Golf: Trio of Phantoms Qualify for Districts

GILBERTSVILLE-The Pioneer Athletic Conference (PAC-10) singles championship has taken on a personality of its own over the past five seasons as the best golfers in the area hit the links at Gilbertsville Golf Club vying for the PAC-10 championship and a berth in the PIAA District One tournament to be held at Turtle Creek in Limerick.

With conditions more resembling a course in the Amazon river shed, the day featured annoying wildlife, more specifically the gnats that have made themselves so at home in our area, along with soggy fairways, which snagged their share of balls with perspective great drives being gobbled up by the turf, to the unforgiving soaking wet rough. The only saving grace was that the golfers were able to give themselves relief plucking balls out of the mud and replacing them.

With the top 18 finishers for the boys guaranteed a spot in the District One field and girls scoring under 97 getting the invite, the day got underway around 8:45 a.m. and those goals were on the minds of everyone.

The Phantoms had three players qualify for districts overall with Matt Bierer leading the way with a tally of 78. The highlight if the day came when following a penalty stroke he was hitting three off the tee and holed in an iron to save par.

“Basically I sucked today,” said the Phoenixville senior, who qualified for districts last year as well. “I played bad on the front and worse on the back, but I am glad to qualify for districts, which was one of my goals when the year started.”

Bierer expected to make the district cut and even though he was disappointed with his finish, will take to the course next week with the hope of qualifying for states.

One Phantom that could not have been happier with the results of the day was John Henry Leech, who shortly will be trading in his spikes and bag for ice skates and a helmet as he and the Phantoms take to the ice in the Ches-Mont Ice Hockey League.

“It’s freaking awesome to qualify for districts and have a teammate there," said Leech. “You always come into this tournament thinking you have a shot, but I sank a lot of long putts today, which really gave me the chance. My drives were really shortened today because of the ground, but I adjusted my clubbing up a bit from the fairways.”

On the ladies' side of the docket Olivia Farrell, who emerged as a force to be reckoned with this season, posted a score of 93, four shots to the good of the qualifying number, thus claiming a spot in the District One championship.

“It was and interesting day," said Farrell. “I lost a ball, it took three hours for the front nine and we really had to keep an eye on our balls as they tried to disappear in the fairway. I tried to keep the ball in play and was able to take advantage of the left and replace rule, which gave me a good lie most of the day. Districts will be fun. There are six of us from the PAC-10 going so we will all support each other.”

Boys' scores

Matt Bierer

78

Brendan Bonner

85

Liam Bonner

92

John Henry Leech

82

Rob Miller

95

Joe Moser

90

Andrew Peterson

101

Matt Thompson

89

Girls' scores

Danielle Digirolomo

111

Olivia Farrell

93

Alex Philo

99

Liz Sitkowski

103

Eva Talbert

118

District One Qualifiers-Boys 

Score

Player

School

72

Detwieler, B

SF

73

Melnick, C

MT

75

Vance, R

MT

75

Foley, J

SF

76

Neikam, B

PG

76

Hamilton

MT

77

Wolbach, R

BT

77

Keim, T

SF

77

Wintsch, Z

OJR

77

Foley, M

MT

77

Kriebel, D

UP

78

Vance, B

MT

78

Green, C

PV

78

Bierer, M

PX

80

Hennelly, A

OJR

82

Saxon, L

BT

82

Keffer, T

OJR

82

Leech, J

PX