Jeff Osberg of Pine Valley Golf Club pulled off a
Philadelphia Open-Patterson Cup double in 2016.
It looks like Osberg, who starred scholastically at Owen J.
Roberts and helped Guilford College win an NCAA Division III championship, just
might do it again.
The best mid-amateur player in the region, the 35-year-old
Osberg was already in the clubhouse with a 4-under-par 67 when a combination of
rain and lightning hit Applebrook Golf Club and forced the suspension of play
in the opening round of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 117th
Joseph H. Patterson Cup, presented by Callaway Golf, at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday.
A couple of groups had yet to tee off. Play will resume
Thursday morning and a rolling cut – not exactly sure how that works, but I’m
sure the GAP guys know what they’re doing – will be utilized. It looks like the
leaders will be going off around 3:20 p.m. Thursday.
Osberg, coming off a solid two-shot victory in the
Philadelphia Open at one of his former home courses, Huntingdon Valley Country
Club, put together a solid round over the 6,744-yard, par-71 Applebrook layout,
an early work by Gil Hanse in East Goshen.
Osberg had birdies at the first and third holes before
giving one back with a bogey at the seventh. But he made a birdie at the ninth
and then eagled the 10th hole to get it to 4-under. He then
patiently parred his last eight holes.
Osberg won the Patterson Cup at Huntingdon Valley in 2016 in
a playoff after claiming his first Philadelphia Open victory, also in a
playoff, at The Ridge at Back Brook.
He nearly won his second BMW Philadelphia Amateur
Championship at Stonewall’s Old Course in June, falling, 3 and 2, in the scheduled
36-hole final to repeat winner Jeremy Wall of the Manasquan River Golf Club.
A second win in the Patterson Cup, one of GAP’s four major
championships, would give Osberg six in his sparkling amateur career.
Matt Teesdale, Brian Quinn’s assistant coach at Temple, was
a shot behind Osberg after carding a 3-under 68. Teesdale, playing out of LuLu
Country Club, has tasted success at Applebrook before, winning the 2014
Philadelphia Open there.
Grant Skylass of LedgeRock Golf Club was alone in third
place with a 2-under 69. Skylass was the runnerup to 2017 BMW Philadelphia
Amateur champion Gregor Orlando at Orlando’s home course, the Philadelphia
Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course.
Of the five players tied for fourth at 1-under, only one,
Overbrook Golf Club veteran Oscar Mestre, completed his round. The 58-year-old
Mestre has dominated the GAP senior events this season and recently qualified
for the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship, which will tee off later this month
at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C.
Danny Harcourt of Mercer Oaks Golf Course, who lost to
Osberg in the semifinals of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Stonewall, headed a
group of four players who were 1-under through four holes when play was
suspended.
Also at 1-under through four holes were Little Mill Country
Club’s Blaine Lafferty, a former Delaware standout, Joshua Isler of Radley Run
Country Club and Jon Rudisill of Stone Harbor Golf Club.
No comments:
Post a Comment