Area golfers enjoying successful summer
Several area golfers are experiencing successful seasons this summer.
Grant Engel of Upper St. Clair and Jake Sollon from Venetia finished as co-runners-up at the 93rd West Penn Junior Championships, played on the 6,570-yard, Par 72 course at The Club at Shadow Lakes.
Both finished with two-day totals of 150. The pair, along with Joshua Linsenbigler, trailed champion Brent Rodgers of Cranberry by two strokes.
In the event, Tyler Pollack from Venetia posted a 152 score
Earlier, Sollon captured the West Penn boys’ championship. He finished with a 72 on the course at the South Hills Country Club.
Alex Stopperich of Venetia earned co-runner-up honors in the tournament, finishing three strokes behind Sollon with a 75.
Meanwhile, consistency proved David Brown’s ally as the 52-year-old Upper St. Clair resident captured his second West Penn Amateur Championship in three seasons. It was his third such title of his career.
Brown won his first title in 2004 at the Nemacolin Country Club. He won the 2011 crown at the Oakmont Country Club.
At this year’s event, Brown edged Belle Vernon’s Bo Lustig on the second hole of a playoff to capture the championship. Both finished regulation play with one-under-par 209 scores.
Brown joins John Birmingham, Marshall Marraccini and Vince Zachetti as three-time amateur champions. William C. Fownes, Jr., leads with eight victories from 1904-1916.
Although neither advanced, Peters Township graduates Tom Nettles and Jeremich Merich participated in the U.S. Amateur sectional qualifier played on the Down River Golf Course in Everett. Both finished with 148 scores.
While Merich is golfing at St. Francis University, Nettles will be a freshman this fall at Campbell University.