Germantown Academy's Marvin fires 73 at Gulph Mills to claim Bert Linton Inter-Ac individual crown

   UPPER MERION – The identity of the Big Three in Inter-Ac League golf is no secret.

   It’s Haverford School, which nailed down its third straight league title earlier this week, Episcopal Academy, which claimed the 2016 crown, and 2015 champion Malvern Prep. The three teams entered the last of the six Inter-Ac invitationals that make up the regular season tied for first place and the Fords edged Malvern Prep by two shots to take the title.

   But Germantown Academy made a little noise this fall, the Patriots earning second-place finishes in two invitationals and finishing fourth with a 14-16 record.

   So maybe it was not so surprising that Germantown Academy’s best player, sophomore Luke Marvin, carded a solid 2-over-par 73 over a tough Gulph Mills Golf Club layout on a gorgeous fall Friday to steal the spotlight from some of the Ieague’s bigger names and capture the Bert Linton Inter-Ac individual title.

   Marvin finished 10^th in the Inter-Ac’s regular-season points race. Of the eight players between him and the regular-season points winner, Penn Charter junior Patrick Isztwan, there were three each from Haverford School and Episcopal Academy and two from Malvern Prep.

   Friday, though, Marvin proved he was very much in the same league with all those talented guys. And he did so on the classic Donald Ross design at Gulph Mills, where Marvin had registered his best round of the regular season, a 37 in The Haverford School Invitational that sparked the Patriots to one of their two second-place finishes.

   “It’s treated me well,” Marvin said of the 6,619-yard, par-71 Gulph Mills layout. “I guess I’ve been playing pretty well lately. I really hit my irons good today.”

   Gulph Mills’ difficult green complexes demand precision approaches and Marvin’s solid iron play helped him win the day.

   I followed the final group most of the day, which included the three top finishers in the regular-season points standings, Penn Charter’s Isztwan and a pair of Haverford School juniors, Tyler Zimmer and Jake Maddaloni.

   And Zimmer would prove to be Marvin’s closest pursuer. After a majestic drive on Gulph Mills’ 464-yard, par-5 finishing hole, Zimmer had just a little more than 150 yards into the green. He gave himself a good look at eagle with an approach that left him 20 feet from the hole.

   But his eagle try slid by and he had to settle for a two-putt birdie that left him a shot behind Marvin in second place with a 3-over 74.

   Charlie Baker, the senior leader on Haverford School’s Inter-Ac championship team, earned a spot on the Bert Linton podium as he finished two shots behind Zimmer in third place with a 76. Baker figured to be a top contender since he was playing on his home course at Gulph Mills.

   Malvern Prep’s Jack Fialko was another shot behind Baker in fourth place with a 77. Isztwan and Maddaloni headed a group of five players tied for fifth place, each carding a 78. Also in that group were Episcopal Academy senior Jacob Zeng, Malvern Prep’s Keller Mulhern and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy’s Andrew Lauerman.

   Rounding out the top 10 was Penn Charter’s Josh Felter, who finished alone in 10^th place with an 80.

   But this day belonged to Marvin, who plays out of Commonwealth National Golf Club and considers his dad the closest thing he has to a swing coach.

   Marvin made three birdies, the first coming at the 117-yard, par-3 fourth hole, where he landed a pitching wedge six feet from the hole and dropped the birdie try.

   Marvin then made back-to-back birdies on the back nine at the 15^th and 16^th holes, both par-4s. He drained an 18-foot birdie putt on the 15^th hole and then stuck a 9-iron to three feet at the 16^th hole and made that putt.

   That got him to even-par for the day, but then came some anxious moments at the 213-yard, par-3 17^th hole. He bunkered his tee shot and had no chance to get it close to the precarious front pin position. His bunker shot skittered off the green and he couldn’t get it up and down from there for a double bogey.

   But Marvin regrouped and parred the 18^th hole to get it in at 2-over. There were three more groups, populated mostly by guys from Haverford School, Malvern Prep and EA, still on the course but Marvin’s 73 held up.

   Marvin had no expectations and certainly nobody expected a GA kid to outplay all those talented guys from the Big Three, not to mention Penn Charter’s Isztwan.

   “The way I looked at it, I had nothing to lose,” Marvin said. “I was just out there going for all the pins. I went for everything.”

   Isztwan lost all chance went he dunked two balls in the water off the tee at the 173-yard, par-3 sixth hole. He very nearly aced the short par-3 fourth hole, his tee shot landing inches in front of the cup and the ball going past the hole, spinning back and lipping out on the way back. He missed the three-foot birdie putt.

   It was that kind of day for the Penn Charter junior who easily won the regular-season points race.

   Maddaloni had birdies at the fourth and seventh holes and made the turn at 2-over. But he chunked his approach into the water in front of the 10^th green, which led to a double bogey that he never quite recovered from.

   Zimmer looked like the best player in the lead group all day, but dropped two shots with a double bogey at the 15^th hole after he blocked his tee shot into the trees on the right side of the hole. That dropped him back to 4-over.

   Zimmer bounced right back by drilling his approach to the 16^th hole to 18 feet and pouring in the birdie putt.

   But the par-3 17^th was problematic for Zimmer as well as his tee shot was short-sided in the rough just left of that tough front pin. It led to a bogey and meant he needed eagle at the last to tie Marvin. He almost did just that.

   Three players, Episcopal Academy’s Auggie Reilly, Springside Chestnut Hill’s Justin Dougherty and Ryan Kennedy, Malvern Prep’s senior leader, finished in a tie for 11^th place, each signing for an 81.

   EA’s Shane Lawler and Haverford School’s Alec Stern shared 14^th place, each posting an 82 and EA’s talented eighth-grader Jack Yearley and Malvern Prep’s Henry Fish landed in a tie for 16^th place, each carding an 85.

   EA’s Giles Elliott finished in 18^th place with an 86 and Germantown Academy’s Serena Bagga was another shot behind Elliott in 19^th place with an 87.

   Haverford School’s Michael Bozzi and Malvern Prep’s Patrick Traynor finished in a tie for 20^th place as each checked in with an 88.

   Rounding out the 24-player field were Malvern Prep’s James Gradisek in 22^nd place with a 92, Malvern Prep’s Dylan O’Connor in 23^rd place with a 94 and Springside Chestnut Hill’s Jacob Rosenbloom in 24^th place with a 112.

   The top 18 finishers in the regular-season points standings were automatic qualifiers and each head coach had a wild-card entry.