Two sides advance to U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship
By Mike Dudurich • October 4, 2022
Mike is a freelance writer and host of The Golf Show on 93.7 The Fan Saturday mornings from 7-8 AM. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeDudurich.
The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Sectional Qualifier was held Monday at Willowbrook Country Club in Apollo.
At the end of the breezy, chilly day only one player from the West Penn Golf Association had advanced into the 2023 event which will be held on Kiawah Island in South Carolina. The Cassique Course with host both stroke and match play while the club’s River Course will be the co-host for the stroke play portion of the event.
Ryan Prokay is that player. The former Grove City native won the 2008 WPGA Junior Championship.
Next year at this time, Salvitti will be well into his first semester at Notre Dame and he played with a guy on Monday who’ll be joining him in South Bend the next year, and he and Salvitti played well.
They finished with a 5-under par round of 66 which put them in three-way tie at the top for most of the day, but were surpassed by the 64 posted by William Peel, IV and Colin St. Maxen of Washington D.C. and the 65 posted by Brad Knight and Ryan Prokay of Bradenton and Sarasota, Fla., respectively.
The top two teams automatically qualified for the trip to Kiawah Island. A playoff was held between three teams for the first and second alternates. The first alternate was the team of Mike and Ralph Blasey of Vienna, Va. and Washington, D.C.
Salvitti and Ciocca earned the second alternate spot.
“This is an important event for young guys like us,” Salvitti said. “It was great to play with Nick, an Irish recruit and a future teammate.”
Salvitti started the round off quickly with a pair of birdies, but as would turn out to be something of a pattern for the Pittsburgh Central Catholic senior, Salvitti followed the birdies with a pair of bogeys on the third and fourth holes. He also made back-to-back bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes but rebounded with birdies on 13 and 14.
His teammate made four birdies in the round and while the efforts of the two youngsters was good enough for a highly respectable finish, even though they just missed their alternate goal.
But the day was just another in what has been an outstanding summer (and fall) of golf for Salvitti. He has played near and far for a great deal of that time, played well.
“The year of 20-21 I played some really good,” Salvitti said. “It’s truly been a great season and I think I’m even playing better golf right now.”
As he continues his quest toward leading his PCC teams to a state title, he admits to having occasional thoughts of what might be in his future.
“There are times when I’ll kind of leave out,” Salvitti said. “I’m really excited to get to college. I’ve loved the traveling, playing golf at different places, under all different kinds of conditions. I’m just very excited about it all.”
About the WPGA
Founded in 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association is the steward of amateur golf in the region. Started by five Member Clubs, the association now has nearly 200 Member Clubs and 33,000 members. The WPGA conducts 14 individual competitions and 10 team events, and administers the WPGA Scholarship Fund.