Sheehan outduels Sebastianelli to capture title in Pennsylvania Open at Llanerch

 

   Patrick Sheehan has had his share of tough beats over the years.

   That’s why it’s nice to see the guy who starred scholastically at Central Bucks East and collegiately at Penn State start to pile up some wins, especially in his home state of Pennsylvania.

   Sheehan finished off his latest victory Wednesday with a solid final round of 4-under-par 66 at the underrated Delco gem at Llanerch Country Club that gave him a two-shot victory in the 109^th Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) Open Championship. Dick’s Sporting Goods is the title sponsor of all of the major PAGA championships.

   In the summer of 2024, Sheehan, still an amateur, hauled in a couple of PAGA’s top amateur prizes, capturing titles in the R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship at Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown and in the Pennsylvania Amateur Championship at Huntingdon Valley Country Club.

   The Pennsylvania Am title extended his amateur career for a couple of weeks as it earned him a ticket to the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. In his fourth start in the U.S. Amateur, Sheehan earned a spot in the match-play bracket for the first time and avenged a couple of setbacks to a former scholastic rival in Palmer Jackson by beating him in the first round before falling in the second round.

   The wins in the Sigel Match Play and the Pennsylvania Am also made him the PAGA Player of the Year for 2024.

   Sheehan caught a break in his schedule on the PGA Tour Americas and made the most out of his opportunity to tee it up in the Pennsylvania Open at the 6,780-yard, par-70 Llanerch layout.

   Sheehan, playing out of Talamore Country Club, matched par in the opening round Monday with a 70 and was four shots out of the lead.

   But Sheehan went off in Tuesday’s second round with a sizzling 6-under 64 and shared the lead going into the final round with Anthony Sebastianelli, a talented assistant in the pro shop at Rolling Green Golf Club, a few miles up the road from Llanerch, at 6-under.

   Sheehan got off to a slow start to his second round with a bogey at the second hole. After rattling off birdies at the third, fifth and sixth holes, Sheehan stumbled again with a bogey at the tough par-3 eighth.

   But Sheehan responded to that mistake by ripping off three straight birdies at the ninth, 10^th and 11^th holes. He added birdies at the 13^th and 16^th holes as he toured the incoming nine at Llanerch in 4-under 31.

   Sheehan and Sebastianelli, one of the top players on the Philadelphia Section PGA circuit, battled it out in the final round.

   Sheehan opened his round with back-to-back birdies at the first and second holes and then made 10 straight pars, but couldn’t quite shake the tenacious Sebastianelli.

   Sheehan put a nose in front when he made a birdie at the 13^th hole while Sebastianelli made bogeys at 13 and 14. A birdie at the 16^th hole enabled Sheehan to go to the final hole with a two-shot lead.

   Sheehan’s solid final round gave him a 10-under 200 total and the top prize of $8,000.

   Sebastianelli had grabbed a share of the lead with his opening round of 4-under 66 and added a pair of 2-under 68s in the final two rounds to finish in second place with an 8-under 202 total.

   “Getting another PA major feels great,” Sheehan told the PAGA website. “After winning the Amateur and the Sigel last year, I really wanted win this. I think I’ve only played in one other Open. So when I saw I had an opening on my calendar, I was really happy about that.

   “The guys in Philly and around the state are pretty damn good, so any time you can win out here says something about your game and it’s a big confidence boost going into my last five events.”

   Defending champion Jake Sollon, who works out of the pro shop at Valleybrook Country Club, and Aronimink Golf Club’s Riley Wheeldon, another of the talented young players in the Philadelphia Section, finished in a tie for third place, each ending up two shots behind Sebastianelli at 6-under 204.

   Sollon had a share of the lead following an opening round of 4-under 66. He matched par in Tuesday’s second round with a 70 before closing with a 2-under 68.

   Wheeldon, coming off a victory earlier this month in the Philadelphia Section’s Pro-Am for Wishes at Penn Oaks Golf Club (still hoping to wrap up some of the Philly Section events before we get to the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship), closed with a sparkling 4-under 66, matching Sheehan for the low round of the day, to join Sollon at 6-under.

   Wheeldon had posted back-to-back 1-under 69s in the first two rounds.

   Braden Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green and the three-time reigning Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year in the Philly Section, was only a shot behind Sheehan and Sebastianelli going into the final round after he added a 4-under 66 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening-round 69.

   Shattuck matched par in the final round with a 70 as he finished alone in fifth place, a shot behind Sollon and Wheeldon with a 5-under 205 total.

   For the second time in three years, low-amateur honors in the Pennsylvania Open went to Calen Sanderson, a senior at Notre Dame who plays out of Jericho National Golf Club.

   Sanderson, the runnerup in the Pennsylvania Open two summers ago at the Country Club of York, was a shot out of the lead going into the final round as he added a 4-under 66 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening-round 69.

   Sanderson, the PIAA Class AAA champion as a junior at Holy Ghost Prep in 2020, closed with a 1-over 71 to get a share of sixth place with Allegheny Country Club’s J.F. Aber, each landing on 4-under 206, a shot behind Shattuck.

   Aber, who finished up his college career at Marshall in the spring and appears to have immediately turned pro, matched par in the opening round with a 70 and added back-to-back 2-under 68s to join Sanderson at 4-under.

   Sewickley Heights Golf Club pro Mike Van Sickle, a back-to-back winner of the Pennsylvania Open in 2007 and 2008, and LedgeRock Golf Club’s Jake Haberstumpf finished in a tie for eighth place, each ending up with a 2-under 208 total.

   After opening with a 2-under 68, Van Sickle recorded a 1-over 71 in Tuesday’s second round before closing with a 1-under 69.

   Haberstumpf, who played college golf at Moravian and Temple, added a 1-over 71 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening round of 1-under 69 before finishing up with a 2-under 68.

   A couple of amateurs out of The 1912 Club, Caleb Ryan, a member of Methodist’s back-to-back NCAA Division III national championship teams, and Griffin Mitchell, who wrapped up an outstanding career at Drexel in the spring, joined Huntingdon Valley’s Andrew Mason, the 2013 Pennsylvania Open champion during his foray into professional golf, as they rounded out the top 10 at Llanerch, finishing in a tie for 10^th place at even-par 210.

   Ryan, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during a standout scholastic career at Norristown, matched par in the opening round with a 70 and added a 2-over 72 in Tuesday’s second round before closing with a solid 2-under 68.

   Mitchell added a 1-over 71 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening round of 1-under 69 before matching par in the final round with a 70.

   Mason matched par in the opening round with a 70 and added a 2-under 68 in Tuesday’s second round before closing with a 2-over 72.