Jon Rusk wins the 120th Philadelphia Open at Applebrook CC in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Courtesy GAP Golf
Jon Rusk doesn’t remember much about his first Golf Association of Philadelphia championship, the 1995 Junior Boys at Meadowlands Golf Club.
“The only thing I remember is that I beat Chris Roselle, who now works for GAP,” said the 45-year-old Rusk with a wry grin. “I beat Chris 10 and 8 but he’s going to tell you 7 and 5 because the more years go by, the higher it gets.”
The actual score was 7 and 5. Roselle is the popular and long-time tournament director at GAP.
Rusk, a fast-talking, high-energy sort, brought that winning feeling back this summer 29 years after the Junior Boys at the Philadelphia Open at Applebrook Golf Club in Malvern.
Now the general manager at LuLu Country Club in Glenside, Pennsylvania, Rusk won a weather-delayed four-hole aggregate playoff over Andrew Cornish and Zak Drescher. The trio finished 36 holes tied at 4-under-par 136.
A former player on the Buy.com Tour (known today as the Korn Ferry Tour) who was reinstated as an amateur in 2019, Rusk took on playoff holes 8, 9, 10 and 18 in just 15 strokes (2-under) to win by two over Cornish and four over Drescher.
“Driving back to the tee for the playoff, I felt super calm,” said Rusk, who played high school golf at Council Rock in Newtown. “I never thought I was going to lose the tournament. I was calmer than usual. I’m usually pretty wound up.”
Rusk, who was a semifinalist at the 2022 Philadelphia Amateur and tied for second at the Philadelphia Mid-Amateur this year, was rewarded for his renewed interest in competitive golf.
“It means a lot,” Rusk said. “It’s a major. I haven’t won a major. It feels good at 45 to win. I have another year or two of good golf, and the plan is to win another one or two.”
Rusk is convinced that playing twice a week and practicing his short game on the greens at LuLu before the Open was a key to his win.
“LuLu is great for your short game and thinking because the greens are so sloped and so fast,” Rusk said. “Our superintendent has done a great job. This course has been in championship condition all year.”
At Applebrook, Rusk was supported by a coterie of about 15 of his golf mates from LuLu, where he started as an assistant professional in 2011. He and his father, Ron, purchased the club in 2015, and he’s been the general manager since 2020.
LuLu, which was established in 1912, suffered a major loss in October of 2015 when its clubhouse burned to the ground. That was just four months after the Rusks bought it.
“Nobody loves a good natural disaster like the Rusks,” he said with a smile. By 2020, a new clubhouse had been opened and the Montgomery County facility has a young and thriving membership of more than 500, with a one-year waiting list.
Assisted by local and national consulting firms, Rusk feels LuLu has a strong future because of the strength of its membership. “I love it,” said the married father of two sons and a daughter. “I love the members. They are young and vibrant, and I consider them part of my family.”
Rusk, who played collegiately at Auburn, has another pseudo-family member in PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner. “I kind of looked up to him as the big brother I never had,” Rusk said of his former college teammate who is two years older. “He gave me so much good advice when I was in my 20s. I wish I used it when I was in my 20s. He’s such a great guy and comes from nothing and made himself something.”
Rusk was the best man at Dufner’s wedding, and his youngest son, Jason, is named after Dufner.
“That kind of tells you all you need to know,” Rusk said. Relying on some of Dufner’s lessons might be a bonus for Rusk. He hopes all the ball hammering and chipping and putting will continue to pay off as it did at Applebrook.
