Brennan doesn't act his age with 70 at Spyglass Hill as U.S. Amateur tees off

   Michael Brennan, the 16-year-old from Leesburg, Va. who earned medalist honors in the Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier at rainy Chambersburg Country Club, finds himself among the heavyweights of amateur golf after firing a 2-under-par 70 at Spyglass Hill Golf Course in the opening round of qualifying for match play in the U.S. Amateur.

   Brennan, a Wake Forest commit, is in a group of eight players tied for fourth, two shots out of the lead after rallying from a shaky start to make five birdies over the 6,993-yard, par-72 Spyglass Hill layout.

   The scoring is a little skewed after Day 1 since half the field played the 7,040-yard, par-71 Pebble Beach Golf Links, which appeared to have played a little tougher in relation to par.

   Daniel Hillier, a 20-year-old from New Zealand who is No. 27 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, had the best round of the day at the iconic Pebble Beach layout, a 4-under 67, and Trevor Phillips, a junior at Georgia from Inman, S.C., had the best round at Spyglass Hill, a 4-under 68, to share the lead after the opening round.

   Pretty sure Brennan started on No. 1 at Spyglass Hill and immediately double bogeyed the par-5 opening hole. A bogey at the third had him at 3-over. Surely, the 16-year-old kid playing in his first U.S. Amateur would fold. Didn’t happen.

   He made back-to-back birdies at four and five and back-to-back birdies at seven and eight to get to 1-under. Then he rattled off eight straight pars before adding his fifth birdie of the round at the 17^th. Brennan has put himself in very good position to earn a spot among the top 64 who will make up the bracket when match play begins Wednesday at Pebble Beach.

   Hillier got off to a great start at Pebble Beach with birdies at three, five and seven as he made the turn at 3-under. Then came a wild back nine that included three bogeys, two birdies and an eagle at the par-5 14^th.

   Phillips made the turn at Spyglass Hill at even-par after an up-and-down front nine that included two birdies and two bogeys. On the inward nine, though, he made birdies at 11, 14, 16 and 18 to get it to 4-under.

   Stanford senior Isaiah Salinda is alone in third after carding a solid 3-under 68 at Pebble Beach.

   Among the other seven players Brennan shared fourth with are the two beaten semifinalists in last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club, Cole Hammer, who is expected to be one of the top freshmen in the country when he joins the Texas program in a few weeks, and Cameron Sisk, an Arizona State recruit from El Cajon, Calif.

   Hammer, No. 18 in the WAGR, had one of just two of the 2-under scores recorded at Pebble Beach with his 69 while Sisk carded a 70 at Spyglass Hill.

   Vanderbilt senior Will Gordon matched Hammer’s 2-under 69 at Pebble Beach.

   The 2-under 70s posted by Brennan and Sisk at Spyglass Hill were matched by four others, including Ryan Smith, a 16-year-old phenom from Carlsbad, Calif., Auburn senior Jacob Solomon of Dublin, Calif., Cincinnati senior Austin Squires of Union, Ky. and Chun An Yu of Chinese Taipei.

   Anthony Sebastianelli, the former Abington Heights standout who completed his collegiate career at Central Connecticut this spring, is among the 16 players tied for 12^th at 1-under. Sebastianelli, coming off a runnerup finish to Connor Schmidt in the Pennsylvania Amateur a couple of weeks ago at Sunnehanna Golf Club, carded a 1-under 71 at Spyglass Hills.

   Sebastianelli earned his ticket to the U.S. Amateur in the GAP-administered qualifier at Laurel Creek Country Club.

   Two members of that large group at 1-under are the finalists from the U.S. Junior Amateur, Michael Thorbjornsen, the champion from Wellesley, Mass., and runneup Akshay Bhatia, the 16-year-old phenom from Wake Forest, N.C. Both carded a 1-under 70 at Pebble Beach.

   As I mentioned in a post earlier Monday recounting his victory in last week’s Pennsylvania Senior Amateur Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Militia Hill Course, Sean Knapp, the reigning U.S. Senior Amateur champion from the Pittsburgh area, carded a 5-over 76 at Pebble Beach.

   Also at 5-over with a 77 at Spyglass Hill is Palmer Jackson, the Franklin Regional senior who finished tied for second in the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall. It’s been a pretty good summer for Jackson, who qualified for match play in the U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol.

   Erik Dulik of Great Falls, Va., the co-medalist in the GAP-administered qualifier at Bidermann Golf Club, is also at 5-over after a 77 at Spyglass Hill.

   The other co-medalist at Bidermann, Delaware junior Jack Melville, carded a 6-over 77 at Pebble Beach. Melville was one of the top players in District One during his scholastic career at Upper Dublin.

   Kevin Scherr, the 2016 PIAA Class AAA champion at Nazareth who is coming off a solid freshman season at Youngstown State, is also at 6-over after posting a 78 at Spyglass Hill.

   Little Mill Country Club’s Zach Arsenault, the Camden, N.J. developer who was the medalist in the qualifier at Laurel Creek, carded an 8-over 79 at Pebble Beach. Of course, he was playing Pebble Beach, which appears on TV to be one of the most visually stunning golf courses on the planet, in the U.S. Amateur, so it wasn’t a completely terrible day.