Butler, Jezzeny, Sheehan tie for 1st at SOL Boys Golf Championship

WARMINSTER >> Souderton’s Thomas Butler enjoys the challenge of keeping up with fellow Suburban One League Continental Conference golfers Luca Jezzeny of Central Bucks West and Central Bucks East’s Patrick Sheehan.

“Any time I can have the chance to play with them and be up with their scores and kind of hang around them, I’m always happy,” Butler said. “And I’m always almost pushing myself extra hard to kind of stay up there with them.”

At the end of the SOL Boys Championship at Five Ponds Golf Club, the trio all kept pace with each other as Butler, Jezzeny and Sheehan finished in a three-way tie for first place at 3-over 74 Monday afternoon.

“It was a good. We all played OK, I don’t think we all played up to our potential,” Jezzeny said. “But it’s definitely nice to finish on top.”

Butler was one of four Souderton golfers to qualify for the District 1-AAA tournament and also paced the Indians as they earned the SOL’s fourth bid in the district team championship. Big Red’s four-best scores totaled 315, edging out the 317 posted by Pennsbury.

“I’ll take it. I’m up there with Pat and Luca, who are very good golfers and I’m always happy to be up with their names on the leaderboard,” Butler said. I’m pretty happy with how I played today.”

For Jezzeny, it was CB West senior’s third consecutive top-five finish at SOLs after tying for fifth at Indian Valley Country Club in 2016 then last season taking second behind Sheehan at Five Ponds.

“I was hitting the ball really nicely,” said Jezzeny, who also qualified for districts a four straight season. “Hitting a lot of greens an a lot of fairways, just couldn’t make many putts today. Only had one birdie on the 12th hole.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh sophomore Dylan Gooneratne earned the best finish in the SOL American Conference, taking fourth overall with a 4-over 75. Pennridge’s Brendan Bauer and Stephen Butler of Souderton both finished in a tie with SOL National top-finisher Patrick Laushell of Pennsbury for fifth at 6-over 77.

“It was a good day. I was able to hit the ball in the fairway for most of the day and I was able to give myself good looks at the pins that were playing really difficult today,” Gooneratne said. “And I was able to shoot pretty well, so I’m pretty happy with how I played.”

A warm opening day of October yielded no scores under par after both Sheehan (4-under 67) and Jezzeny (3-under 68) did so last year — this time tough greens and challenging pin placements making for a more difficult round.

“The greens were super fast. I didn’t think I’d ever played them that fast here. The pins were cut really close to the edges of the green so it made chipping extremely hard if you’re on the wrong side,” Thomas Butler said. “They were on a lot of steeper hills so the putts broke a lot near the hole. So it was just hard to make the birdies cause it almost was a little lucky if you made your big breakers for birdie and stuff like that.”

Both Souderton and Wissahickon had the second-most golfers advance to districts with four — Pennsbury led with nine. Along with Thomas and Stephen Butler, Big Red had Justin Panner (tied for ninth at 8-over 79) and James O’Malley (tied for 30th at 14-over 85) earn spots at Turtle Creek Golf Course.

Christian Matt and Sam Barsh paced Wissahickon as both carded an 11-over 82 to tie for 15th place. The Trojans’ Eashen Jutori shot a 13-over 84 to tie for 25th while Christian Lee’s was in the fourth-way tie for 30th at 14-over 85.

CB West, North Penn and Hatboro-Horsham each had two golfers qualify for districts. Joining Jezzeny for the Bucks was Kevin Lydon (13-over 84). Making the cut for North Penn were Tyler Schulze (11-over 82) and Colin Hoy (12-over 83). Michael Morris (12-over 83) and Jack Marvin (14-over 85) earned district spots for the Hatters.

Also qualifying were William Tennent’s Stephen Skida with a 10-over 81 and Upper Dublin’s Jarrod Matz with a 11-over 82.

North Penn’s Quinn Marett, Pennridge’s Connor Fritch, Tim Carrell of Hatboro-Horsham and Abington’s Gavin O’Donnell were part of the eight-way tie for the final three district berth at 15-over 86 but Marett, Fritch and Carrell were knocked out on the first playoff hole while O’Donnell was bounced on the second.

Springfield-Montco’s Ryan Fireman (14-over 85) and Austin Maggioncalda (15-over 86) qualifed for the District 1-AA tournament.