Minio is par for the course at Raven's Claw as he captures a Philly Junior Tour victory

 

   Preston Minio, a talented 13-year-old from Lansdale, matched par with a 71 at Raven’s Claw Golf Club, where Upper Pottsgrove Township meets Limerick Township in northwestern Montgomery County, to claim a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour victory in the 13-to-15 division July 22^nd.

   Minio made birdies at the second, fifth and 14^th holes and had 12 pars on his scorecard.

   Cole Jacobson of Phoenixville was right on Minio’s heels as he made birdies at the ninth, 14^th and 17^th and had 10 pars on his card, including five straight pars to finish out his round, as he earned runnerup honors with a 2-over 73.

   Daniel Ross, a District One Class AAA qualifier as a freshman at Souderton last fall, and Bobby Stefanski of Newtown Square shared third place, each posting a 3-over 74.

   Ross had a steady round, making a birdie at the 11^th hole and registering 14 pars, including five straight pars to finish up his round. Bobby Stefanski made a birdie at the seventh hole, sent back-to-back with birdies at 13 and 14 and had 11 pars on his card.

   Kaycen Subbio of Blue Bell took fifth place with a 75, Helmut Dang of Newtown Square was sixth with a 76 and Rylan Foust of Exton and Carter Bove of Kennett Square finished in a tie for seventh place, each tallying a 78.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division was the pair of Nathan Barker of Malvern and Nolan Johnson of West Chester as they finished in a tie for ninth place, each signing for an 80.

   Billy Nikolaidis, a junior on the Muhlenberg golf team, and Mason Matlack of Boyertown finished in a tie atop the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division as each registered a 1-over 72.

   Nikolaidis, on a midsummer roll at the time, made birdies at the 10^th, 14^th and 18^th holes and had 12 pars on his scorecard, opening his round with nine straight pars. Matlack had birdies at the third and sixth holes and had 14 pars on his card, including a string of eight consecutive pars from 10 through 17.

   Joey Bilotta, who wrapped up his scholastic career at Boyertown last fall, and Cole Henning, a senior on the Souderton golf team, finished in a tie for third place, each ending up a shot behind Nikolaidis and Matlack with a 2-over 73.

   Bilotta really heated up on the outgoing nine at Raven’s Claw, going back-to-back with birdies at the third and fourth holes and then adding birdies at seven and nine while touring the front nine in 2-under 34. He finished with nine pars on his card.

   Henning got out of the gate quickly with a birdie at the first hole, went back-to-back with birdies at seven and eight and added another birdie to close out his round at 18. Henning had nine pars on his card, including a run of six straight pars from the 12^th through the 17^th holes.

   Tim Croyle, a senior on the Pennridge golf team, and Declan Henry, a junior on the Souderton golf team, shared fifth place, each carding a 4-over 75. Looks like the Big Red are going to field a pretty strong team in the upcoming scholastic season.

   Jack Ferm, a District One Class AAA qualifier as a junior at Garnet Valley last fall, took seventh place with a 77, Gus Stoltzfus, a District One Class AAA qualifier as a junior at Avon Grove last fall, was eighth with a 78, and Chase Kuech, who wrapped up his scholastic career at Upper Moreland last fall, finished ninth with an 82.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division was the pair of Justin Gatti, a senior on the Bishop Shanahan golf team, and Vaughn Smartt of Bryn Mawr as they finished in a tie for 10^th place, each recording an 83.

   The best score among the girls came out of the 13-to-15 division as Lila Collingwood, a Collegeville resident and a sophomore on the Villa Maria Academy golf team, had six pars on her scorecard, including three straight pars at the fifth, sixth and seventh holes, as she claimed a Philly Junior Tour victory with an 86.

   Sara Fanelli, a junior on the Radnor golf team, had three pars on her card, opening her round with back-to-back pars at the first and second holes, as she earned runnerup honors with a 94.

   Fanelli was looking for some competitive reps at a Raven’s Claw layout that has been the site for the opening round of the District One Championship for the girls.

   Kate Benson, a sophomore on the Great Valley golf team, and Jue Autumn of Wayne finished in a tie for third place, each tallying a 102.

   Benson made back-to-back pars at the fifth and sixth holes. Autumn made a birdie at the 14^th hole and added a par at 18.

