Dan Falls, from Manor Country Club, fired a 4-under-par 35-32–67 to earn the medal in on-site qualifying for the 95th Maryland State Amateur Championship at the Elkridge Club in Baltimore, June 9th. The Charles Street layout was played at 6,361 yards to a par of 36-35–71.
It marked a third successive round in the 60’s for Falls at Elkridge after he won last year’s MSGA Mid-Amateur title with 68-68–136.
This time, Falls’ tour of the sunny, wind-swept course featured seven birdies, including four on his opening nine, which began on hole number 10. He was one-under-par for seven holes, then chipped in for birdie at 17 and holed a 20-foot putt for birdie at 18. Coming back, he more than offset two early bogeys with three successive birdies (holes 5-6-7) on putts from inside 12 feet. As it evolved, “My short game was really good and I putted well,” he said.
Tim Prey, a member of Baltimore Country Club’s MSGA State Team-Match Championship in April and competing in his first Amateur, was the only other player in the 60’s for the 127-man field, as he returned 31-37–68. He got it going early with a 25-yard chip-in eagle at the 571-yard third and admitted “I got lucky” at the treacherous 480-yard seventh where he was short in two, chipped on and made the putt from 20 feet. On the back, hitting into bunkers led to bogeys at the 11th and 17th, the latter playing much more difficult than its listed 180 yards as it was dead into a strong wind.
The Wake Forest graduate, who has been taking some time off lately before starting business school in the fall, has used the time to work on his golf and that, coupled with his team experience, has helped him improve his game.
Matt Bassler, from the CC of Maryland, a former MSGA Maryland Open titlist, headed a group at 70, along with Bart George, 23, U.S. Naval Academy GC — like Bassler a graduate of Loyola University Maryland — plus recent secondary school graduates Peter Knade (Woodberry Forest School), Talbot CC, and Teagan Stephenson (Urbana High School), P.B. Dye GC.
Bassler recovered from three back-nine bogeys to birdie holes 16 and 18 to get to 34-36; George had three successive birdies on the back en route to a 36-34; Knade scrambled to a 35-35, and Stephenson, 1 over par for 14 holes, birdied 15 and 17 to polish off a 37-33.
Ben Warnqust, the medalist and champion a year ago when the event was held at his home course, Manor CC, was an automatic qualifier and placed at the top of the draw. At the other end, 13 of the 14 players to shoot 74 showed up to vie for the final two available places. Teenagers Ben Shields, Pine Ridge GC, and Brad Whitaker, Columbia CC, got in with birdie-par for holes 16 and 17 respectively. Patrick Moriarty, Argyle CC, finished birdie-bogey.
-Reported by John Stewart
