Central Dauphin sophomore Engle earns ticket to U.S. Open sectional qualifier

   Garrett Engle, a sophomore at Central Dauphin High School, has been showing up on Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour leaderboards for a while now.

   But the 15-year-old took it to another level Thursday in the first of four local U.S. Open qualifiers administered by the Golf Association of Philadelphia, this one at The Country Club of York.

   Blitzing the back nine over the 6,664-yard, par-70 Country Club of York layout to the tune of a 6-under 29, Engle carded a 2-under 68 to join three other players who took the first step toward a berth in the U.S. Open, which tees off June 13 at the Pebble Beach Golf Links on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula.

   The next step for Engle will be a trip to Purchase, N.Y. for a sectional qualifier June 3, “golf’s longest day,” a 36-hole test at Century Country Club and Old Oaks Country Club.

   A couple of 26-year-old pros, Alex Blickle of Mohnton and a former LedgeRock Golf Club member, and Matt Hardman of Gettysburg, also nabbed tickets to sectional qualifying by matching Engle’s 68. The fourth berth available at The Country Club of York went to 23-year-old amateur Connor Flach, who plays out of the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, Md. and carded a 1-under 69.

   But nobody created a bigger buzz than Engle did on the incoming nine at The Country Club of York.

   It started quietly enough when he wedged his approach from 66 yards away on the 10^th hole close enough for a tap-in birdie. He flew a 9-iron from 165 yards over a tree at the 11^th and dropped in a 35-footer for birdie.

   Engle nearly drove the green at the short par-4 13^th and got it up and down for another birdie. His length paid dividends again on the next hole, the par-5 14^th, as he bombed a 9-iron from 192 yards away onto the green with his second shot and two-putted for his fourth birdie in five holes.

   When his left-to-right breaking 30-footer for birdie found the bottom of the cup for birdie at the 16^th, he knew something special was happening. He drilled a wedge from 96 yards away to six feet at the 18^th and putted it dead-center to complete his tour de force.

   “I got off to a bad start,” Engle told the GAP website. “I couldn’t make a putt on the front nine. I got it going on the back nine. I really got the putter going. I kept hitting my spots with the irons and kept hitting greens. Putts started falling on the back.”

   Blickle, on the other hand, got it going on the outgoing nine at The Country Club of York. He made a birdie on the par-5 second, but gave that shot back with a bogey at the sixth hole.

   But he closed out the front nine by making birdies at the eighth and ninth holes. A wedge from 73 yards finished four feet from the hole at the eighth and he knocked a gap wedge from 119 yards to 15 feet and made the putt at the ninth.

   Blickle and Hardman plan to tee it up in the sectional qualifier at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md. Hardman helps out in the Woodmont pro shop when he’s not playing tournament golf.

   The two alternate spots went to Craig Hornberger, the 2012 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Manheim Township, and Brian Bergstol, an assistant pro at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, each of whom matched par with a 70.

   Steven Kluemper, an amateur from Bethlehem, also carded an even-par 70, but lost out for one of the alternate slots. If it’s any consolation, not many U.S. Open hopefuls bail on an opportunity to tee it up in a sectional qualifier.

   Connor Schmidt, the reigning Pennsylvania Amateur champion who is coming off a strong spring with Ben Feld’s Drexel golf team, headed a group of seven players tied for eighth at 1-over 71. Also in that group was Overbrook Golf Club assistant pro Trevor Bensel.