   Gian Patel of Malvern took fifth place with a 108, Brooke Platt of Blue Bell and Liana Patel, another member of Malvern’s Team Patel, finished in a tie for sixth, each recording a 112.

   Olivia Rosen, a junior on the Great Valley golf team, rounded out the field in the 13-to-15 division as she finished in eighth place with a 144.

   Kallista Spence of Phoenixville had five pars on her scorecard, including three straight pars at the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th holes, as she finished at the top of the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division with a 102.

   Faridah Ismaila, a junior on the Great Valley golf team, had three pars on her card, going back-to-back with pars at the second and third holes, as she earned runnerup honors with a 104.

   Chloe Berish, a sophomore on the Owen J. Roberts golf team, rounded out the field in the 16-to-18 division as she made a par on the 16^th hole on her way to a 116 that left her in third place.

   Jack Kolmer of Wayne made a birdie on the fourth hole and had eight pars on a very clean scorecard, including five straight pars to finish up his round, as he bested the field of 12-and-under nine-holets with a sparkling 1-under 35.

   Joey Charpentier of Schwenksville and Kash Gray of Eagleville shared third place, each registering a 2-over 38.

   Charpentier made a birdie on the seventh hole and had six pars on his card, including a string of four straight pars from three through six. Gray had bookend birdies at the first and ninth holes and had four pars on his card.

   Andrew DElia of Clarks Summit and Nolan English of Villanova shared fourth place, each posting a 39 and Sid Joshi of Coopersburg and Niko Muego of Bryn Mawr finished in a tie for sixth, each carding a 40.

   Ryan Stefanski, another member of Newtown Square’s Team Stefanski, and Grayson Wright of Philadelphia shared eighth place, each tallying a 41. Wright was coming off a victory in a Philly Junior Tour Nine-Hole Series event at Foxchase Golf Club a day earlier.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the boys 12-and-under division was Victor Wang of Hockessin, Del. as he finished in 10^th place with a 42.

   Addison Sabatini of West Chester edged Lillian Fry of Pennsburg by a shot with a 49 to finish first in the girls 12-and-under division.

   Rounding out a short field in the girls 12-and-under division, Fry made a par at the fourth hole as she finished in second place with a 50.

 

Ryan unleashes a brilliant 65 at Merion to claim medalist honors in U.S. Amateur

 

   HAVERFORD – Add the name of Josh Ryan to the considerable golf lore at Merion Golf Club’s East Course, the Grande Dame of the Main Line where golf history oozes up out of the ground.

   The kid from Norristown painted a golf masterpiece 10 miles from where he grew up with a scintillating 5-under-par 65 Tuesday that gave him medalist honors in qualifying for match play by two shots in the 126^th U.S. Amateur Championship.

   Ryan had opened with a 3-under 67 Monday at Philadelphia Country Club and his second round at Merion left him with an 8-under 132 total.

   But this second round, at the fabled Merion, this was something special.

   He had plenty of support, too, with his family out there and a gang of Norristown-Plymouth types from The 1912 Club who came out to cheer on their favorite son. And boy, did he give them something to cheer about.

   “It’s awesome,” Ryan told the USGA website about getting a chance to shine in a home game. “There’s a lot of people who’ve never seen me play who were able to (watch me) play this week. So … it was super special. (Some) guys took a bus over here this morning.

   “There’s no experience like staying in my own bed, eating my mom’s food. And just excited to be (playing) my style of golf.”

   I stopped being surprised by Josh Ryan a long time ago, right about the time when he won the title in the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship at the Country Club of York in 2020, a few weeks after capturing the first of his first three straight crowns in the Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Boys’ Championship.

   The Sigel Match Play isn’t a junior event, it is a PAGA major championship and Ryan defeated Rick Stimmel, who has been making the match-play bracket in U.S. Senior Amateurs lately. Ryan was 16.

   Couldn’t hang around for the post-round press conference, but I got all I wanted to see on the golf course. Those guys and gals who came over from The 1912 Club may never witness a better round of golf live than the one they saw Tuesday. It was really something special.

   The 22-year-old Ryan drilled his approach at the opening hole to 10 feet and dropped the birdie putt.

