Melendez tames Buena Vista on his way to a Philly Junior Tour victory

 

   When Trebor Melendez of Vineland, N.J. shows up for a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop in South Jersey you can often, in Jersey parlance, fuhgeddaboudit.

   On a perfect late October Saturday for golf, the Philly Junior Tour had an event on the western end of the Philadelphia Section PGA at Iron Valley Golf Club while the eastern half of the Section, particularly the South Jersey kids, teed it up at Buena Vista Country Club in Buena, N.J.

   And Melendez was on top of his game as he blitzed the Buena Vista layout with a 2-under-par 70 to claim a Philly Junior Tour victory in the 13-to-15 division Oct. 25^th.

   Melendez made back-to-back birdies at the second and third holes before adding an eagle at the par-5 seventh and a birdie at 15. He had 11 pars on his scorecard, including a run of five consecutive pars from the eighth through the 12^th holes.

   Will Sylvester, coming off his freshman season on the Conestoga golf team, and Mark Westfall of Medford, N.J. shared runnerup honors among the younger guys, each posting an 81.

   Sylvester had 10 pars on his card, including three straight pars at the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th holes. Westfall made a birdie at the seventh hole, an eagle at the par-4 ninth and had nine pars on his card.

   Ian Lu, taking a road trip from Edison, N.J. in North Jersey, took fourth place with an 82 and the trio of Victor Wang of Hockessin, Del., Jackson Roy, another Medford, N.J. guy, and Jacob Ronsvalle, coming off his freshman season on the Marple Newtown golf team, shared fifth, each signing for an 85.

   Jack Dickinson of Doylestown took eighth place with an 88, Jake Esposito of Richboro was ninth with an 89 and Jacob Goldsmith of Northfield, N.J. and Ryan Dungan, a Warrington resident and a sophomore on the Holy Ghost Prep golf team, rounded out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division as each recorded a 90.

   David Dempsey of Franklinville, N.J. and Lucas Solano, another Vineland, N.J. guy, shared the top spot on the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division as each registered a 4-over 76.

   Dempsey, who has been playing some solid golf on the Philly Junior Tour dating back to late summer, made a birdie at the seventh hole, went back-to-back with birdies at 13 and 14, and had eight pars on his scorecard.

   Lucas Solano finished up his round with a birdie at the 18^th hole and had 13 pars on his card, including a stretch of seven straight pars from eight through 14.

   Torrin Denton of Mullica Hill, N.J. made birdies at the first and 12^th holes and had nine pars on his card, including three straight pars at 16, 17 and 18 to close out his round, as he finished in third place with a 79.

   David Padgett of Barnegat, N.J. and Brett Logan, an invader from Celebration, Fla., shared fourth place, each posting an 81, and Rosario Lee of Newfield, N.J. and Cole Verdes of Cherry Hill, N.J. finished in a tie for sixth, each tallying an 83.

   Gus Stolzfus, who wrapped up his scholastic career at Avon Grove this fall, and Chase Schmidt of Waterford, N.J. shared ninth place and Beau Diakon, a sophomore on the Pennridge golf team, rounded out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division as he finished 10^th with an 88.

   Masey Heenan of Ocean City, N.J. was the lone entry in the 16-to-18 division and she made a birdie at the 16^th hole and had seven pars on her scorecard on her way to an 82 that was the best score of the day among the girls.

   Hailey Cousins of Port Republic, N.J. had seven pars on her scorecard, including consecutive pars at the second, third and fourth holes, as she claimed a Philly Junior Tour victory in the 13-to-15 division with an 86.

   Allison Choi of Penn Valley had seven pars on her card as she earned runnerup honors with an 87, just a shot behind Cousins.

   Emma Cowan of Moorestown, N.J. had four pars on her card as she finished in third place with a 95.

   Maillie Heenan, another member of Team Heenan out of Ocean City, N.J., took fourth place with a 97 and Sonia Rosenman, another Moorestown, N.J. gal, rounded out the field in the 13-to-15 division as she finished fifth with a 103.

   Damien Dollard of Cinnaminson, N.J. and Grayson Wright of Philadelphia shared the top spot among the boys 12-and-under nine-holers as each carded a 4-over 40.

   Dollard, who got hot at the end of the 2025 season on his way to the Philly Junior Tour’s Player of the Year honor in the boys 12-and-under division, made a birdie at the seventh hole and had four pars on his scorecard, opening his round with three straight pars.

