Bucks County Golf

Langhorne's Jim Fox captured top honors in the Levittown Golf Club's Hickory Valley event with a 5-point effort, claiming a playoff victory over Nick Ferrante and Jerry Caron as the 57^th season of the local Country Club on Wheels is in full swing.

Mike Brenner, Ray Dawson, Walt Garecht and Ray Pearson finished with 3 points in the modified stableford competition, while Ralph Bianco and Jim Pinner scored 2 points. Rounding out the top-10 were Jules Junker, Jim Lutz and Frank Mulville at 1 point. Ron Peeples and Tony Rantuccio were the closest-to-the-pin winners.

All the news around the county golf scene, including the U.S. Junior Girls, Players Amateur, Women's Eastern Amateur, Philadelphia Section (pro and junior) events and the GAP Team Championship highlight this week's golf column.

New Hope's Erica Herr will be making her second consecutive trip to the United States Golf Association's Junior Girls Championship.

Herr qualified by tying for 4^th place in local qualifying held at Spring-Ford where she posted an 80 to finish 3 shots behind medalist Gabriella Dimarco.  Yardley's Jackie Rogowicz scored 92 and placed 21 and failed to qualify for the national championship.

When one pulls into the Middletown Country Club parking lot the first thing you notice is a stately clubhouse that dates back to the early 1900s. Look toward the left of the entrance and you see the 18^th green and a cavernous bunker that guards its left side. That initial view gives you a strong clue that you are about to tee it up at a historic, old time golf course.

Middletown dates back to 1913, when Scotsman Alexander Findlay designed the course. It was known as the Langhorne Country Club then and it opened with nine holes. The course didn't expand to 18 holes until 1927, and while development and later owners made changes the current layout has much of the character of the original Findley vision.