   Ryan’s drive at the par-5 second hole found the left rough and he had to gouge it out, advancing it maybe 100 yards. His 7-iron third shot landed past the pin and spun back into the hole for an eagle that electrified the crowd and, I’m quite certain, sent a collective “Whoa” through the compact East Course layout in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township.

   Ryan’s caddy, Liam McFadden, a member of a pretty golf team at The Haverford School last fall, informed me the shot came from 173 yards away.

   Ryan had a pretty look at birdie at the par-3 third, but his 7-foot putt slid by.

   Forced to lay up at the par-5 fourth hole after driving it in the rough, Ryan left himself three feet behind the hole with his approach. It was a downhill slider, but Ryan got it to fall. He was 4-under for four holes and suddenly very much in contention for medalist honors.

   A drive in the right rough led to a bogey at the par-4 fifth hole, which has looked like the hardest hole on the golf course in the two days of stroke play.

   A perfectly executed chunk and run from the right rough after another wayward drive enabled him to save par at the par-4 sixth hole.

   Ryan settled for pars until the Bobby Jones hole, the short, par-4 11^th, where he rolled in a 10-footer for birdie.

   His approach at the par-12 hole, settled on the fringe, but up against the collar and led to a three-putt that dropped him back to 3-under for the round.

   There was some chatter in the gallery that Ryan’s group had been put on the clock, kind of curious since it had been held up by the last couple of groups that started off of the 11^th tee in the morning wave.

   Ryan responded by ripping off three straight birdies that pretty much put away the race for medalist.

   Ryan drained a 20-foot birdie putt from the right front of the green at the short, par-3 13^th hole. His playing partners, Aidan Tran, a recent Georgia Tech graduate from Fresno, Calif., and Englishman Sam Easterbrook, a senior on the Purdue golf team, dropped their birdie putts right on top of Ryan’s, giving the crowd that gathers around the green in close proximity to the clubhouse quite a show.

   Ryan then stuffed his approach at the par-4 14^th hole to four feet and made the birdie putt. Clearly feeling it now, he hit it to five feet at the par-4 15^th hole and converted that birdie try. He was 6-under for the day, 9-under for two days. It was over.

   Ryan grinded out pars on the next two holes. By the 17^th tee, his group was waiting for the last group of the afternoon wave to tee off at 11, so they had solved any slow-play issues.

   A 64 would have been nice. It is the competitive course record at Merion (the legendary Lee Mackey did it in the opening round of the 1950 U.S. Open and proceeded to shoot 81 in round 2), a total matched in the opening round when Drake Harvey, an incoming freshman at Brigham Young from Henderson, Nev. returned to the course Tuesday morning and made birdies at the ninth and 10^th holes to complete a 6-under 64.

   But Ryan had met his most important goals. He was in the match-play bracket and he was the qualifying medalist, barring an 18^th hole meltdown.

   He played it smart, driving it in the right rough as far away from the out-of-bounds stakes on the left side as possible. He laid up to 100 yards and then hit it the back of the green.

   Ryan still had a 25-foot par putt to match Harvey’s 64, but he made sure to get the two-putt for his third bogey of an otherwise masterful performance.

   Fun fact: Ryan finished in a tie for fourth place in the Pennsylvania Amateur at Merion as a 17-year-old in 2021. The player with whom he shared fourth place that week, Jimmy Ellis, then a Pittsburgh guy who has relocated to Jacksonville Beach, Fla., was the medalist in qualifying for the U.S. Amateur two years ago with an otherworldly second-round 61 at the Chaska Town Course, the alternative qualifying course for the U.S. Am at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.

   You could see this coming.

   Ryan fell in a playoff with Merion Golf Club’s Drue Nicholas in a playoff for the Philadelphia Open crown last month at Lancaster Country Club, a William Flynn gem. It was the second straight Philly Open title for Nicholas, an Egg Harbor Township, N.J. native who starred at Drexel.

   Ryan punched his ticket to the U.S. Amateur with a solid 2-under 69 in Final Qualifying at nearby Llanerch Country Club.

   There couldn’t possibly be better preparation for a U.S. Amateur at Merion than three rounds in the Pennsylvania Amateur at Oakmont Country Club, the Henry Fownes design in suburban Pittsburgh that just might be the toughest test in America.

   Ryan passed that test with flying colors, capturing a Pennsylvania Amateur crown by three shots.

