CHA golf faces formidable Fords

by Tom Utescher

Defending golf champion Haverford School sent shockwaves around the Inter-Ac back in April by recording a league-record team score of 216 (at par-35 Gulph Mills, that means that the six scorer averaged one stroke over par). When Chestnut Hill Academy's Blue Devils first engaged the Fords at Sunnybrook Golf Club last Monday, the locals lost, but by a respectably close margin, 235-245.

Haverford (7-1 in Inter-Ac; loss was to Malvern) was led by Brett Murdoch, who bogied the second hole and remained one-over until the ninth, when he picked up a birdie to come in on par with a 36.

Fellow Ford Tripp Bailey and CHA's Jason Ochroch tied for second-best score of the afternoon, each with a 37. Both parred all but one hole, with Bailey needing an extra stroke on the first hole, and Ochroch on the seventh. The consistent CHA junior had also carded a 37 in his previous Inter-Ac outing, at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

One stroke back of Ochroch and Bailey at Sunnybrook last week was the Blue Devils' Mike Soowal, who birdied the second and seventh holes, and parred the fourth, sixth, and eighth for a 38.

For Haverford, Mike Kania came around in 39 strokes and Rob Sylvia hit 40 on the nose, and the visitors' team total was rounded out by James Kania (41) and J.D. Hall (42). Drew Bartholomew, Chip Culp and Nick Pearson all turned in 42's for Chestnut Hill, and Steve Wetherill (an eighth grader, as is Culp) contributed a 44.

UPDATE: In a rematch between the two teams on May 13 at Gulph Mills, host Haverford defeated the Blue Devils once more, 237-248. James Kania of the Fords had the low round of 38 on the par-35 circuit, while Soowal and Robert Robertson each delivered a 39 for Chestnut Hill (3-4 Inter-Ac League).