A long, two match day was completed at Downing today with four of Erie’s elite golfers advancing to Saturday’s semi-final matches.

The second round matches were contested on Friday morning with the opening match pitting the defending champion, Jon Merriott against 3-time champion Drew Deimel. Deimel jumped to an early lead with 3 birdies in his first four holes and went on to make 5 more birdies to complete 14 holes in 6-under par to eliminate the defending champ 5&4.

Both Pat Arrigo and Alex Weir used 4&2 scores to eliminate their opponents. Arrigo defeating Mark Majewski and Weir beating T.J. Mitchell. The upper half of the bracket was completed when 3-time champion Ed Podufal slipped by Jesse Yates on the first hole of sudden death.

In the lower bracket qualifying medalist Mike Wolfe fought back from an early deficit against Sal Vella and closed out the match on hole 16. Vella took holes 4, 5, and 6 to take a 2-up lead but Wolfe strung 4 hole wins together on holes 12 through 15  to take control of the match. 2013 Champ Ted Grassi, III also used a late run in defeating his opponent, Phil Pedano. Grassi won holes 15, 16, and 17 to close out the match 3&1.

Two-time runner-up Matt Barto also made a late run to take down long hitting Mike Newcomer 2&1. Newcomer made birdies on 11, 13 and 14 to edge ahead 1 up before Barto won holes 15, 16 and 17 with pars to finish off the match. In the final match of the morning round Dave Spitzer bounced back from a first hole bogey and won 6 of the next 12 holes to go 5 up. Zac Bihler would take the 14th with a birdie but then drop the 15th with a bogey leaving Spitzer the 5&3 victor.

The quarter-finals teed off just after noon with Deimel taking on Arrigo. There were only 4 holes tied in the match with Deimel winning 8 holes, half of them with birdies while Arrigo claimed 4 holes, also with birdies on half of them. Arrigo was only in the lead after the first hole and he was finally closed out by Deimel 4&2.

In the first of two matches between Kahkwa Club members, Alex Weir and Ed Podufal tied most of the holes they played. Weir opened with 2 birdies to grab the early lead, Podufal would cut that lead in half on the sixth and Weir came back to capture 11 and 12 with 3’s to go 3 up. They tied the remaining 4 holes where the match ended on 16, 3&2.

The other Kahkwa only match had Wolfe against Grassi in a match that Wolfe would never trail. Wolfe’s birdies and 2 and 4 were offset by Grassi’s birdie on 3. A winning par on 8 would get Wolfe to 2 up. After matching pars for the next 4 holes Wolfe’s birdie on 12 would up the lead to 3. Grassi trimmed the lead to 2 with a birdie 2 on 15 before Wolfe birdied the 16th to end the match 3&2.

Matt Barto and Dave Spitzer played a back an forth match with lead changes throughout the match. Barto took the first with a birdie and Spitzer claimed three and five with birdies to go 1 up. Barto then won six and seven to turn the lead to 1 up in his favor. Spizter won 9 but Barto birdied 10 to hold the lead. Spitzer then seemed to take control with 3 consecutive birdies, winning 2 holes and then followed up with a winning par on 14 to have the first 2 up lead in the match. They tied 15 with pars but Spitzer was unable to make another par allowing Barto to close with three pars to turn the 2 down deficit into a 1 up victory.

The semi-finals begin on Saturday at 10:00 with Deimel facing Weir and Wolfe against Barto. Deimel is the only remaining champion, with titles in 2012, 2018 and 2019. His last 2 titles came against Wolfe and Barto. Both of them have a second runner up, Wolfe in 2007 and Barto in 2020. Weir was the runner up to Jon Merriott last year.

Deimel is gunning for his 5th EDGA major title which would rank him 5th all-time behind only Ron Coleman (8) and Tom Amendola, Dave Ciacchini, and Brett Keiffer who all have 6. Coleman and Ciacchini both have 5 match play titles, no one else has 4 … unless Deimel picks up the trophy this year.