   Ryan awaits a first-round opponent in match play.

   Several players still have to finish their second round and that will be followed by what looks like a bulky playoff, something along the lines of 17 guys vying for the last 11 spots in the match-play bracket.

   Ryan capped his college career at Liberty by helping the Flames capture the Conference USA title. Liberty lost in a playoff to San Diego in the NCAA Corvallis Regional for the final ticket to the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.

   Ryan will be joined in the match-play bracket by his Liberty teammate Michael Lugiano, who starred scholastically at Lake Lehman and was the runnerup in the Pennsylvania Amateur a year ago at Huntsville Golf Club, his home course.

   Lugiano did represent Liberty in the NCAA Championship at La Costa by capturing the individual title in the Corvallis Regional.

   Lugiano added a solid 1-under 69 at Philadelphia Country Club Tuesday to his opening round of 1-over 71 at Merion that left him in the group tied for 16^th place at even-par 140.

   Ryan’s closest pursuer was Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Ala. and No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). Watts will join the program at Southeastern Conference power Tennessee in a few weeks.

   Watts announced his presence as a force to be reckoned with in amateur golf last summer when he defeated a field of top collegians in the Sunnehanna Amateur, an Elite Amateur Series event played at Sunnehanna Country Club, an A.W. Tillinghast gem in Johnstown.

   Watts ripped off a 5-under 65 of his own Tuesday at Philly Country after opening with a solid 1-under 69 at Merion Monday for a 6-under 134 total that left him two shots behind Ryan.

   Henry added a 2-over 72 at Philly Country to his sizzling 6-under 64 in the opening round at Merion to finish in a tie for third place with Germany’s Finn Koelle, a senior at Washington, each landing on 4-under 136.

   Koelle had opened with a sparkling 5-under 65 Monday at Merion and added a 1-over 71 in his second round Tuesday at Philly Country.

   It was a frustrating day for Nicholas and Nick Gross, the former Downingtown West standout who is a junior at Alabama, as both landed on 3-over 143, one shot out of the playoff for the final spots in the match-play bracket.

   Nicholas added a 2-over 72 at Philly Country to his opening round of 1-over 71 in his opening round at his new home course at Merion.

   Watched Gross’ entire round Monday, a frustrating 3-over 73 that included six birdies.

   A bogey at the 10^th hole at Philly Country dropped Gross, who will turn 20 a little later this month, to 4-over for the two days of stroke play. He made a birdie at the 17^th hole to creep into contention for a spot in the match-play bracket, but came up just short with an even-par 70 that left him at 3-over.

   Easterbrook, Ryan’s playing partner, made a couple of costly late bogeys that left him in that group tied for 71^st place at 2-over 143.

   Aidan Emmerich of Swampscott, Mass. who wrapped up his college career at Temple in the spring, and Logan Paczewski, a scholastic standout at Dallas who will take his last year of college eligibility with La Salle as a graduate student, finished in the group tied for 143^rd place at 6-over 146.

   Emmerich opened with a 3-over 73 at Merion and added a 3-over 73 at Philly Country in Tuesday’s second round. Paczewski opened with a 3-over 73 at Philly Country and added another 3-over 73 at Merion in Tuesday’s second round.

   Eli Spaulding, the Loyola of Maryland junior who captured the BMW Philadelphia Amateur crown at Sunnybrook Golf Club in June, added a 4-over 74 at Merion to his opening round of 1-over 71 at Philly Country for a 5-over 145 total.

   A couple of Inter-Ac League standouts of recent vintage, Patrick Isztwan, who starred at Penn Charter, and Hunter Stetson, who starred at Episcopal Academy, failed to make the match-play bracket.

   Isztwan, the 2017 winner of the Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac individual championship as a freshman on his home course at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, bounced back from an opening-round 78 at Philly Country by matching par with a 70 at Merion with a 70 Tuesday for an 8-over 148 total.

   Stetson, the 2021 Bert Linton winner as a sophomore at Bluestone Country Club who is a junior at North Carolina State, added a 7-over 77 in Tuesday’s second round at Merion to his opening round of 6-over 76 at Philly Country for a 13-over 153 total. Stetson plays out of Aronimink Golf Club.

