This time, there is no denying a Pennsylvania Amateur crown for Sheehan

 

   It looked like Patrick Sheehan might be closing in on a Pennsylvania Amateur championship three years ago when he drilled his approach at the 18^th hole at Merion Golf Club’s East Course – the iconic 18^th at Merion, you know the Hogan hole and Hy Peskin’s iconic picture – to eight feet.

   A birdie would seemingly have given Sheehan the title. Moments later, however, John Peters had an answer. His 8-iron approach from 193 yards away was even better than Sheehan’s shot. It rolled ever so slowly toward the cup, took a look and dropped in for an eagle. From 193 yards away. On the 18^th at Merion.

   Sheehan still had a chance to force a playoff, but his birdie try slid by the hole.

   He was, as always, gracious in defeat, saying that he had suffered some tough beats in his amateur career, but an eagle on the final hole? That one was going to be tough to top.

   So, you couldn’t help but root for Sheehan, who wrapped up a five-year career at Penn State in the spring, three years later when he took a share of the lead into the final round of the 111^th Pennsylvania Amateur this week at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, a classic William Flynn layout in Lower Moreland, Montgomery County.

   There would be no miracle finishes this time, though, as Sheehan, playing out of Talamore Country Club, put together a solid three-birdie, three-bogey, even-par 70 in Wednesday’s final round that gave him a 54-hole total of 3-under-par 207.

   Sheehan was the only player in the talented field to finish under par as he rolled to a four-shot victory over Jon Rusk, the general manager at LuLu Country Club who was coming off an impressive victory of his own in the Philadelphia Open at Applebrook Golf Club a couple of weeks earlier.

   Sheehan had shared the lead with Patrick Isztwan, always tough on the Huntingdon Valley layout he played growing up, following an opening round of 3-under 67 and again after Sheehan matched par in the second round with a 70.

   Huntingdon Valley seemed to be at its most vulnerable in Monday’s opening round and Sheehan, who starred scholastically at Central Bucks East, rattled off birdies at the seventh, 10^th, 13^th and 15^th holes to get it to 4-under before a bogey at 17 left him at 3-under for the round.

   Sheehan started his second round off the 10^th tee and made birdies at the 15^th and 18^th holes. His biggest hiccup of the week came right after he made the turn for the outgoing nine at Huntingdon Valley as Sheehan made a double bogey at the first hole and a bogey at the second.

   A birdie at the seventh hole enabled him to get it back to even-par for the round and left him in a tie with Isztwan, who matched Sheehan’s opening round of 3-under 67 and also matched par in the second round with a 70, going into the final round.

   In the final round, Sheehan followed up a bogey at the third hole with a birdie at five and a bogey at seven with a birdie at 10. He added another birdie at 15 to get it back to 4-under for the championship and nobody was really making a move on him. Sheehan made a bogey at the 17^th hole, but 3-under turned out to be more than good enough.

    It was the second Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) major championship of the summer for Sheehan, who had defeated Peyton Mussina in the final to capture the title in the R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship at Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown earlier in July.

   Sheehan admitted that he didn’t feel like he was playing all that well during his final season at Penn State, but that it came together for him at Sunnehanna. Clearly, the momentum from the victory in the Sigel Match Play continued to carry over as the summer wore on.

   “It was a great week,” Sheehan told the PAGA website following his Pennsylvania Amateur victory. “It was a grind today and definitely hard out there. I knew I was hitting it well, so it was just a matter of getting the ball in the hole and I did make some putts today.

   “Overall, I’m really happy with how I’m playing and it’s given me a lot of confidence. I think that’s one of the things that showed this week. Being the only one under par shows how much of a hard test this was because there were a lot of good players in the field.”

   The victory also delayed Sheehan’s plan to turn pro in time for the Pennsylvania Open. Sheehan will be otherwise engaged in a couple of weeks as the Pennsylvania Amateur win had the added benefit of punching him a ticket to the U.S. Amateur, which tees off Aug. 12 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.

