Friends in playoff

Schermerhorn edges Woodstown teammate Covely in sudden death in Salem/Cumberland county tournament; Cumberland’s Tarquinio girls medalist, Wolverines, Colts win team titles

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CENTERTON — Imagine if you will a sudden-death playoff the likes of Couples-Norman, JT-Speith, McIlroy-Lowry or Westwood-Clarke.

That’s the kind of flavor you got Monday when the Salem-Cumberland county golf championship came down to good friends and Woodstown teammates Jacob Schermerhorn and Jeffrey Covely playing for boys medalist honors at Centerton Country Club.

Schermerhorn, the defending champ, and Covely were the last golfers standing in an initial three-way sudden death before Schermerhorn took out his buddy with a two-putt par on the second extra hole.

“The entire time we were just excited to just hopefully get a chance to win 1 and 2, me and him,” Schermerhorn said. “That’s my guy. I can’t complain. I got to go with my best friend. Between me and him, as long as me or him got first or second neither of us would’ve complained. And fortunately I came out on top. So now I have something to brag about.”

“Going into the playoff with him our senior year is awesome; I couldn’t have written it up any better,” Covely said. “Of course, I want to win – everyone wants to win – but that’s my best friend. I’m happy for him. I’m not going to be jealous or mad or anything. That’s the best way of getting second, I guess you could say.”

The third golfer in the playoff was Schalick senior Ryan Johnson. He fell out after the first playoff hole when his wedge betrayed him from 70 yards after being the longest off the tee. All three players shot 4-over-par 75 in regulation.

Schermerhorn forced a three-way playoff when he bogeyed his 18th hole. He extended the playoff with a 25-foot par “putt of my life” on the first extra hole with Covely staring down a seven-inch kick in for the win.

The playoff started on No. 2 because course crews were working on 1 and 18 and for a brief time it looked like Johnson was going to come out of the playoff on top. All three players were inside 100 yards off the tee, but they all hit terrible second shots.

Covely went first and blocked his wedge off to the right about 15 yards from the green in deep rough. Schermerhorn wound up 15 yards behind the green. With the door open, all Johnson had to do was hit the green and he’d have the advantage. Instead, with a good lie but an awkward stance, he got underneath the ball and lit squirted off the clubface, landing about 15 yards short of the green. He wound up making bogey to end his day and leave the two friends to battle it out.

“The backswing felt good and then just messed it up,” he said. “I was between a 54 and 58. I wanted to go with the 58 and hit it well today. I should have gone with my gut. When you step up without confidence you’re not going to hit a good shot ever. That’s what happened there.”

Covely’s brilliant pitch settled a few inches from the hole and put the advantage clearly in his bag. Schermerhorn hit last and left his 60-degree wedge in the middle of the green.

“After the second shot on 2, I really thought Ryan was going to end up taking that hole and me and Jeffrey would be battling it out for second,” Schermerhorn said. “He (Covely) hit an amazing chip shot and I made the putt of my life.”

“The whole time (after the pitch) I thought I was going to win,” Covely said. “I thought that was it, but, nah, he always has those hero putts every now and then. I hadn’t seen one from him in a while, but he was due for one and that was it. I was happy for him.”

It all came down to the par-3 third. 

Covely overswung a 6-iron off the tee and hit it in the right greenside bunker. Schermerhorn went with a 4-iron and put it on the right collar pin high about 15 feet from the hole.

Covely left his second shot in the bunker, then blasted out to seven feet. All Schermerhorn had to do was two-putt and the victory was his. His first putt didn’t make it to the hole, but he made the three-footer to end it.

“The first chip on the first playoff hole I blocked out, I knew I still had a chance because they still had to hit,” Covely said. “When I duffed that chip (in the bunker) and I saw him on the fringe I knew it was over. I knew he would two-putt from there. He doesn’t bang his long ones every time but he’s a consistent two-putter.”

Woodstown won the boys team title in a field reduced to five two-man teams by cost considerations and a scheduling conflict with the Cape Atlantic League. Because of the situation, both counties played for one prize in each gender instead of separate boys, girls and team titles for each county as they have in the past.

Cumberland Regional won the girls title behind a record-setting 84 by sophomore medalist Nicole Tarquinio. Her round was highlighted by back-to-back birdies for the first time in her career early in the back nine. She shot 91 in winning the Cumberland County girls medal last year as a freshman.

“That 84 is actually the best I’ve done, but I’ve been practicing really hard and every time I go out I’ve been shooting better and better,” she said. “I really see the improvement and I’m really happy I broke 90. I’m happy my hard work is paying off.”

Her birdie on 12 was a 9-iron off the tee to five feet. The one on 13 came with a hybrid from the right rough that bounced in front of the green and rolled up to 15 feet above the hole. She was hoping to make it three in a row on the par-5 and nearly chipped in for it from the back of the green.

“I think I was just more focused (on the back nine),” she said. “I just got too worried on the front nine. I was just in my head and I just relaxed.”

NOTES: Schalick’s Hannah Widdifield took second in the girls field by winning a playoff from Cumberland’s Emily Bruce. Widdifield parred the first extra hole. Both shot 95 in regulation … Schalick’s boys play for a share of the Tri-County Conference Diamond Division title Tuesday. If the Cougars defeat Pennsville at Sakima CC, they will share the division with Woodstown and both teams will send full teams to the TCC Championship next Tuesday at Pitman GC. The four division winners (five with a Schalick-Woodstown share) will send full teams, while everyone else will submit two entries each … The TCC Championship will be Johnson’s final high school tournament, but not the end of his golf. He will enter the PGM program at Coastal Carolina later this summer … If they played the tournament as a two-man best ball, Woodstown’s duo would have edged Schalick by a stroke thanks to birdies on 16 and 17

While the teams were taking their positions in the shotgun start, in a play unrelated to the tournament, Rowan University freshman quarterback Nate Maiers scored his first ever hole-in-one in front of the tournament field on No. 3. The Swedesboro native aced the 181-yard par-3 with a 7-iron. When the ball disappeared into the cup Maiers and his three playing partners – Roman Kuzmick, Dean Martin and Dylan Fuchs — all sprinted from the tee box to the green to check it out. “That was wild,” Maiers said.

SALEM/CUMBERLAND COUNTY TOURNAMENT
At Centerton CC

BOYS TEAM	SCORE	GIRLS TEAM	SCORE
Woodstown	150	Cumberland	179
Schalick	154	Schalick	206
Pennsville	186	Pennsville	238
Cumberland	199	Woodstown	240
Salem Tech	200