   Charlie Barrickman, who led Unionville to the PIAA Class AAA team crown last fall, had opened with a solid 1-over 71 at Merion Monday, but struggled to a 79 Tuesday at Philly Country for a 150 total.

   Barrickman will join the program at Bucknell later this month. Something tells me we haven’t heard the last from GAP’s Junior Player of the Year a year ago.

   Chuck Tragresser, the PIAA Class AAA runnerup as a senior at Franklin Township in 2020, struggled to an 81 at Merion in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 5-over 75 at Philly Country for a 156 total.

   Philadelphian Hank Krain-Kancher never got it going this week, adding an 83 at Merion Tuesday to his opening-round 85 Monday at Philly Country for a 168 total.

   Krain-Kancher used to show up on Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour leaderboards once upon a time, but I had lost track of him. He got a chance to tee it up at a home U.S. Amateur this week, so the guy can obviously play a little.

 

 

 

 

 

Gross' roller-coaster round at Merion leaves him with work to do to make match play in the U.S. Amateur

 

   HAVERFORD – When it comes to the U.S. Amateur, this isn’t the first rodeo for Nick Gross.

   Still, this one was a little different with the 126^th U.S. Amateur teeing off Monday with the first round of stroke-play qualifying for match play at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township and Philadelphia Country Club in the Gladwyne section of Lower Merion Township, not all that far from Gross’ Downingtown home.

   When it was announced that Gross, the 2021 PIAA Class AAA champion as a sophomore at Downingtown West and a junior at Southeastern Conference power Alabama, would be going off the 11^th tee at Merion at 7:15 a.m. Monday, I was determined to get down there and follow his round. Somehow, I arrived less than a minute before Gross’ first ball was in the air.

   What followed was a roller-coaster ride that resulted in a 3-over-par 73 over a Merion East Course that is hosting the U.S. Amateur for the seventh time.

   Full disclosure, I was a Merion looper as a much younger man, that stage of my caddying career ending following the second round of the 1981 U.S. Open, so, yeah, I can get pretty geeky when the subject is Merion.

   But I was even more geeked up to follow Gross, a kid who first showed up in this blog when he was dominating the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour’s 12-and-under nine-holers, as he challenged my favorite golf course with his considerable talent.

   To say it was an up-and-down round would be an understatement. There were six birdies. Really good. There was a sloppy triple bogey at the classic finishing hole, the par-4 18^th, although having started at 11 that was only the eighth hole of his round. Not good.

   There were six bogeys, including a stretch of three straight at the fifth, sixth and seventh holes after Gross had worked his way all the way back to even-par following the disaster at 18 with birdies at one, three and four. Some good, some bad.

   But Gross knows how all this works. He knows he will have some work to do when he tees off the first tee at Philadelphia Country Club Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.

   Gross was in a tie for 144^th place when first-round play was halted with 39 players still having to finish their rounds.

   “This is my fourth U.S. Amateur, so I have a pretty good idea about how the week flows,” Gross said not long after his adventurous round at Merion was completed. “There were positives and negatives today and I’d rather emphasize the positives. I made six birdies.

   “I made some bad swings on some approaches that led to bogeys, but I hit some good wedges and made some big putts. I don’t think 3-over puts me out of it. I just have to go over to Philly Country (Tuesday) and play a good round. Experience matters in a U.S. Amateur.”

   The idea, as always is to be among the 64 players who qualify for match play at the end of 36 holes of stroke play Tuesday.

   Gross was one of those 64 four years ago and when match play got under way, the kid, about a week shy of his 16^th birthday, marched all the way to the quarterfinals at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J.

   A year before that Gross made the cut in the 2021 Pennsylvania Amateur at Merion as a 14-year-old. He got reacquainted with the East Course in a practice round Saturday.

   “The rough was a little tougher, you just don’t want to get in it,” said Gross, who has his high school coach at Downingtown West, Rob Coyne, on the bag. “The greens were faster today, but that was to be expected.”

   One guy who got off to a great start Monday at Philly was Norristown native Josh Ryan, who carded a 3-under 67 at the William Flynn design that has him among the contenders for medalist honors.

   Scores are coming in as I put this post together and we’ll see where everybody stands at the end of the day. Oh yeah, and there’s a nasty little cell of weather that looks like it might clip the Ardmore section of Haverford Township. A storm did force play to be halted for 54 minutes, which ultimately led to darkness forcing the first round to be suspended.