   Wright, who has been playing some solid golf this fall, had five pars on his card, closing out his round with back-to-back pars at the eighth and ninth holes.

   Alex Cheng of Wilmington, Del. made pars at the seventh and ninth holes to finish in third place with a 44.

   A couple of Penn Valley guys, James Schneider and Jamie Cahn, and Kelly Selvesen of Cape May Court House, N.J. shared fourth place, each signing for a 45, Reed Picard of Bryn Mawr was seventh with a 46 and Kash Gray of Eagleville finished eighth with a 47.

   Leonardo Rossi of Ambler took ninth place with a 48 and Caleb Solano, another member of Team Solano out of Vineland, N.J., and Kayaan Patel of Mullica Hill, N.J. rounded out the top 10 in the boys 12-and-under division as they finished in a tie for 10^th, each tallying a 49.

   Claire Malbacho of Haverford was the lone entry in the girls 12-and-under division and she made a par at the first hole on her way to a 50.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zach Barbin, Oakley sitting just outside the top 20 after two rounds of Assistant PGA Professional Championship

 

   Zach Barbin, who works out of the pro shop at Chesapeake Bay Golf Club, and Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club, found themselves just outside the top 20 in the group tied for 21^st place Friday at the halfway mark of the Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

   Zach Barbin and Oakley headed a group of five Philadelphia Section PGA professionals who survived the 36-hole cut and will play the weekend.

   Zach Barbin and Oakley have both had success in this event.

   Zach Barbin finished in a tie for second place a year ago. Oakley finished in seventh place a year ago and ended up in a tie for second place two years ago. Zach Barbin and Oakley were among the group tied for 21^st place at 4-under-par 140 following Friday’s second round.

   Zach Barbin had begun the day in a tie for ninth place in a group that included his younger brother and Chesapeake Bay pro shop colleague Austin Barbin after opening with a solid 4-under 68.

   Starting off the first tee, Zach Barbin was up and down on the outgoing nine at the Wanamaker Course as he made a bogey at the second hole, got into red figures with birdies at three and six, but fell back to even-par with a bogey at eight.

   Zach Barbin made his move with consecutive birdies at the 12^th, 13^th, and 14^th holes to get to 7-under for the championship. But, just as quickly, he gave those three shots back with a double bogey at the 15^th hole and a bogey at the finishing hole. It all added up to an even-par 72.

   Zach Barbin has proven capable of going low. As recently as the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship in August, he closed with a 10-under 62 that broke the course record at a Whitemarsh Valley Country Club layout that, once upon a time, played host to a stop on the PGA Tour.

   That scintillating final round at Whitemarsh Valley gave Zach Barbin a runnerup finish behind repeat Philadelphia PPC champion Braden Shattuck.

   Oakley had matched par in Thursday’s opening round with a 72. Starting off the 10^th tee, Oakley made bogeys at 10 and 13 that left him hanging around the cut line.

   But this isn’t Oakley’s first rodeo at the Wanamaker Course. After making a birdie at the 14^th hole, Oakley really got it going on the outgoing nine, rattling off birdies at one, two, three and four to get it 3-under for the tournament.

   A bogey at the seventh hole temporarily slowed Oakley’s roll, but he finished strong with back-to-back birdies at eight and nine for a sizzling 5-under 31 on the front nine and a 4-under 68 for the day that enabled him to join the group tied for 21^st place at 4-under.

   Morgan Deneen, working out of the pro shop at the Old Sawmill Golf Club in Ridgeville, S.C., had grabbed a share of the lead with a sizzling opening round of 7-under 65.

   Deneen kept his foot on the gas Friday with a 5-under 67 that left him alone atop the leaderboard with a 12-under 132 total.

   Starting off the 10^th tee, Deneen made back-to-back birdies at the 15^th and 16^th holes. After a bogey at the 17^th hole, Deneen made a birdie at the 18^th to get it back to 9-under for the tournament.

   Deneen made a birdie at the first hole and a bogey at four, but then finished strong with back-to-back birdies at six and seven and a birdie at nine, his seventh of the day, to give himself a two-shot lead going into the weekend.

   Blake Sattler, who works out of the pro shop at Brookside Country Club in Canton, Ohio, and Avery Price, an assistant pro at The Rose Golf Club in Hull, Ga. outside of Athens, were Deneen’s closest pursuers as they were tied for second place, each landing on 10-under 134.

