Barbin brothers team up to capture title in Hussey Memorial at Rolling Green

   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 105^th GAP Junior Boys’ crown two days before the qualifier at Berkshire, will head for Hartford, Conn. for the 44^th 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 12^th 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 13^th 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 14^th 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 17^th 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 7^th 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 10^th 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 12^th 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 13^th 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.