Golf: Centerville grad scores signature local win

Brady Marinangeli has been knocking on the door in Dayton area golf events for quite awhile. Last week the former Centerville High School golfer knocked the door down.

The 28-year-old won his first significant Miami Valley Golf Association event Tuesday when he grabbed the Mid-Amateur (age 25 and over) Championship at Sycamore Creek Country Club.

Marinangeli, who finished fourth in the Ohio Mid-Amateur at Miami Valley Golf Club in June, turned in a pair of even par 72s between rain showers to tie 2015 Ohio Mid-Am champion Jeff Scohy of Bellbrook, who also had 144 in the 36-hole event.

Scohy, who had turned in a disappointing 75 in the first round, surged into the playoff by birdieing three of his last four holes to shoot 69 in the second round. It was the only subpar score in the event.

Marinangeli didn’t flinch when they went to the first playoff hole — Sycamore Creek’s’ 369-yard, par 4 18th. He hit the green with a 3-wood and a sand wedge from 94 yards and two-putted for par from 10 feet. The 40-year-old Scohy, who left himself a much longer approach shot, missed the green by a few feet, chipped out of thick grass to six feet and missed his par putt.

Marinangeli (the name means Angels of the Marina or Angels of the Sea in Italian) was born in Fishers, Indiana, but moved to Centerville at an early age.

A 2007 graduate of Centerville High School, he played on a strong CHS golf team that included Jace Striplin, Sean Pierce, Randy Boll and Parker Mays. The Elks finished third in the state Division I tournament and Marinangeli was eighth individually.

Marinangeli spent a couple of years at Findlay University and played on the golf team. Then he went out to San Francisco for awhile and worked in restaurants. When his funds ran out, he returned to Ohio, got a job and started playing golf again.

He turned professional in 2014 and moved to Palm Coast, Florida, to play in mini-tour events but didn’t have much success, so he came home again and was reinstated as an amateur a year ago.

Now he is playing golf in the mornings and working at night as bar manager at Salar, a Mediterranean restaurant in the Oregon District, where his girlfriend, Megan Shaw, is the general manager.

He is taking golf instruction from Doug Spencer in Cincinnati and he hasn’t put aside the possibility of giving professional golf a whirl again if he can make the necessary improvements in his game.

Dan Devore became a three-time winner in the Senior Overall Division with a one-stroke margin over Emery Shumaker and Dave Novotny in the age 50-64 flight. Devore, a 61-year-old Butler County resident, had rounds of 64 and 68, in successfully defending his championship. Shumaker and Novotny had 153 totals.

Skip Snow edged Doug Gage by two strokes to win the ages 64-75 flight. Snow shot 76 and 78 for a 154 total. Gage had a pair of 78s. Joe Reichley put together rounds of 81 and 82 for a 163 score that made him the winner by one stroke over Bruce Culpepper in the 75-and-over division.

Chip shots

• Before enrolling at Kent State University, Miami Valley Metropolitan champion Josh Gilkison finished second in the Jordan Spieth/Under Armour Championship, an American Junior Golf Association event in Dallas. He had a 5-under-par score of 175 for 45 holes. The winner, Charles Osborne of Reno, Nevada shot 170.

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