Barbin rolls into BMW Philadelphia Amateur final, will face Fricke for the title at Whitemarsh Valley

 

   Four years ago, Zach Barbin captured the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Lancaster Country Club in one of the first big sports event to be staged in this area since the onset three months earlier of the coronavirus pandemic.

   Zach Barbin’s younger brother Austin appears to be on the verge of matching his brother’s feat after rolling to the final of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur with two convincing wins Thursday at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, the George Thomas classic not far from the Philadelphia border in Whitemarsh Township.

   Austin Barbin will take on former Drexel standout Aaron Fricke of LuLu Country Club in the scheduled 36-hole final, which tees off Saturday morning.

   Austin Barbin was the Philadelphia region’s dominant junior player in the summer of 2019, winning the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) Junior Boys’ Championship at Coatesville Country Club and teeing it up in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, in the U.S. Amateur at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in North Carolina and in the Boys Junior PGA Championship at Keney Park Golf Course in Windsor, Conn.

   Austin Barbin is bidding to become the first player to win both the GAP Junior Boys and Philly Am titles since Llanerch Country Club’s Billy Stewart won the Junior Boys in 2000 and 2001 and followed that up with a Philly Am victory in 2002.

   Austin Barbin was set to join the program at Maryland in the Big Ten following his spectacular final summer of junior golf. But after a year at Maryland, Austin Barbin followed big brother Zach to Liberty. Austin Barbin wrapped up his college career last month with the Flames at the NCAA’s Stanford Regional after helping them capture the Conference USA title in their first year in the league.

   When Zach Barbin’s college career at Liberty ended in the spring of 2023, he turned pro and started working in the Chesapeake Bay Golf Club pro shop in Rising Sun, Md. Zach Barbin has quickly emerged as one of the top players on the Philadelphia Section PGA circuit.

   The patriarch of the Barbin family, Andy Barbin, has been on the bag for Austin this week. The Barbin family owns Chesapeake Bay.

   “You know, I’m so blessed to be in a family that we are able to do this,” Austin Barbin told the GAP website. “My parents sacrifice a lot for me and my brothers to play in events like this event. It’s expensive, but they’re the biggest supporters of all of it.

   ”It means so much to be part of a family that pushes each other and all love the game of golf. Golf really is just our life. You know, we’re in the business. This is what we live for. My family, myself, we’re all super excited. It’s been a fun week.”

   There was plenty of drama on quarterfinal/semifinal day in the Philly Am Thursday. Always is. But very little of it centered around Austin Barbin.

   In his quarterfinal match against Evan Eichenlaub of Saucon Valley Country Club, Barbin was 5-up through seven holes and never looked back in a 5 and 4 victory. Eichenlaub was a freshman on the golf team at Babson College in Massachusetts this past season after a standout scholastic career at Moravian Academy.

   I was hoping for a rematch of the 2019 GAP Junior Boys final at Coatesville between Barbin and Patrick Sheehan, who wrapped up a solid five-year career at Penn State earlier this spring, in the semifinals. But Temple junior Jake Haberstumpf dashed those hopes with a hard-fought 1-up decision over Sheehan in another of Thursday morning’s quarterfinals.

   Haberstumpf, playing out of LedgeRock Golf Club, was a scholastic standout at Bethlehem’s Freedom High and began his college career at Moravian before joining head coach Brian Quinn and the Owls last summer.

   He rattled off wins at the second, third and fourth holes to grab an early 3-up lead over Sheehan, a scholastic standout at Central Bucks East who is playing out of Talamore Country Club. But Sheehan answered with wins at the fifth, sixth, eighth and 10^th holes to take a 1-up lead.

   Haberstumpf then won the 12^th, 13^th and 15^th holes to take a 2-up lead. There was one more momentum shift left, though, as Sheehan evened the match with wins at the 16^th and 17^th holes only to see Haberstumpf earn a win at 18 with a par to close out a 1-up victory.

   Much as he had against Eichenlaub, the 23-year-old Barbin jumped on Haberstumpf right from the start of their semifinal match with wins at the first, second and third holes. Barbin just never let Haberstumpf in the match, reaching the final with a 3 and 2 decision. Barbin hasn’t played the last two holes at Whitemarsh Valley since his qualifying round Tuesday.

   It’s been quite a week for Barbin as he captured the Maryland State Golf Association Amateur Championship Sunday with a match-play victory.

   If he can finish off the Philly Am Saturday, Austin and Zach Barbin will be just the fourth set of brothers to have their names inscribed on the J. Wood Platt Trophy and the first since Overbrook Golf Club’s Thompson brothers, the late great Ray winning in 1972 and Andy capturing the title in 1986 and again in 1998.

   Maybe some of the observers of the local golf scene will be surprised to see Fricke, who played his scholastic golf at Garden Spot in Lancaster County, in the final, but somebody who is not surprised is Michael R. Brown Jr., winner of the Philly Am two years ago at Philadelphia Country Club.

   In a battle between players who were partners for LuLu Country Club’s first team in its run to the crown in this spring’s BMW GAP Team Matches, Fricke pulled out a 1-up victory over Brown, a 51-year-old who is one of three players who have won the GAP career grand slam, in a hard-fought battle in the quarterfinals Thursday morning.

   With wins at the fifth, 10^th and 14^th holes, the 29-year-old Fricke turned a 1-down deficit into a 2-up advantage. Brown cut into Fricke’s lead by taking the 15^th hole, but Fricke quickly restored his 2-up edge with a win at 16.

   Brown kept coming, as Fricke most certainly knew he would, with a win at the 17^th hole before they halved the finishing hole with pars to send Fricke to the semifinals.

   Another quarterfinal delivered maybe the match of the week as Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Mark Miler – where do they find all these good players over there – forced his match with Will Davenport of host Whitemarsh Valley to extra holes before finally winning the match on the 22^nd hole.

   Davenport, coming off a run to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship with his Florida buddy Mike Smith at the Cricket Club a couple of weeks ago, took a 1-up lead to the 18^th hole with a win at 17, but the 38-year Miller answered with a par to send the match to extra holes.

   The 31-year-old Davenport had captured the GAP Middle-Amateur crown in 2019 at Rolling Green Golf Club while he was in Philadelphia pursuing an advanced degree at Penn. He lives in Palm City, Fla., but he hung around following the U.S. Four-Ball to take a run at a Philly Am title on a course that was his home base when he was living here.

   In the semifinals Thursday afternoon, Fricke won the 16^th hole to take a 2-up lead on the 38-year-old Miller for the third time in the match. Miller sent the match to the 18^th hole by winning the 17^th hole, but they halved the final hole with bogeys as Fricke pulled out a 1-up victory.