Playing in the final group of the day, Matt Dolinsky was on his way to sole possession of the lead after the first round of the Hawley Quier Memorial golf tournament, but then the rain started.
A heavy downpour in the early afternoon of Thursday’s opening round proved problematic for Dolinsky on the 18th hole. Tough conditions on the green turned a potential birdie into a bogey, dropping Dolinsky into three-way tie for first with Chris Storck and Nicholas Vecellio at 1-over 71.
“I hit the ball great, drove the ball great; I think I only missed two greens,” Dolinsky said. “I putted well, my only little hiccup that I had was on 18. I had about 18 feet for birdie. It started to pour and my first putt kind of just slipped past the hole for 5 feet; it had a lot of water on it. You would think that (the water) would slow it down but it actually just kept going.
“I had a little 4- or 5-(foot putt) coming back up the hill and it was wet and I think I just didn’t hit it hard enough.”
Dolinksy shot even par on the front nine, then made his first birdie on the back at the par-4 10th. He bogeyed the par-4 14th and shot par until the last hole. At that point, he held a one-shot lead over Storck and Vecellio, who already had posted their scores.
Dolinsky, 50, has won five Berks County Public Links championships, including the last two, and is searching for his first win at the Hawley Quier in Friday’s final round. The first tee time is 9 a.m. The leaders tee off at 10:30 a.m.
“I think I only missed a couple of fairways, gave myself very good birdie looks all day,” Dolinsky said. “I would have liked to have made a few more of my birdie putts, but other than that, I just played solid golf and I was pleased with the way I hit it.
“I wanna win it because we do have a lot of good players in our county like Chris (Storck) and Nick (Vecellio). Back when I was younger, there were like five to 10 good golfers. Now Berks County has some depth as far as kids, especially the younger kids. They hit it a mile and they’re all playing the same events I’m playing, but the competition is definitely stiffer than it used to be in my opinion for sure.”
Vecellio set the tone early by making birdie on the par-4 first and and par-4 ninth. Though he bogeyed No. 10, Vecellio rebounded with a strong showing on No. 14.
After his tee shot missed slightly to the right side of the fairway, Vecellio used a 3-wood and hit his approach within 20 feet of the hole. He then sank the birdie putt to get back to 2-under as his confidence was heating up after he hit the pin on the par-3 13th.
Covered the Hawley Quier Memorial at Moselem Springs today and Nicholas Vecellio, Chris Storck and Matt Dolinsky are tied for 1st at 1-over 71 heading into tomorrow’s final round. The three will tee off at 10:30 a.m. Here is Vecellio sinking a deep birdie on No. 14. #Berksgameday pic.twitter.com/UtSQy94ua6
— Andrew Heller (@aHellerReading) August 10, 2023
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“It’s funny because I was hitting the long irons and the woods really well and actually hit the pin on 13 with my tee shot before it bounced off the green,” Vecellio said. “So on 14 I was kind of in between clubs and I ended up going one more; I hit 3-wood because I missed my tee shot. And I tried from the side up there to hit a cut up in the middle of the green and I got a nice balance and I was lucky enough to make the spot. So a birdie on 14 is always stealing one.”
While he may have stolen a pivotal shot on No. 14, a double bogey on the par-4 16th derailed what would have been the low round of the day. He regained his composure, however, and closed with two pars.
Having recently won the Moselem Springs club championship, Vecellio said he was disappointed with his reads on the three-putt double bogey, knowing how tough the greens and pin locations are.
“I got off to a good start and made a couple putts early; kind of hung in there in the middle,” Vecellio said. “And then kind of made one brain-dead mistake in the back nine on 16; I just hit it above the hole with my first putt and you just can’t do that out here.
“I had 50-footer there and I know on these greens, I played here 1,000 times and you can’t hit it above them and I hit it 5 feet by. Then, you know, you’re going to try to lay up that next putt or you’re gonna try and make it, and I tried to make it and I ran it 5 feet by and missed that one. So just a mental mistake, but I’m happy with how I played otherwise.”
Storck, a four-time Memorial champ, recovered after a rocky start. He bogeyed the par-3 third and par-3 fifth, but made a birdie on the ninth and parred every hole on the back nine, making solid up-and-downs to mitigate damage. .
“I felt good about my round,” Storck said. “I had a couple bad tee shots but I was able to get up-and-down on the back nine to make pars. I had a fair amount of good look at birdies that didn’t go in, but like we all know here, making par is not a bad score and you move on to the next hole. And I feel I kept my composure; I got through the back nine even and posted a good score. Today, you can’t win it, but tomorrow’s the day and you just gotta be in the hunt.”
On the par-4 17th, Storck found himself chipping onto the green from a considerable distance but came within 15 feet of the hole and sank the long par putt.
Chris Storck parred the back nine at the Hawley Quier Memorial today and made several up and downs to remain in contention. Here he is on the 17th hole making a long chip followed by a difficult putt for par to remain in contention with the leaders at 1-over 71. #Berksgameday pic.twitter.com/iLNqZJWyd8
— Andrew Heller (@aHellerReading) August 10, 2023
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On No. 18, Storck hit his third shot out of the bunker to within 5 feet of the hole.
“On 17 it’s really almost a par five today; I can get up and down for four and stay composed,” he said. “It’s like making up a shot on the field. You just got to revert back to your practice and your chip shots and the kind of shot you need to hit. A lot of it is hit and hope and if it gets close enough then you got to make the putt, and I was lucky enough to make that little testy downhiller. But on 18 I hit a good tee shot and I put it in that bunker on my second shot, which was actually a good place to be, and I thought I hit a good shot out of there.”
Defending champion James Furness finished at four-over 74 and is tied with Bill Schultz and Jason Barkely for fourth place.
With plenty of formidable competitors who are well aware of the difficulty that Moselem Springs presents, playing the course safely may be just as difficult as going against the other skilled golfers .
“Chris is a good player,” Dolinsky said. “Everyone you’re playing against you got to be beat, but I’m not really playing them, I’m playing the course. I’m just playing one hole at a time, one shot at a time and just trying to stay in my game and stay focused until the end. Hopefully at the end I’m going to be the winner.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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