   Like Gross, there are tons of Josh Ryan posts in this blog, dating back to 2017 when the high school freshman qualified for the PIAA Class AAA Championship in a regional at Golden Oaks Country Club.

   Ryan is coming off a spectacular victory in the Pennsylvania Amateur at Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh and plans to turn pro following the U.S. Amateur.

   I’ll be back at Merion Tuesday and Ryan made the decision on whom to follow really easy. He tees off the first tee at the East Course at 12:30 p.m. I’ll get back to Ryan’s opening round in a bit and I’ll be trying to wrap up a pretty solid local contingent as the afternoon rounds are completed.

   Turned out Gross wasn’t the only Downingtown connection in his group Monday.

   The swing coach for one of Gross’ playing partners, Jack Turner, a senior at Florida from Orlando, Fla. and No. 19 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Nate Dougherty, was on the bag.

   Nate’s dad Kevin, a current fellow looper of mine at Stonewall, and his uncle Denny, a former Stonewall looper, were following the group. Nate Dougherty, of course, was once a looper at Stonewall before heading to Florida and becoming a respected instructor down there. All of which made it a fun day with plenty of familiar faces.

   After missing a good look for birdie at the par-4 12^th hole, Gross dumped his tee shot at the short par-3 13^th into the yawning front bunker and made a bogey.

   Gross missed the green at the par-4 14^th hole and couldn’t get a 10-footer for par to drop and he was 2-over.

   But he bounced right back, sticking his approach to six feet at the par-4 15^th hole and draining a tough little downhill putt and then hitting it to 15 feet at the first of the quarry holes, the par-4 16^th, and making that putt to get back to even-par.

   Gross drove it poorly into the right rough at the par-4 18^th hole. All he could do was chop it out to 80 yards from the pin. His wedge shot landed on the green, but spun off, rolling 20 yards off the green.

   Gross chipped it to eight feet and then three-putted from there. The triple bogey 7 left him at 3-over.

   Gross’ approach at the short par-4 first hole spun off the green. But utilizing a nifty belly shot with his wedge, Gross chipped it right in the hole for a birdie.

   Gross made an all-world par at the par-5 second hole after driving it in the bunker that’s on the right side of the adjoining fifth. Gross played it down the fifth hole and then bombed a long iron to the right greenside bunker, from where he got it up and down.

   Gross’ tee shot at the par-3 third hole left him a 12-footer for birdie, which he made. He hit two poor shots at the par-5 fourth hole, but hit his approach from just over the cross bunker that has to be 185, 190 yards from the green, finished eight feet from the pin and he proceeded to pour that in for another birdie.

   He was back to even-par. Then came the three straight bogeys.

   Gross drove it in the right rough at the tough par-5 fifth hole and it led to a bogey. His playing partners, Turner and Edan Cui, a sophomore at Stanford from Atherton, Calif., also made bogey there. It’s just a really hard hole.

   Gross missed the green at the par-4 sixth hole with a bad swing on his approach and made bogey there before a three-putt at the par-4 seventh led to a third straight bogey. He was back to 3-over again.

   So, of course, he followed that up with a birdie at eight, sticking his approach to 10 feet and dropping the putt.

   Another poor swing off the tee at the par-3 ninth hole led to another bogey.

   Gross drove it in the bunker in front at the reachable par-4 10^th hole and blasted it to seven feet, but just couldn’t get the birdie putt to fall.

   Turner and the Gators made it into match play in the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. before falling to Oklahoma State in the spring.

   Turner probably wasn’t happy with how he was hitting it early in his round Monday as he made bogeys at the 12^th and 18^th holes, but he remained patient.

   He stuck his tee shot at the par-3 third hole to two feet and converted the birdie try. After a bogey at the tough fifth hole, Turner hit it close at six and made the birdie putt and then drained a 20-footer at eight for birdie to get it back to even-par.

   It looked like Turner had driven it on the green at the risk-reward 10^th hole, but the ball trickled off the green into a back bunker. He left it in the bunker, then nearly holed out for a birdie before making a six-footer for par.

   Turner’s even-par total left him in a group tied for 50^th place.

