Cole won it at the third with a 14-foot birdie putt, after Grem flew the green with his approach and his delicate, downhill birdie chip just missed and came to rest three feet from the cup.
In regulation, Grem was even par through 45 holes, leading Katz and Detmer by four and Cole by five. Although not out of the lead through 17 holes, Grem was in a three-way tie (Katz and Cole) through No. 14; a two-way tie (Katz) through 15, a two-way tie (Detmer) through 16, and sole possession of the lead at 17, one shot ahead of Detmer and two ahead of Katz and Cole.
Cole, who played on the PGA Tour’s Latinoamerica spring tour and will return in the fall, also competed in a mini-tour event at Mimosa Hills Golf Club in Morganton, North Carolina two weeks ago, and won that in a playoff too. In the second round he shot an incredible, record-breaking round of 58 (-12) with ten birdies (including birds on each of his last two holes to break 60), seven pars, and an eagle.
He got off to a rough start here with bogeys at his first two holes and was 4 over after 11 holes, but three in-coming birdies helped him finish 1-over at 71. Rounds of 70-69 followed. In his concluding round, he eagled the 469-yard, par-5 third with a 7-iron shot to two feet. Most of that side was a struggle with three bogeys, but he regrouped with birds from 40 feet at No. 11 and 16 feet at No. 12. A bogey at 15 dropped him out of the three-way tie, but the putt on 18 took care of just about everything — and his playoff birdie sealed the rest.
Detmer, 1-over on the front, went 2-over at 10, then offset that with two birdies. He finished 72-68-70. Katz was 2-over on the front, then had two birdies and a bogey in his last five holes to complete a line of 71-68-71. Grem finished 70-67-73, with dramatic final-round highs (three birdies) and lows (six bogeys, after collecting just two in each of the first two rounds),
Almost lost in the fireworks at the finish, Connor Flach, from Turf Valley GC, finished third-low amateur and fifth overall with 74-71-70–215, followed by pro Sean Bosdosh, 71-78-67–216, and amateur Benton Weinberg, TPC Potomac, 75-73-68–216. Bosdosh’s 67 shared the tournament’s single-round low score with Grem and pro Jim Estes, Olney Golf Park, 76-67-75–218.
Round 2
Jimmy Grem, an assistant professional at Eagle’s Nest Country Club in Timonium, fashioned a 3-under-par 67 for a 36-hole total of 137 and a two-stroke lead after the second round of the 97th Maryland State Open at Fountain Head CC in Hagerstown, July 10.
Grem, 23, in his second year at Eagle’s Nest after graduating from Towson University, started on No. 10 and was still even par through eight holes, but ratchetted things up from there with three birdies, no bogeys (after posting two birdies, two bogeys to start). “I felt good and it was good to turn it around quickly after that start,” the leader declared.
Evan Katz, 20, a Duke University sophomore from Washington and Bethesda CC, stayed close with a second-round 68 for a two-day score of 139, followed by Lee Detmer, 21, a Wake Forest University senior out of the Chevy Chase Club, 68-140. Pros Ryan Zylstra, from Virginia’s Federal Club, and Ryan Cole, who played from Waverly Woods GC as an amateur, but is competing here unattached, shot 141’s.
Zylstra, one of four to share the opening lead with a 69, slipped to 72 (the other three 69’s each posted 76), while Cole joined him with 70-141.
With the top 40 and ties making the cut for the final round, July 11, 44 players at 151 and better will continue.
Teaching professional Jimmy Estes, from Olney Golf Park, equaled Grem’s round and shot up the leaderboard with 76-67-143, while pro Tyler Herriott, from Old South CC, and a former MSGA Amateur champion, dropped back with 73-70–143.
“The course is tight and narrow [6,291 yards, par 70] and I hit a lot of irons off the tees, ” Grem said. He was in and out of trouble, but had at least a half-dozen par saves to go with five birdies, mostly on putts ranging up to 10 feet, although he did a drain a curler from 50 feet at the 14th. “I’ve been putting well lately and a lot of times when I missed the green, I got up-and-down with a chip and a [short] putt. “Still, it’s the kind of course where you kind of have to pick and choose your battles, and I feel I’ve done a good job.”
