Wall fights through the traffic to return to BMW Philadelphia Amateur final

   EAST NANTMEAL – The possibility of an all-Wall final in the 119^th BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Stonewall’s Old Course was dashed by an overturned dump truck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike early Thursday morning, causing a traffic jam that took out Jack Wall and nearly did the same to his older brother Jeremy, the defending champion.

   Confused? Hey, I was a “traffic professional” at the defunct U.S. Traffic Network for a year-and-a-half and when an artery like the Pennsylvania Turnpike gets shut down during the morning rush, there aren’t a lot of good options.

   Jack Wall had the earlier tee time for his quarterfinal match with 2014 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion Jeff Osberg, but leaving earlier from his Brielle, N.J. home in this instance did him no favors. He ultimately was disqualified, giving Osberg a walkover into the semifinals.

   Jeremy Wall, who captured the Philly Am a year ago at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, was able to reroute from the Pennsylvania Turnpike mess at the last minute. He missed the starting time of his quarterfinal match with Andrew Cornish of RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve by less than a minute, so it only cost him the loss of the first hole in match play.

   Still rattled and with no warmup, though, the 23-year-old Jeremy Wall proceeded to lose the next three holes, the last two while making double bogey. He was 4-down after four holes. It didn’t look good. But he righted the ship by making birdies at the first two par-3s at the Old Course, the fifth and the seventh holes.

   Cornish, a senior at Penn State Berks, never would win another hole as Jeremy Wall added wins at the ninth, 10^th, 12^th, 15^th and 16^th holes to claim a 3 and 2 victory and earn an afternoon semifinal date with the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Conrad Von Borsig, who had won the Philly Am in 2009, the last time it was held at Stonewall.

   Jeremy Wall then gutted out a 1-up decision over Von Borsig and will get a chance to defend his title against the 34-year-old Osberg, who rallied for a 2 and 1 win over Danny Harcourt of Mercer Oaks Golf Course in the other semifinal.

   The scheduled 36-hole final between the two former champions will be Saturday at Stonewall’s Old Course, the 6,676-yard, par-70 Tom Doak-designed gem in the northwest corner of Chester County. There has not been a repeat winner of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur since Overbrook Golf Club great Chris Lange went back-to-back in 1993-’94.

   “I have a place to stay Friday night,” Jeremy Wall said, preferring to get a little closer to Stonewall to prevent another hair-raising, WAZE-aided race against the clock to make it for his starting time for the final.

   Von Borsig survived a tough test in the morning quarterfinals, the first hour-plus of which was played in a steady rain, when he pulled out a 1-up victory over Saucon Valley Country Club’s Matthew Mattare, who pulled off the impressive double of taking the Met Amateur and the Philadelphia Open two summers ago.

   Von Borsig knew he was facing a tough customer in the semifinals in Jeremy Wall. And if he didn’t, he got a reminder from his caddy, Marty McGuckin, who lost to Jeremy Wall in the semifinals a year ago at Whitemarsh Valley.

   “Marty told me just before we teed off, ‘If he’s putting inside 10 feet, just assume he’s going to make it,” Von Borsig said. “I knew he had a really good short game, that he was going to get it up-and-down a lot. That’s what I do to people in match play so, in that sense, it was like playing myself.”

   For his part, Jeremy Wall was thinking about his younger brother Jack, who will embark on his college career later this summer at South Carolina.

   “He texted me and, I’ll leave out the expletives, but he basically said, just go ahead and win this thing,” said Jeremy Wall, a year removed from a standout career at Loyola of Maryland. “I’m not afraid to tell you, he’s a better player than I am. I want to win this for me, but I want to win it for him, too. He’ll have chances to win this again. I was thinking about him a little out there.

   “When I was 4-down after four holes, I was pretty down, but then I thought at least I wasn’t as unlucky as Jack was to not even get a chance to play.”

   I’ve been covering Von Borsig since he was a high school standout at Strath Haven and he is always entertaining. I headed up to Stonewall hoping to see him in a semifinal match and I got my wish. And I was not disappointed.

