Austin Barbin of the golfing Barbin family of Elkton, Md.
has a big month of golf ahead of him. And what better place to prepare for a
pair of national junior events on championship layouts than the William Flynn
gem at Rolling Green Golf Club, site of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.
Austin Barbin, who will join the Maryland golf program at
the end of the summer, will tee it up next week in the U.S. Junior Amateur at
the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio after claiming medalist honors in a Golf
Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier at Berkshire Country Club
last month.
Two weeks later, Austin Barbin, who captured the 105th
GAP Junior Boys’ crown two days before the qualifier at Berkshire, will head
for Hartford, Conn. for the 44th Boys Junior PGA Championship, which
tees off July 30 at the Keney Park Golf Course. Austin Barbin was also the
medalist in the Philadelphia Boys Junior Championship last week at The
Springhaven Club, which was the local qualifier for the national tournament at Keney
Park.
Monday at a rainy 6,302-yard, par-71 Rolling Green layout,
Austin Barbin teamed with younger brother Evan, a sophomore at Red Lion
Christian Academy in Bear, Del., to capture the title in the 34th Francis X. Hussey
Memorial’s Junior Boys’ Division, part of the GAP Junior Series presented by
Citadel, with a sparkling 6-under 65 in the better-ball-of-partners event.
It was another step toward one of Austin Barbin’s goals in
what’s turning out to be a pretty memorable final summer of junior golf.
“We’re going for GAP Junior Player of the Year and this is
an event where you can get more points,” Austin Barbin told the GAP website.
“Our games were on and we’re playing well right now. We wanted additional
points for Junior Player of the Year. That’s kind of my goal this year.”
Austin Barbin shot 5-under on his own ball Monday, but the
brothers Barbin were very much in this together.
Austin Barbin got the first birdie of the day for Team
Barbin as he rolled in a five-foot putt after sending a 58-degree wedge in from
95 yards away. Evan Barbin, though, had a 10-footer on the same line that he
missed. But he gave big brother the line and Austin Barbin knew what to do.
When Evan Barbin bombed a hybrid from 230 yards away to
reach the green at the 518-yard, par-5 seventh hole in two, it freed Austin
Barbin to spin his approach to seven feet and he made the birdie putt.
Team Barbin settled for the lone bogey on the card at the
tough par-4 eighth hole, but Austin Barbin hit his 58-degree wedge from 40
yards away at the par-5 ninth hole to three feet and made the putt to get the
Barbins back to 2-under for the round.
Austin Barbin sent his drive on the 275-yard 12th
hole over the green, flopped it back to four feet and converted the birdie try.
He drained a 20-footer for birdie at the 425-yard, par-4 13th hole
after drilling a 7-iron onto the green from 182 yards away. And then he ripped
a 6-iron to six feet at the tough 187-yard, par-3 14th hole and saw
his birdie putt drop.
Evan Barbin accounted for the duo’s final birdie as his
approach to the 488-yard, par-5 17th hole with a 56-degree wedge
settled three feet from the stick and he made the putt.
It gave the Barbins a two-shot margin of victory over
Springhaven’s Ryan McCabe and Nicholas Ciocca of Aronimink Golf Club, who
teamed up for a 4-under 67. McCabe, a junior at Devon Prep, finished in a tie
for second in last fall’s PIAA Class AA Championship.
The Aronimink pair of Jack Fialko and Jake Maddaloni were
another shot behind McCabe and Ciocca in third place at 3-under 68. Maddaloni
was a key contributor as a sophomore to a second straight Inter-Ac League title
for The Haverford School last fall.
Roy Anderson of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club and
Jake Sokalsky of Penn Oaks Golf Club and the pair of Patrick Isztwan of
Huntingdon Valley Country Club and John Bradbeer of Merion Golf Club shared
fourth place, each team posting a 2-under 69. Isztwan, a junior at Penn Charter,
was the winner of the 2017 Bert Linton Inter-Ac League Championship as a
freshman.
The Homer brothers, Jeffrey and Matthew, of Wilmington
Country Club matched par with a 71 and were alone in sixth place.
Three duos – Henry Stone of Bidermann Golf Club and Win
Thomas of Concord Country Club, August Blatney of the Philadelphia Cricket Club
and Corey Haydu of Spring Mill Country Club and the Fox Hill Country Club pair
of Derek Answini and Martin Cryan – finished in a tie for seventh, each posting
a 1-over 72.
Stone and Thomas were teammates on the Delaware I team that
earned a trip to the 7th PGA Junior League Championship at Grayhawk
Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. last fall.
Owen Heffernan of Jericho National Golf Club and Spring
Mill’s Liam Hart, the 2017 PIAA Class AAA champion as a junior at Holy Ghost
Prep, and Indian Valley Country Club’s brother duo of Thomas Butler and Stephen
Butler, finished in a tie for 10th place, each team carding a 2-over
73. Stephen Butler was a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore at Souderton
last fall.
James Gradisek of Philadelphia Country Club and Christopher
Buysse of Waynesborough Country Club finished alone in 12th place at
3-over 74.
Waynesborough’s Kemp Bassett and Will Blatchford of St.
Davids Golf Club and another Wilmington Country Club pair, Anthony Ciconte and
Jack Homer, shared 13th place, each posting a 75. Jack Homer was
another member of the Delaware I team that reached the PGA Junior League
Championship at Grayhawk.
Kathleen Mark of host Rolling Green and Llanerch Country
Club’s Riley Quartermain were the lone entry in the Junior Girls’ Division and
posted a solid 6-over 77.
Mark helped Episcopal Academy make its second straight
undefeated run through the Inter-Ac League this spring. Quartermain was a PIAA
Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore at Haverford High last fall.
A couple of Havertown Middle School seventh-graders, J.P.
Hoban and Libby Flaisher, playing out of McCall Golf Club, bested the
Junior-Junior Division field with a 42 for nine holes.
Gavin Dirita and Jason Dirita of Springhaven were a shot
behind Hoban and Fleisher in second place with a 43. Joe Ciconte and Fletcher
Jones of Wilmington Country Club were a shot behind Team Dirita in third place
with a 44.
Keller Tannehill of Greate Bay Country Club and Paul Reilly
of Hidden Creek Golf Club finished fourth with a 47 and Adriana Seravalli and
Logan Cassidy of the Union League Golf Club at Torresdale were fifth with a 48.
The tournament honors the memory of Francis X. Hussey, an
avid sports fan and active Junior member at Rolling Green who was born with a
congenital heart condition and died at age 13 in 1983 while undergoing major
heart surgery. Hussey attended school in the Haverford Township School
District.
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