   It will be Sheehan’s fourth trip to the U.S. Amateur. He has never been able to advance out of qualifying to the match-play bracket, but he sounded happy to give it another shot.

   Rusk, finding new life as a reinstated amateur at age 45, was steady throughout at Huntingdon Valley, matching par in each of the first two rounds with a pair of 70s before closing with a 1-over 71 to finish in second place with a 1-over 211 total.

   Isztwan, set to begin his senior season at Richmond, has always been tough on his home course. In 2017 as a freshman at Penn Charter, he bested the field at Huntingdon Valley to capture the Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac League’s individual crown.

   Last summer, Isztwan reached the final of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Huntingdon Valley before falling to Michael Crowley.

   He matched Sheehan shot for shot in the first two rounds, opening with a sparkling 3-under 67 and matching par in the second round with a 70. Isztwan struggled a little in the final round with a 5-over 75, but still held third place, a shot behind Rusk with a 2-over 212 total.

   Another Huntingdon Valley member, Andrew Mason, winner of the Pennsylvania Amateur title back-to-back in 2011 and 2012, finished in a tie for fourth place with a couple of western Pennsylvania entries in John F. Aber of Allegheny Country Club and Amani Dambrosio of the Long Vue Club, each ending up two shots behind Isztwan at 4-over 214.

   Mason was steady, sandwiching a 2-over 72 in the second round with a pair of 1-over 71s.

   Aber was just a shot out of the lead following his opening round of 2-under 68. He backed off with a 5-over 75 in the second round before closing with a 71.

   Dambrosio was also very much in the hunt following an opening round of 1-under 69 before adding a 3-over 73 in the second round and closing with a 72.

   Evan Barbin, the youngest of the golfing Barbin brothers from Elkton, Md. and a junior at Liberty, finished alone in seventh place with a 5-over 215 total. Barbin, a Philadelphia Publinks Golf Association entry, got off to a strong start with a 2-under 68 before adding a 4-over 74 in the second round and closing with a 73.

   Drexel golf coach Ben Feld, playing out of Green Valley Country Club, headed a group of four players that rounded out the top 10 in a tie for eighth place at 6-over 216.

   After opening with a 4-over 74, Feld matched par in the second round with a 70 before closing with a 72.

   Karl Frisk, a redshirt junior at Division II South Carolina Aiken playing out of Out Door Country Club, was also in the quartet tied for eighth place as he added a 1-over 71 in the second round to his opening-round 72 before finishing up with a 73. Frisk was a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Spring Grove.

   Rounding out the foursome at 6-over were Ricky Calve, another Philadelphia Publinks G.A. entry, and Scott Jordan, a PAGA individual member.

   Calve, winner of the New Jersey State Golf Association’s Public Links Championship last summer, added a 2-over 72 in the second round to his opening-round 73 before closing with a 71.

   Jordan, a senior at Longwood who starred scholastically at Upper St. Clair, rattled off three straight 2-over 72s.

   Patrick Isztwan’s older brother Brian, a scholastic standout at Penn Charter who played his college golf at Harvard, missed the 36-hole cut in the Pennsylvania Amateur by a shot as he bounced back from an opening-round 80 by matching par in the second round with a 70.

   Brian Isztwan owns a PAGA major championship win at Huntingdon Valley as he defeated clubmate Ben Cooley in the final of the Sigel Match Play Championship in 2022.

   I bring all this up because, for Brian Isztwan, the Pennsylvania Amateur was a tuneup for the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National. Brian Isztwan punched his ticket to the U.S. Amateur in final qualifying July 22^nd at Medford Village Country Club as he earned runnerup honors with a 3-under 69.

   The two Pittsburgh area guys who finished in a tie for fourth place at Huntingdon Valley, Dambrosio and Aber, are also headed for the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National as both emerged from final qualifying July 17^th at the Scarlet Couse at The Ohio State University.