   Sattler posted a sizzling 7-under 65, the low round of the day, in Friday’s second round after opening with a 3-under 69. Price recorded a second straight 5-under 67.

   Trevor Bensel, the talented assistant pro at LuLu Country Club, matched par in the second round after opening with a 3-under 69 and was tied for 31^st place at 4-under 140.

   Austin Barbin, the younger brother of Zach Barbin, had opened with a solid 4-under 68 and was tied for ninth place with his big brother. Austin Barbin struggled a little in Friday’s second round with a 3-over 75, but was very much inside the cutline with a 1-under 143 total that left him among the group tied for 39^th place.

   The last of the five Philly Section representatives to survive the 36-hole cut was Anthony Sebastianelli, an assistant pro at Whitford Country Club who joined Austin Barbin in the group tied for 39^th place at 1-under.

   Sebastianelli had matched par in the opening round with a 72 and added a solid 1-under 71 in Friday’s second round.

   Sebastianelli had captured the title in the Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship, the qualifier for this week’s Assistant PPC, in June at Laurel Creek Country Club.

   Brian Bergstol, the head of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, missed the cut by a shot as he bounced back from an opening round of 3-over 75 with a solid 1-under 71 for a 2-over 146 total. The cut came at 1-over 145.

   Bergstol finished alone in second place in the Assistant PPC in 2021 and shared second place in 2022.

   Andrew Cornish, an assistant pro at Llanerch Country Club, also missed the cut by a shot with a 2-over 146 total as he matched par in Friday’s second round with a 72 after opening with a 2-over 74.

   Rounding out the contingent from the Philly Section at PGA Golf Club was Logan Hay, an assistant pro at Burlington Country Club.

   Hay, who lost in a playoff to Sebastianelli in the Philadelphia PPC at Laurel Creek, added a 2-over 74 in Friday’s second round to his opening-round 77 for a 7-over 151 total.

   The Barbin brothers, Oakley, Bensel, Sebastianelli and Bergstol will represent the Philly Section in next spring’s PGA Professional Championship at the Streamsong Resort in Bowling Green, Fla. as they all had solid showings in the Philadelphia PPC at Whitemarsh Valley and The 1912 Club in August.

   The top 20 finishers at Streamsong will form the Corebridge Financial Team that will represent club pros all over the country in the PGA Championship at PGA Frisco’s Fields Ranch East at the PGA of America’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas. Oakley and Bergstol have both taken that route to the PGA Championship, Oakley in 2022 and again in 2024 and Bergstol in 2025.

   Two other familiar names, Caleb Ryan, who was a three-time PIAA Class AAA Championship qualifier while representing Norristown High on the golf course, and Alex Pillar, the son of John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, were also among the group that finished a shot outside the cutline at 2-over 146.

   Ryan, playing out of the pro shop at the Country Club of New Canaan in Connecticut, bounced back from an opening round of 4-over 77 with a sparkling 3-under 69 in Friday’s second round.

   Pillar, an assistant pro at Sunningdale Country Club in Scarsdale, N.J., had opened with a 1-under 71, but fell back a little with a 3-over 75 in Friday’s second round.

   Former Overbrook Golf Club assistant pro Ashley Grier, who works out of the The Legacy Golf & Tennis Club in Port St. Lucie, had opened with a solid 1-under 71, but struggled to a 6-over 78 in Friday’s second round and missed the cut with a 5-over 149 total.

   The Assistant PPC is supported by The Golf Channel and Srixon/Cleveland Golf. The country’s top assistant pros are playing for a total purse of $225,000.

 

 

Shurman lights it up at Iron Valley to capture a Philly Junior Tour victory

 

   Jesse Shurman was in the lineup for The Haverford School as a sophomore in each of the Inter-Ac League’s six invitationals that made up the regular season.

   It was a typically tight race and Jesse Shurman and a youthful bunch of Fords were in contention right to the final day before ending up in second place as Episcopal Academy captured a second straight Inter-Ac crown.

   Jesse Shurman, a Villanova resident, took a ride out to Lebanon for a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop at Iron Valley Golf Club Oct. 25^th and the experience he gained competing against the tough Inter-Ac competition was apparent.

