Anthony Barr played like a guy with the home-course
advantage in capturing medalist honors in the Golf Association of
Philadelphia’s 104th Junior Boys’ Championship Tuesday at his home
course, Blue Bell Country Club.
The 18-year-old from Harleysville made four birdies in a
stretch of five holes on the front nine and got some breaks – hey, they don’t
call them member’s bounces for nothing – on the way in while carding a
4-under-par 67 over the 6,269-yard, par-71 Arnold Palmer design at Blue Bell to
finish at the head of the pack of 16 really talented players who earned spots
in the match-play bracket.
“On the front nine, it felt like I couldn’t miss a putt,”
Bell told the GAP website. “On the back nine, I got a lot of lucky breaks. It
was a good day. I’ll take it, for sure. Knowing I’m at my home course, it gave
me a lot of confidence.
“I just wanted to see how low I could go. I know I felt
comfortable on the greens and had the reads.”
Barr rattled off birdies at three, five, six and seven to
get it to 4-under and kept it there with 11 straight pars to finish the round.
He finished a shot ahead of Woodcrest Country Club’s Noah
Schwartz, a recent Penn Charter graduate who is headed for Cornell. William
Mirams of Shawnee Country Club was another shot behind Schwartz in third with a
2-under 69. Mirams finished in a tie for second in the PIAA Class AA
Championship last fall as a junior at Notre Dame in East Stroudsburg.
There were all kinds of scholastic standouts among the 16 players
who qualified for match play. The opening round will be Wednesday morning with
the quarterfinals to follow Wednesday afternoon.
Two member of The Haverford School’s Inter-Ac League
championship team, A.J. Aivazoglou of Rolling Green Golf Club and Charlie Baker
of Gulph Mills Golf Club are in the bracket. Aivazoglou was in a group of four players tied for fourth at
1-under 71 while Baker was one of five players who matched par at 72 and
finished tied for eighth.
Also in that group at 1-under 71 was William Bennink of
Kennett Square Golf & Country Club and his teammate on Unionville’s PIAA
Class AAA championship team, Radley Run Country Club’s Nicholas Gianelos, who
was in the group tied for eighth at even-par
72.
By the luck of the draw, the Unionville teammates will
square in of several fascinating opening-round matches.
Barr’s two playing partners, Huntingdon Valley Country
Club’s Patrick Isztwan and Talamore Country Club’s Patrick Sheehan, also made
the match-play bracket.
Isztwan, one of the four players who made match play on the
number with a 2-over 73, was a teammate of Schwartz’s at Penn Charter and was
the winner of the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League individual crown at his home
course, Huntingdon Valley, as a freshman last fall.
Sheehan, who was in the group tied for eighth at even-par
72, was the District One Class AAA runnerup as a junior at Central Bucks East
last fall.
Sheehan is coming off a nice showing in last week’s BMW
Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, reaching
the second round of match play before falling to Spring-Ford Country Club’s
Ryan Tall.
Tall, the Central League champion as a junior at Conestoga
and the runnerup last fall as a senior, reached the Philly Am semifinals last
week before falling to Andrew Mason. He joined Isztwan in the group that made
match play on the number at 2-over 73. Tall, who is headed for Lafayette, will
get Barr, the medalist, in another interesting opening-round match Wednesday.
Another player coming off a strong recent showing is The
Springhaven Club’s Kevin Smith, a junior at Strath Haven. Smith won the boys
division in a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour Precision Pro Golf Open
event at Hickory Valley Golf Club last weekend by four shots over a strong
field.
Smith joined Bennink, Baker and Austin Barbin, a Junior
Players Club entry, in the group tied for fourth at 1-under 71.
Barbin, of the golfing Barbins of Elkton, Md., was also part
of the youth movement in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur last week, reaching match
play and giving reigning Philadelphia Open and Met Amateur champion Matthew
Mattare all he wanted before falling, 2 and 1, in the second round.
It took 2-over to make match play among the juniors. These
kids can really play.
All 3-over got you was a berth in the first flight. And two
of the players in that group that carded 74s were Spring Mill Country Club’s Liam
Hart, who captured the PIAA Class AAA individual crown as a junior at Holy
Ghost Prep last fall, and Spring-Ford Country Club’s Ben Pochet, who outdueled
Sheehan to repeat as the District One champion as a senior at Spring-Ford and
who will join Ben Feld’s Drexel program later this summer.
Barr also led the homestanding Blue Bell group to the GAP
junior team championship. Matthew Lafond backed up Barr’s 67 as he joined the
group that included Hart and Pochet at 2-over 74. Buddy Hansen IV added a 75
and Blue Bell was able to toss Nick Martin’s 85 in the four-count-three format
for a 216 total.
Led by William Bennink’s 71, Kennett Square finished second
at 223. Christopher Skean and Richie Kline each added a 76, and Connor Bennink
had a 78. The two Benninks and Kline were all members of Unionville’s state
championship team last fall.
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