OLEAN, N.Y. — Those who closely follow the local golf scene, especially the Southwestern New York-Northwestern Pennsylvania Men’s Amateur, are adamant that Corey Haas is the best player never to have won the region’s premier match-play tournament.
And Wednesday afternoon at Bartlett Country Club, with temperatures in the mid 80s,
the former St. John Fisher star made that case in emphatic fashion.
The 27-year-old financial advisor from Cuba, whose +2 handicap was the best in the tourney field — giving his home course two strokes — put his name squarely in the Men’s Amateur record book.
He dominated medal play with a 4-under-par 66, three strokes better than the rest of the field, and a card that tied the lowest qualifying score in tournament history. Defending champion Chris Blocher, the 10-time winner, notched that round three times (1999, 2017 and ‘21) among his record seven medals while Dan Stetz (1978), T.J. Howe (2009) and Scott Brady (2013) produced that score once each.
En route to his medal score, Haas, who lost the ’14 final 3-and-2 to Josh Stauffer, birdied Nos. 5, 8, 14, 17 and 18, his lone bogey on No. 3, for nines of 34 and 32.
NEXT BEST in the field was Marcus Aiello, a +1 at Birch Run and a finalist in 2018, shot 1-under 69, three strokes back. Behind him were Bartlett’s Blocher, Keith Stauffer and Penn-York Junior League champion Spencer Cornelius, both of Pennhills, who each shot 1-over 71.
It took an 80 to make the 32-man Championship Flight and only three of the four at that score qualified and with an 81, 2008 winner Andy Frank, who won Tuesday’s Shootout of Former Champions, fell into the First Flight.
OF HIS ROUND, Haas admitted, “I stayed patient all day and didn’t chase anything too crazy. The front nine pins were pretty tough and the greens were faster than they’ve been in the last three or four weeks up here. So I deliberately stayed below the hole for that reason. I made a couple of decent 20-foot putts for birdie and hit a couple of wedges close.”
He’s also been playing well.
“After work, I try to get in three full rounds per week and sometimes a fourth of nine holes,” said Haas, who holds a degree in business management and isn’t vexed by a failure to win the Men’s Amateur and the perception that he’s the best never to do it.
“Not necessarily,” he said. “Obviously, you’ve got to be good to win this but I think it comes down to a lot of luck … the matchups that you get, not necessarily in the first or second round, but Friday afternoon (quarterfinals), Saturday (semifinals) and maybe Sunday (final) if you get somebody playing bad. But it seems I always run into somebody that throws up a 66 or 67 with no bogeys and I lose.”
Haas concluded, “I’m hoping, this year … I’ve been playing better the last month and maybe all it takes is a freebie match on Friday afternoon (to advance). If I just keep playing well … (this past) weekend was probably the first round in the past three or four weeks that I shot over par … so my game’s in good shape.”
And that was decidedly apparent on Wednesday afternoon.
TOURNAMENT NOTES: In the inaugural Over-65 Flight medal round, Coudersport’s Mike Brady shot the low score of the nine participants with a 2-over-par 72. In match play he will face the winner of the match between eighth seed Steve Kubiak and ninth seed Mark Reynolds. Brady’s score would have tied him for the sixth best score had he opted for the regular tournament … Cornelius, bound for Methodist University, won the Men’s Amateur Junior Medalist title with his 71. … In addition, he was joined by Brady Streich (Coudersport), Curtis Barner (Kane) and of Kamdyn McClain (Olean) in each receiving $1,000 John R. Henzel Memorial Scholarships. The $4,000 is the most ever donated by the Tournament Committee in a single Men’s Amateur … And, finally, an overdue apology. Back in April, I wrote a piece for the Golf Edition about Blocher breaking legendary Ted Kochan’s record of nine Men’s Amateur titles, by claiming his 10th last August. In the piece I also listed other multiple winners, Larry Dana’s four and John Forrest’s three. I also mentioned one other multiple winner in the first draft, but in the process of moving paragraphs around, one important name disappeared: six-time winner Dan Stetz. As happens in this business, the worst editor is the person who wrote the story. I knew I’d written about him and never even noticed it was missing from the final draft … until I saw the print copy in the edition and was horrified. I figured I’d get a call that night, but never did. Instead, Dan was barraged with questions such as, “Why is Chuck mad at you?” We’ve been friends for nearly 45 years and I hadn’t seen him since the story appeared. Yesterday, I explained what happened, and he accepted it, and I believe him as he asked, as always, about the Bills. Still, my apology is clearly in order.