   I got a chance to watch a lot of Jack Wall’s match with Patrick Sheehan, who captured the District One Class AAA title as a senior at Central Bucks East last fall, in the second round Wednesday afternoon. Unflappability seems to run in the Wall family.

   There was an exchange of holes early, but Von Borsig and Jeremy Wall were even when they reached the 10^th tee. A poor drive by Von Borsig on the 10^th hole led to a loss as he couldn’t get a five-footer for par to fall.

   As the Von Borsig-Jeremy Wall matched headed up the par-5 11^th, Osberg, who plays out of Pine Valley Golf Club, was chipping in for birdie at the par-4 16^th hole to take a 2-up lead on Harcourt with two holes to play. The length of Von Borsig’s semifinal match with Mattare gave Osberg and Harcourt an hour head-start on the Von Borsig-Jeremy Wall match.

   Von Borsig might have lost the semifinal on the short, par-4 12^th. With the hole playing downwind, Von Borsig’s drive found the bunker in front of the green while Jeremy Wall ended up in the rough just short of the bunker.

   After Jeremy Wall chipped on to the green, Von Borsig skulled his bunker shot over the green. Jeremy Wall’s par easily won the hole and gave him a 2-up lead with six holes to play.

   Not that Von Borsig was going quietly. He cut the deficit in half with a nice two-putt from the left fringe on the tough par-4 13^th after Jeremy Wall’s pulled drive left him with too much to do.

   Again, Jeremy Wall spurted to a 2-up lead when his 18-foot birdie putt on the par-4 14^th just tumbled into the cup. And again, Von Borsig answered by drilling his tee shot at the par-3 15^th to 10 feet while Jeremy Wall ended up on the upslope of the front bunker and just barely got it out.

   But Jeremy Wall’s short game prowess was on display again on the 16^th green. He yanked his drive off the tee and ended up under a tree. He had enough room to send a 2-hybrid 30 yards short of the green on the left. With rain starting to fall again, he deftly chipped it to five feet and calmly holed the putt for par and again had a 2-up lead.

   “That chip shot there, I didn’t even shoot the distance (with a range-finder),” Jeremy Wall said. “You just have to feel that shot and I hit it just right and it rolled out perfectly. I was just hoping to get it within 10 feet and I got it to five feet.”

   Of course, Conrad being Conrad, this thing wasn’t over yet. When his tee shot at the par-3 17^th came to rest at nearly the same spot from he where he putted in the morning against Mattare, Von Borsig knew he had the line, no matter that it was 40 feet away.

   “I had come up short in the morning, but I knew it didn’t move much,” Von Borsig said. “It was do or die. I sent it down the hill and I think it moved an inch to the right at the last second …”

   And right into the hole for a stunning birdie.

   “The thing’s rolling down there and I’m thinking, ‘Come on, man,’” Jeremy Wall said. “I’m thinking I’ve got an easy two-putt to win the match and he makes that putt.”

   But Jeremy Wall had one more bit of short-game magic left in him. His approach from 191 yards away on the Old Course’s scenic 18^th hole ended up on the front fringe. He putted it to five feet and, as he did with his tough par putt on the 16^th hole, he rolled in the match-clinching putt.

   “I was working on taking breaths while taking my practice strokes,” Jeremy Wall said. “It was a five-footer just off the right edge to get to the final of a big tournament like this. I’ve been playing since I was 5-years old, maybe even before that. You have to get to a point where you know you’re good enough to make that kind of putt under pressure.”

   At 32, Von Borsig still enjoys playing at the highest levels. He still thinks he has enough game to make it to a U.S. Amateur or a U.S. Mid-Amateur and maybe get into match play. Toward that end, it was a satisfying week at Stonewall.

   “It was a really good week,” Von Borsig said. “There’s work to be done. I haven’t been as competitive because I hit it around and make some big numbers. I’ve always tried to be like Dustin Johnson or Justin Thomas. I was too much of a perfectionist. I need to just be a little bit better version of myself.”

   Harcourt, a recent Gettysburg College graduate playing out of Mercer Oaks Golf Course, reached the semifinals with a 3 and 2 victory over Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Vince Kwon and capped a really strong showing by giving Osberg all he wanted before falling, 2 and 1.