    Cui offset five bogeys with birdies at the East Course’s shortest hole, the par-3 13^th, and its longest, the par-5 fourth, as he joined Gross at 3-over.

   Over at Philly, Ryan, teeing off at the 10^th hole, made a birdie to start at 10, made a bogey at 13, a birdie at 14, a bogey at 17 and a birdie at 18 and was 1-under turning to the outgoing nine.

 m  A birdie at the third hole got Ryan, who helped Liberty capture the Conference USA crown in his final season with the Flames in the spring, to 2-under, but he dropped back to 1-under with a bogey at six.

   Ryan, however, had one more closing burst left in him and back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth holes got him to 3-under and part of a large group tied for fifth place.

   Ryan was two shots behind the two co-leaders, William Lisle, a native of Hong Kong who plans to join the program at SEC power Texas at the end of next summer, and Germany’s Finn Koelle, a senior at Washington in the Big Ten.

   Lisle, starting off the first tee at Philly, made a bogey at the fourth hole and was flawless after that with birdies at five, seven, nine, 11, 12 and 18.

   Koelle, starting off the first tee at Merion, ripped off three straight birdies at the ninth, 10^th and 11^th holes, then went back-to-back with birdies at 15 and 16 to get it to 6-under before a bogey at the tough finishing hole dropped him back to 5-under along with Lisle.

   Max Herendeen, a senior at Big Ten power Illinois from Bellevue, Wash. and No. 26 in the WAGR, posted a sparkling 4-under 66 at Philly Country and shared third place with Drake Harvey, an incoming freshman at Brigham Young from Henderson, Nev. who still has two holes left to play at Merion.

   One of the players in the large group tied for fifth place was Miles Russell, the teen phenom from Jacksonville Beach, Fla. who has risen to No. 4 in the WAGR following his runnerup finish in last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur at Saucon Valley Country Club. Russell, starting off the first tee at Merion, carded a solid 67.

   Three local players are very much in with a shot to make the match-play bracket as they are in a large group tied for 77^th place at 1-over.

   Newly minted Merion member Drue Nicholas hit the first drive off the first tee at the East Course to get the proceedings started early Monday and gutted out a 71. Nicholas, a native of Egg Harbor Township, N.J. at the Jersey Shore who starred at Drexel, defeated Ryan in a playoff to capture the Philadelphia Open crown for the second year in a row last month at Lancaster Country Club.

   Charlie Barrickman, who led Unionville to the PIAA Class AAA team crown last fall to wrap up an outstanding scholastic career, also registered a 71 at Merion.

   Barrickman, who will join the Bucknell program later this month, had survived a playoff in Final Qualifying at the tough Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University to punch his ticket to the U.S. Amateur.

   Michael Lugiano, a scholastic standout at Lake Lehman who claimed the individual title in the NCAA Corvallis Regional at the Trysting Tree Golf Club as a sophomore at Liberty in the spring, started off the 11^th tee at Merion and got it around in 1-over.

   Aidan Emmerich of Swampscot, Mass., who wrapped up his career at Temple in the spring, and Logan Paczewski, a scholastic standout at Dallas who will join the program at La Salle as a graduate student later this month, joined Gross in the group tied for 144^th place at 3-over.

   Emmerich started off the 11^th tee at Merion while Paczewski went off the first tee at Philly Country.

   Chuck Tragresser, the PIAA Class AAA runnerup in 2020 as a senior at Franklin Regional and has another season of college golf left at Robert Morris, went off the 10^th tee at Philly Country and recorded a 5-over 75 that left him in the group tied for 215^th place.

   Former Episcopal Academy standout Hunter Stetson, a junior at North Carolina State, started off the 10^th tee at Philly Country and posted a 6-over 76 that left him in the group tied for 241^st place.

   Stetson, the winner of the Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac League individual championship as a sophomore with the Churchmen in 2021, earned his spot in the field by winning the Delaware Amateur title earlier this summer at Rehoboth Beach Country Club.

   Another past Bert Linton winner, Patrick Isztwan, went off the first tee at Philly Country and tallied an 8-over 78 that left him in the group tied for 276^th place.

   Isztwan, who won the Bert Linton as a freshman at Penn Charter on his home course at Huntingdon Valley Country Club in 2017, has twice been beaten in the final of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship.