U.S. Mid-Am at Saucon Valley C.C.

By MIKE KERN
So how often do the two players who tie for medalist honors in the qualifying
rounds at a USGA championship wind up facing each other in the closing match?
Well, almost never. Yet it happened at the 34th U.S. Mid-Am at Bethlehem’s
Saucon Valley Country Club, for the first time since 2010 and just the second
time ever. And Scott Harvey, a 36-year-old real estate property manager from
Greensboro, N.C., got the Robert T. Jones Memorial Trophy by beating Brad
Nurski, 35, a train conductor and switchman from St. Joseph, Mo., 6 and 5, in
the 36-hole final on Sept. 11 at the Old Course.
Both had shot 1-under-par 141 for two days on the weekend over the Old
and Weyhill, the other one of the facility’s three courses that was utilized, to earn
the top seeds. Then they proceeded to play like it.
“I just really can’t put it in words,” said Harvey. “This tournament has been
my No. 1 goal every single year.”
He’d reached the quarterfinals four years ago, when he also was co-medalist.
In the semifinals, he took out 2005 champion Kevin Marsh, 3 and 2.
The best perk about winning? Harvey likely will get an invitation from
Augusta National to tee it up in next April’s Masters.
Nurski, who was 3,994th in the World Amateur Golf rankings, was competing
in only his second Mid-Am. The first was 2008, when he lost in the first round.
This was the seventh consecutive year that Harvey has been in the Round of
32.
“I was tired, but you can’t let that stop you,” said Harvey, who was taking
medication for a sore back and admitted he’d hardly slept at all the night before.
My buddy Rocky (Manning, who caddied for him) was saying, ‘Look, you belong
here. Believe it.’ And that’s what I did.”
Harvey held a 4-shot lead after the morning round. Nurski made an early
run in the afternoon to cut the deficit to one hole, but Harvey quickly pulled
away again. He won it on the 30th hole, a par-4, by making a 15-foot birdie putt.
Nurski missed his chance to halve when his 8-foot par attempt slid by the left
edge.
Nurski was trying to become the first lefthander to win this title, and only
the sixth to win a USGA event.
“I just didn’t play good enough,” he said. “No regrets for me.”
Harvey’s father Bill passed away last October at the age of 82. He’d participated
in 23 USGA championships, including 15 Amateurs, where his best finish was
getting to the quarterfinals in 1973.
“He’d say I knew you could do it,” an emotional Harvey explained. “That’s
exactly what he’d say.”
His wife Kim, their young son Cameron, Kim’s mother and two family friends
made the eight-hour drive to watch him play after finding out he’d reached the
finals. They arrived as Harvey was playing the eighth hole of the championship.
“I had no idea (they were coming),” Harvey said. “My wife can be a little
sneaky sometimes. I was a little shocked (when I saw them).”
Kim added: “I have never told him not to go follow his dreams. He loves this
so much, and I get pleasure from watching his successes.”
And that’s what the Mid-Am is about, really. It’s for everyman who still thinks
he can, despite having a whole other life going on back home.
TAP-INS: The threat of inclement weather forced the afternoon round to
be moved up 45 minutes … The flags were flown at half-mast to commemorate
the 13-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which took place during the
playing of the 2001 Senior Amateur and Senior Women’s Amateur. The latter
was held that year at Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley in the western part of
the state … Saucon Valley had previously hosted the 1992 and 2000 U.S. Senior
Open, the 2009 Women’s Open, the 1951 Amateur, the 1983 Junior Am and the
1987 Senior Am … Matt Mattare, a 28-year-old Saucon Valley member and son
of Gene, the club’s director of golf, lost in the Round of 16 to Todd White, 2 and
1. White was a member of the 2013 Walker Cup team. Mattare was playing in
his third straight Mid-Am. He made it to the quarters in 2012 … Nathan Smith,
a Western Pennsylvania native and record four-time winner, lost in the second
round to Kevin Marsh in 20 holes … Defending champ Mike McCoy and last
year’s runnerup, Bill Williamson, also were eliminated in the Round of 32.