McDermott, Osberg earn tickets to U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship

   Merion Golf Club’s Michael McDermott and Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Jeff Osberg are taking their battle for the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s William Hyndman III Player of the Year award on the road.

   That’s because both earned a trip to the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, which will be held Oct. 3 to 8 at John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Fla, in a local qualifier held Thursday at Applebrook Golf Club.

   The friendly rivals, both former members at Llanerch Country Club, have run into each other a couple of times in 2015, most notably in an epic second-round match in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Llanerch that McDermott pulled out, 2-up. They were locked in a tense duel in the Patterson Cup last month at Chester Valley Golf Club when they both faltered and Drexel senior Chris Crawford claimed the title.

   Osberg, who has never won the Hyndman Award, leads McDermott, who won the last of his five Player of the Year honors in 2008, 605-550 heading to John’s Island. The first goal is to make match play and winning any matches there would add to their point totals. An Osberg-McDermott match at the U.S. Mid-Am might be too much to hope for, but we got a Chip Lutz-Ray Thompson quarterfinal in the U.S. Senior Amateur two years ago, so here’s hoping.

   By the way, the 2016 U.S. Mid-Am will be played at Stonewall in the far reaches of northwest Chester County.

   Thursday at Applebrook, Robert Bechtold, a 44-year-old Avondale resident, shared medalist honors with David Gies II of Charlotte, N.C., a 26-year-old who still has designs on a career as a professional golfer, as both carded 3-under 68s on the Gil Hanse-designed gem in East Goshen.

   Bechtold will be making his third trip to the U.S. Mid-Am.

   Osberg, a 31-year-old Bryn Mawr resident, blitzed to the top of the leaderboard by going 5-under through 13 holes in the morning at Applebrook before cooling off and ending up with a 1-under 70. He was joined at that number by McDermott, Jay Whitby of Wyoming, Del., Keith Unikel of Potomac, Md. , and Scott Storck of Philadelphia.

   McDermott finished second in the Philadelphia Open at Applebrook last summer and feels the course suits his game.

   “Power is helpful on the par-5s, which are gettable,” the 40-year-old Bryn Mawr resident told the GAP website. “In general, I just seemed to have shorter shots into the green. I felt good going in.”

   The last two qualifying berths went to Bill Jeremiah of West Grove and Arnold Cutrell of Greensburg, both of whom posted 1-over 72s.

   That, of course, left some frustrated near misses, most notably the 2-over 73 for Overbrook Golf Club’s James Kania Jr., the former Haverford School and University of Kentucky standout.

   The group at 3-over 74 included Merion’s Buddy Marucci, the two-time winning U.S. Walker Cup captain and 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, Aronimink Golf Club’s Cory Siegfried, another former Haverford School standout and the 2010 Pennsylvania Amateur champion, Merion’s J. Kirk Luntey and Jason Loehrs of Drexel Hill. Llanerch’s Stephen Seiden, a Strath Haven product and two-time U.S. Amateur qualifier, and Overbrook’s Chris Lange Jr. were at 76.