By Rick Woelfel
GILBERTSVILLE—Two years ago the Central Bucks East girls’ golf program didn’t exist. Today the Patriots reign supreme in District One.
East put together a four-player total of 330 on Tuesday afternoon to win the District One team championship at Gilbertsville Golf Club.
In just their second season as a team, the Patriots earned a spot in the Eastern Regional championship, which is scheduled for next Tuesday at Golden Oaks in Fleetwood.
Defending champion Mount St. Joseph finished second in the six-team field with a 347. Radnor was third with a 352.
“I’ve been teaching and coaching for 20 years,” said East coach Mark Rubino. “This is absolutely the highlight of my coaching career.”
The Patriots actually arrived at Gilbertsville shorthanded. The format for the team competition called for each school to count its four lowest scores from among five players. East, however, has only four players on its roster, so the players knew going in that every stroke would count.
“We knew we didn’t have a backup,” said senior Francesca Ruscio. “It was our four scores in black and white, we either would do it or we wouldn’t do it. But we all pulled it off together.”
Jordan Glatt led the way for the Patriots with a 1-under par 70 that put her at the top of the leaderboard in the individual championship race. It marked the first time the senior had ever broken par in an 18-hole round.
The round was even more remarkable considering Glatt’s start; she bogeyed three of her first four holes before playing her last 14 holes in four under par. At one point, she recorded three straight birdies.
Like everyone else in the field, Glatt had to deal with the conditions. The golf course played to just 4,990 yards with a par of 71, but heavy overnight rain, which forced a one-hour delay prior to the start of play, made the course play significantly longer than the listed yardage.
“We were playing lift clean, and place,” Glatt said, “so that was nice. They got the water out of there pretty quick.”
Sophomore Ashley Cassidy, who finished with an 84, and Ruscio, who shot an 85, will join Glatt and 13 other players in the final round of the individual championship Wednesday at Turtle Creek.
Senior Stephanie Yocum rounded out the Patriot quartet with a 91 but failed to advance.
“It was really hard to pick up the speed of the greens,” Yocum said. “They were changing, drying through the day.”
The conditions made club selection a taxing assignment.
“The biggest problem for most of the girls was how wet the fairways were,” Ruscio said. “Every time you’d try to hit out of them you’d pick up more dirt on your ball. The conditions were a lot tougher today (than in the practice round).”
While the team championship has been decided, the individual championship race is wide open heading into the final round.
Gabriella DiMarco of West Chester East is alone in second place, two strokes behind Glatt after a round of 72. Erica Herr of Council Rock North is at 73, while Alex Liu of Lower Merion is at 74.
Defending champion Aurora Kan of Chichester, the reigning Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion, is at 77 after struggling with her putter for much of the round.
Three other Suburban One players qualified for the final round including Melanie Dickens from North Penn, who shot an 82, and Lily Gordon from Central Bucks West and Hope Giordano from Council Rock South who shot matching 84s.
The top eight finishers in the individual championship will move on to the Eastern Regional.
For now, Central Bucks East is the only school in Suburban One with a girls’ golf team. The Patriots’ performance this week could well be the catalyst however that encourages other schools in the league to launch their own programs.
But the Patriots will be known as the trendsetters.
“For us to make us this far and for all of is to chip in, it’s wonderful,” Ruscio said. “It’s unbelievable.”
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