Billy Stewart, an instructor at Union League Liberty Hill, has been a little quiet on the Philadelphia Section PGA circuit since his breakout 2018 season.
It was three years ago when Stewart won the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Open Championship in a playoff at St. Davids Golf Club then backed it up by capturing the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship, a victory that went a long way toward making Stewart the Philly Section’s Player of the Year.
Stewart, though, got it going in the opening round of the 117th GAP Philadelphia Open Tuesday, firing a 4-under-par 66 at the Country Club of York, like St. Davids a Donald Ross creation, that gave Stewart a share of the lead with Wilmington Country Club pro Blake Hinckley.
Stewart made it clear three years that the Philly Open was a title he cherished, one he had chased as an amateur while starring at Saint Joseph’s. A product of the junior program at Llanerch Country Club, Stewart captured the BMW Philadelphia Amateur title in 2002 before the ink was dry on his high school diploma at Malvern Prep.
Stewart loves the classic courses that the old-school architects left all over the region and the Country Club of York certainly fills that bill. Stewart shot out of the gate with birdies on four of the first seven holes on another July day when the heat and humidity were prominent. Stewart recorded birdies at the first, second, fourth and seventh holes.
Bogeys at the ninth and 13th holes slowed Stewart’s roll a little, but he made birdies at 14 and 16 on his way to the clubhouse to get it in at 4-under.
Hinckley had seven birdies on his scorecard, but needed them to offset a bogey at the sixth hole and a double bogey at 16. Hinckley got off to a quick s start with birdies at the second and fifth holes before the bogey at six. Birdies at the ninth, 12th and 14th holes got him to 4-under before the double bogey at 16 dropped him back to 2-under.
Hinckley, however, had a great response to a little adversity, finishing up with back-to-back birdies at 17 and 18 to join Stewart at 4-under.
Stewart and Hinckley are competing for a total professional purse of $10,000.
The Philadelphia Open is always the most impressive array of talent the region can provide with the top GAP amateurs going head-to-head with the Philadelphia Section’s best club pros. This year’s field included 86 amateurs and 39 pros. The field was cut to the low 60 and ties for Tuesday’s final round. The cut fell at 5-over 75.
Little Mill Country Club amateur Troy Vannucci was alone in third place with a 3-under 67. Vannucci is coming off a solid spring, highlighted by a run to the quarterfinals of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Cedarbrook Country Club.
John Pillar Sr., the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, headed a group of three players tied for fourth place at 2-under 68. Pillar, the reigning two-time winner of the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship, is part of a group of senior standout in the Philadelphia Section that can really play.
Pillar was joined by amateurs Hayden Moffatt, a Philadelphia Publinks Golf Association entry, and LuLu Country Club’s Michael O’Brien, the former Saint Joseph’s standout who lost in the final of the 2020 Philly Amateur at Lancaster Country Club.
Philadelphia Cricket Club amateur Mark Miller, the 2007 Philadelphia Open winner, headed a group of four more players tied for seventh place at 1-under 69.
Another LuLu amateur, Ron Robinson, who starred scholastically at North Penn and wrapped up a solid college career at Monmouth this spring, was also in the group at 1-under. Penn State junior Patrick Sheehan, playing out of Talamore Country Club, was also in the group at 1-under. Sheehan followed up a strong sophomore spring with the Nittany Lions by reaching the final of the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship at Sewickley Heights Golf Club last month.
Rounding out the quartet at 1-under was Bidermann Golf Club instructor Braden Shattuck, who has been on a little bit of a roll on the Philly Section circuit with a victory in the Burlington Classic and a share of the title in the rain-shortened Conestoga Classic.
The 1912 Club amateur Josh Ryan, returning to the scene of his victory in the 2020 R. Jay Sigel Match Play, was part of a group of seven players oozing with talent that was tied for 11th place at even-par 70. Ryan, who will join the program at Division I power Liberty later this summer, repeated as the winner of GAP’s Junior Boys’ Championship last month at Overbrook Golf Club.
If Ryan is at the young end of that group at even-par, Laurel Creek Country Club instructor Dave Quinn, coming off an appearance in last week’s U.S. Senior Open at Omaha Country Club in Omaha, Neb., is at the older end of the group. Quinn failed to make the cut in Omaha with rounds of 78 and 75, but it was the second PGA Tour Champions major championship he has teed it up in this year after also earning a trip to the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. in May.
Saucon Valley Country Club amateur Matt Mattare, an impressive 2017 winner of the Philadelphia Open at Philadelphia Country Club and a threat to win any GAP major he tees it up in, also joined the group at even-par.
The other amateurs at even-par included Five Ponds Golf Club’s Jalen Griffin, who starred scholastically at Wissahickon and collegiately at San Francisco, and Overbrook’s Alex Butler, who starred scholastically at Manheim Township and collegiately at Villanova.
Two more Philadelphia Section club pros, Rusty Harbold, who plays out of the Philadelphia Cricket Club pro shop, and Chris Krueger of Kings Creek Country Club, rounded out the gang of seven tied for 11th place.
There are nine more players tied for 18th place at 1-ovder 71, including another LuLu entry, Michael R. Brown Jr., who recently added state amateur titles in New Jersey and Delaware to the Pennsylvania Amateur crown he won last summer at Lookaway Golf Club. That’s pretty impressive. Brown will get to defend that Pennsylvania Amateur crown in a couple of weeks at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course.
Brown also recently punched his ticket to this summer’s U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club, the iconic layout in suburban Pittsburgh, by earning medalist honors in a GAP-administered qualifier at the Colonial Golf & Tennis Club in Harrisburg.
Also in the group at 1-over was the defending champion, Mike
Little, the head pro at Lookaway.
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