Nicholas storms into BMW Philadelphia Amateur quarterfinals with a pair of match wins at Aronimink

 

   His head coach at Drexel was knocked out earlier in the afternoon, but Drue Nicholas carried the Dragon banner into the quarterfinals of the 125^th BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship with a pair of impressive wins Tuesday at Aronimink Golf Club.

   Nicholas was a junior phenom and a scholastic standout at St. Augustine Prep at the Jersey Shore. He headed for North Carolina State and the Atlantic Coast Conference for some big-time Division I golf.

   But Nicholas changed course after a year in Raleigh. He came home and joined the program at Drexel, under the direction of Ben Feld. Nicholas’ victory in The Peoples Golf Championship at the Sea Palms Resort on Sea Island, Ga. in March was the fourth individual title of his Drexel career.

   I made Feld the focus of Tuesday’s post after he earned a share of medalist honors in qualifying for match play. Feld, who plays out of Green Valley Country Club, stepped down after nine years at the helm at Drexel at the conclusion of the wraparound 2024-2025 Division I college season.

   Feld rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Whitford Country Club’s Owen Mulhern in the opening round of match play Tuesday morning. Not sure if any of the spotty downpours that plagued the area in the morning settled over Aronimink, but I didn’t see any reports of any rain delays.

   Feld saw his bid halted in the round of 16 Tuesday afternoon, though, as Dustin Stocksdale, playing out of Briarwood Golf Club, reached the quarterfinals with a 4 and 3 victory.

   Stocksdale is following in the footsteps of his Loyola of Maryland teammate Mike Crowley, who got himself a membership at Briarwood in York to make himself eligible to compete in Golf Association of Philadelphia events and captured the title in the Philly Am two years ago at Huntingdon Valley Country Club.

   Stocksdale, an Ellicott City, Md. resident, just completed his sophomore season at Loyola of Maryland, helping the Greyhounds capture the Patriot League title and earn a spot in the field of the NCAA Auburn Regional. Stocksdale did not make the lineup for the Auburn Regional.

   Stocksdale reached the round of 16 by edging Hunter Stetson, a home favorite at Aronimink, on the 21^st hole of an opening-round thriller.

   But nobody was more impressive Tuesday than Nicholas was.

   The Philly Am is a grueling physical test with 36 holes of qualifying, two rounds of match play Tuesday and two more Wednesday to reach Friday’s 36-hole final. If you can get some matches over quickly in the early rounds, it can pay dividends later in the week.

   Nicholas, playing out of Galloway National Golf Club, stuck to that game plan Tuesday. He opened with a 7 and 5 decision over Jalen Griffin, a scholastic standout at Wissahickon who is the head coach for the University of San Francisco golf program, where he starred collegiately.

   Going off the 10^th tee in his first-round match, Nicholas won the 10^th hole with a birdie, 12, 14 and 15 with pars and the par-5 16^th with a birdie to take a commanding 5-up lead. Birdies at the third and fourth holes enabled Nicholas to make quick work of Griffin.

   It was more of the same in the afternoon as Nicholas rolled into the quarterfinals with a 5 and 4 victory over Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Tyler Stahle.

   Nicholas won the fourth hole with a birdie and five and seven with pars to take a 3-up lead. Stahle cut his deficit to 2-down by taking the eighth hole with a par, Nicholas finally losing a hole on his 22^nd hole of the day.

   But Nicholas won the 10^th and 12^th holes with birdies and the 14^th with a par to finish the job.

   Stahle was a standout golfer on the club team at Villanova and earned a spot in the match-play bracket in the 2022 U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J.

   Nicholas will get another Villanova guy, Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Andy Butler, in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals after Butler claimed a 4 and 2 victory over a current member of the Wildcat golf team, Matt Zerfass, in a round-of-16 match Tuesday afternoon.

   Zerfass, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus, was playing out of Brookside Country Club in Macungie. He wrapped up his junior season at Villanova, his first on the Main Line after starting his college career at Saint Joseph’s, in the lineup for the Wildcats as they finished in fourth place in the Big East Championship at the Callawassie Island Golf Club in Okatie, S.C.

   Earlier in the day, Butler ousted 2015 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion Cole Berman of Merion Golf Club with a 4 and 3 victory in an opening-round match.

   Butler isn’t the only Huntingdon Valley guy among the final eight as Patrick Isztwan, who wrapped up his college career at Richmond earlier this spring, claimed a 3 and 1 victory over another Cricket Club guy in Mark Miller in a round-of-16 match Tuesday afternoon.

   Butler and Isztwan were part of a tremendous effort by Huntingdon Valley as the club rolled to the title in the top tier of GAP’s BMW Team Matches this spring. It was the 35^th time that Huntingdon Valley has captured the title in the hotly contested GAP Team Matches.

   Isztwan, who lost to Crowley in the Philly Am final two years ago on his home course at Huntingdon Valley, defeated another Cricket Club guy, Alexander Kim, 3 and 2, in an opening-round match Tuesday morning.

   Isztwan will get Stocksdale in a quarterfinal match Wednesday morning.

   Ben Cooley almost made it three Huntingdon Valley guys in the quarterfinals, but he dropped a hard-fought 1-up decision to Fieldstone Golf Club’s Joseph Tigani in Tuesday afternoon’s round of 16.

   Tigani also played the 18^th hole in the morning as he pulled out a 2-up victory over former Temple standout John Barone, playing out of The 1912 Club, in the opening round.

   Tigani’s quarterfinal opponent will be Logan Pasczewski, who was on the roster at George Mason this season after spending the first two years of his college career at Rutgers.

   Paczewski, a four-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during a standout scholastic career at Dallas, edged Matt Homer, a scholastic standout at The Tatnall School playing out of Wilmington Country Club, 2 and 1, in a round-of-16 match Tuesday afternoon.

   Homer recently completed his sophomore season at Delaware and was in the lineup for the Blue Hens in the Coastal Athletic Association Championship at Union League National Golf Club at the Jersey Shore.

   Paczewski, playing out of Huntsville Golf Club, seems to save his best stuff for GAP events and owns a GAP major championship after winning in a three-way playoff in a wet and wild Patterson Cup at Llanerch Country Club in 2023.

   The match of the day saw Scott Ehrlich, 21 years removed from his 2004 Philly Am crown, edge one of the youngest players in the match-play bracket, Saucon Valley Country Club’s Thomas Young, on the 22^nd hole to reach the quarterfinals.

   Young was a freshman on the roster at Division III national champion Methodist University. He worked overtime in the morning to reach the round of 16 when he edged LedgeRock Golf Club’s Jake Haberstumpf on the 20^th hole.

   Ehrlich will get another talented young player out of Saucon Valley in the quarterfinals when he faces Evan Eichenlaub, who represented Babson College as an individual in the NCAA Division III Championship outside Rochester, N.Y. to conclude his sophomore season.

   Eichenlaub reached the quarterfinals with a 2 and 1 victory over Blake Micholas of Kings Creek Country Club in the round of 16 Tuesday afternoon. Eichenlaub’s day began with a 6 and 5 victory over Medford Lakes Country Club’s Jack Irons, the runnerup to Huntingdon Valley’s Conor McGrath in the 2021 Philly Am at Cedarbrook Country Club.

   Micholas had made his presence known earlier in the day when he stunned Crowley, the 2023 Philly Am champion and the co-medalist in Monday’s qualifying along with Feld, with a 2 and 1 victory.