Katz had one birdie on the back, a 12-foot putt at the 16th, then turned and had two birdies, one bogey coming back for a pair of 34’s. “I hit 13 greens and when I missed I was able to get up-and-down [such as doing it from 75 yards out on the 469-yard, par-5 third for birdie] so I’m scrambling a little better.”
Detmer began slowly on the back with two early bogeys after missed-greens, but then tore it up with five successive birdies (14-18) for a 31. One birdie was a chip-in; the others were from up to 15 feet. On the front side, he recorded a birdie and two bogeys. “I was under control,” he said, “mostly hitting irons off the tees, although I did hit a few drivers [when he figured he could take advantage of his length]
Estes, who started on No. 1, opened with three straight birdies and five (plus a bogey) in seven holes, ended his spree of seven birdies with a 20-foot putt at the 12th, then struggled home with three bogeys, the last at the 18th, where he drove into trees, had to chip out, and never recovered. Although backed by an impressive MAPGA resume that includes stroke play and match play titles,Estes, who turns 54 next month, admitted he doesn’t play much anymore except an occasional tournament and this was his first event since late May.
Notes: Although the first-round leaders slipped away, there were two notable improvements that salvaged places in the final round. Morgan Egloff, the MSGA Amateur champion from Chevy Chase, went from 78 to 69, and Justin Feldman, from Lakewood CC, went from 77 to 69. Starting on the front, a birdie at the 13th sent Egloff under par, while Feldman turned back-to-front 1-over, then made two birdies coming home. . .The 2019 MSGA Open championship will be held at Worthington Manor Golf Club in Urbana.
Round 1
Pros Matt Fry, from Bel Air, and Ryan Zylstra, an assistant professional at Virginia’s Federal Club, had opposite reactions to their closing holes, as they wound up the first round of the 97th Maryland State Open at Fountain Head Country Club in Hagerstown as part of a four-way deadlock at the top with 1-under-par 69’s.
They were joined by amateurs Adam Gray, Lakewood CC, and Connor Tendall, Congressional CC.
Fry, 25, a veteran of the Florida mini-tour circuit, highlighted his round when he struck a shot to a foot past the hole on the 543-yard 17th, then watched the ball spin back into the cup for an eagle-3. He built a 5-under margin through 10 holes, slipped back, and needed a birdie from three feet at No. 8 (his 17th hole) to salvage the round.
Zylstra, in the event for the first time, had three birdies, two bogeys in his tour, but was shaking his head about his bogey at the 18th, his last hole. “That hurts,” he said. He was never in real trouble but said he had never seen so many defensive putts. The small, undulating surfaces on the Donald Ross gem created woes and Zylstra added, “You stand over a putt and you wonder what the next one will look like.”
He was last year’s Middle Atlantic PGA Player-of-the-Year and the PGA’s National Assistants champion.
In the morning wave, Gray and Tendall returned the only sub-par scores. Gray had two birdies on each side, but marred his card with a double-bogey at the par-3 12th and a bogey at the 17th. Tendall, calling it, “a grind,” started on the front with birdies at the first two holes, but three bogeys left him 1 over going to the other side. Three back-nine birdies and bogeys at holes 14-17 brought him under par. In previous appearances, he tied for fourth in 2015 and solo second in 2016, four shots behind winner Sean Bosdosh.
Two of the 126 starters — both pros — matched par of 70 for the tight 6,291-yard layout: Former MSGA Amateur champion Tyler Herriott, who plays from Old South CC, and Jimmy Grem, an assistant pro at Eagle’s Nest CC. Herriott opened with a birdie at the second, and an eagle-3 at the 469-yard third, then gave them back with three bogeys. Grem had one birdie on each side, but offset them with two back-nine bogeys after getting to 2-under and ended 34-36.
Ben Shields, the reigning Baltimore Municipal Golf Corporation’s match-play champion from Pine Ridge GC, was one of four at 71. He made the cut in last year’s Open and was exempt from qualifying by virtue of a top-17 Amateur finish last year and a top-10 spot in the MSGA Player-of-the-year.
Following the second round on July 10, the field will be cut to the low 40 and ties for the final round, July 11.
Reported by John Stewart