   Jesse Shurman carded a sizzling 1-under 71, easily the best score of the day among the guys, as he captured a Philly Junior Tour victory in the 16-to-18 division.

   Jesse Shurman finished strong at Iron Valley as he made a birdie at the 15^th hole and closed out his round with back-to-back birdies at 17 and 18 while scorching the incoming nine with a 2-under 34.

   Jesse Shurman had 13 pars on his scorecard, including a stretch of nine consecutive pars from the second through the 10^th holes.

   Jaden Irvin, who wrapped up his scholastic career at Hershey this fall, and Collin Padovani, a junior on the Northern Lebanon golf team, shared runnerup honors at Iron Valley as each posted an 81.

   Irvin made a birdie at the 16^th hole and had 10 pars on his card. Padovani made a birdie at the 10^th hole and had nine pars on his card, including a string of four straight pars from 14 through 17.

   Felix Chen, a junior on the Lancaster Country Day School golf team, took fourth place with an 84 and Shane Cornell, who wrapped up his scholastic career at Avon Grove this fall, finished fifth with an 86.

   Rounding out the field in the 16-to-18 division was Clifton Beam of West Chester as he finished in sixth place with a 92.

   Blake Coppolino, a sophomore on the Downingtown East golf team, had 11 pars on his scorecard, including a run of nine straight pars from the fifth through the 13^th holes, as he claimed a Philly Junior Tour victory in the 13-to-15 division with an 8-over 80.

   Nathan Barker of Malvern had nine pars on his card as he earned runnerup honors among the younger guys with an 83.

   Jonathan Thomas of Landenberg had 10 pars on his card, opening his round with four straight pars, as he finished in third place with an 84.

   Dean Matta, a District One Class AAA qualifier this fall as a freshman at Avon Grove, took fourth place with an 86, Toby Parker of Chester Springs and Nolan Sweigert, a freshman on the Lancaster Catholic golf team, shared fifth, each tallying an 88, and Jaxson Freeborn of Reading finished seventh with an 89.

   Justin Burke, a sophomore on the Owen J. Roberts golf team, took eighth place with a 94 and Harrison Miller of Palmyra rounded out the field in the 13-to-15 division as he finished ninth with a 96.

   Really strong showing from Katelyn Burks, the younger sister of Jill Burks, the District One Class AAA champion as a senior at Conestoga this fall, as Katelyn Burks had the best score among the girls while claiming a Philly Junior Tour victory in the 13-to-15 division with a 7-over 79.

   Katelyn Burks made an early birdie at the third hole, went back-to-back with birdies at six and seven and added birdies at 10 and12 on Iron Valley’s incoming nine. Katelyn Burks also had six pars on her scorecard.

   Elyssa Capaldo, a freshman on Methacton’s Pioneer Athletic Conference championship team, rounded out a short field in the 13-to-15 division as she finished in second place with a 97.

   Mya Dendler, a junior on the Pennsbury golf team, was the lone entry in the girls 16-to-18 division and she had five pars on her scorecard, including three straight pars at the fourth, fifth and sixth holes, on her way to a 95.

   Niko Muego of Bryn Mawr, who has been a fixture on the leaderboard among the Philly Junior Tour’s boys 12-and-under nine-holers all season, made a birdie at the fourth hole and had six pars on his scorecard, including five straight pars to close out his round, as he notched another win with a 1-over 37.

   Blake Shurman, another member of Villanova’s Team Shurman, closed out his round with a birdie at the ninth hole and had five pars on his card, including three straight pars at six, seven and eight, as he earned runnerup honors with a solid 3-over 39.

   Joey Charpentier of Schwenksville and Samuel Karas of Blue Bell shared third place as each signed for a 41.

   Charpentier had seven pars on his card, closing out his round with a string of six straight pars. Karas had four pars on his card, ripping off three consecutive pars at the sixth, seventh and eighth holes.

   Jesse Cannon of Glen Mills and Ryan Kaye of Lansdale shared fifth place, each recording a 42 and Dino Luccia of North Wales and Mason Freeborn, another member of Reading’s Team Freeborn, finished in a tie for seventh place, each registering a 49.

   Declan Brainard of Pipersville took ninth place with a 50, Ethan Hong of Wayne was 10^th with a 55 and Joseph Sherman of Gladwyne rounded out the field in the boys 12-and-under division as he finished 11^th with a 57.