2024 Pennsylvania Mid-Am Preview

It’s GAME ON! in the final event of the season for the Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA). The 31^st Pennsylvania Mid-Amateur Championship has all the ingredients for a spectacular showcase of many of the state’s top amateur golfers. The two-day, 36-hole individual stroke play will be contested September 16-17 at the beautiful 6,808-yard, par 70 Moselem Springs Golf Club in Fleetwood. The tournament is presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.

In addition to a great venue, six past champions along with many players who have recorded victories in other PAGA, Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) and Western Pennsylvania Golf Association (WPGA) recent championships litter the tee sheet for the competition. It starts with defending champion Zack Dilcher (LedgeRock Golf Club) who captured the 2023 title at Huntsville Golf Club. His 3-under par winning score was just one of nine players at even or under par for the championship. Six of the other eight top finishers also return for this year’s affair.

Troy Vannucci (Philadelphia Publinks), the reigning GAP Player of the Year, who won one of GAP’s “majors” earlier this summer with his Patterson Cup triumph as well as winning the organization’s 2022 Mid-Amateur is in as is Ian Bangor (Montour Heights Country Club), winner of the WPGA’s 2024 Mid-Amateur crown, his third WPGA Mid-Am title since 2018.

A PAGA individual member, Eric Herzing, last year’s runner-up and Arnie Cutrell (Greensburg Country Club), who finished tied for third head the list of top 2023 finishers playing again this year. Cutrell is a three-time WPGA Mid-Am champion. Eric Williams (Glenmaura National Golf Club), Brock Kovach (LedgeRock Golf Club and James Furness (Bellewood Country Club) tied for sixth a year ago all within three shots of Dilcher.

Williams was the 2011 Mid-Amateur winner and is joined in the field by 2022 champion Andy Butler (Huntingdon Valley Country Club) and Matthew Mattare Saucon Valley Country Club) the 2018 winner and GAP’s 2017 Player of the Year. Olde Homestead Golf Club’s Jason Wilson, who won in 2017, and Grant Skyllas (LedgeRock Golf Club) are the other players in the field who have held the winner’s trophy in the past. Skyllas’ win came the last time the event was held at Moselem Springs in 2014.

A pair of 2024 US Amateur qualifiers add to the list of possible contenders going into the event. Along with Butler, Green Pond Country Club’s Scott Kalamar earned a spot in that event. Kevin Fajt (Hannastown Golf Club), who is arguably one of the hottest amateurs in the state in recent weeks, was the medalist in a US Mid-Amateur qualifier for that national event which starts later this week. It is his third trip to the national championship to go along with an appearance in the US Amateur and Clay Davidson (West Shore Country Club) is coming off a win last week in PAGA’s Art Wall, Jr. Memorial Championship so there is no shortage of players competing who have enjoyed success this season.

The player winning the event will hoist the Max Banzhaf Trophy. It is in honor of the deceased long-time executive of Armstrong World Industries and past president of PAGA. Banzhof also served as a past president of Lancaster Country Club.

Ironically, Lancaster County’s Dan Burton was the winner of the first PAGA Mid-Amateur title in 1994. Burton served as a member of the PAGA Executive Committee, past president of GAP and a member of the USGA Executive Committee and USGA Championship Committee.