LOWER MORELAND – It’s been three years since a Penn Charter
freshman, a coaches’ pick, won the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League Championship.
His name was Brian Isztwan and he outlasted a typically
strong field of Inter-Ac standouts in terrible weather at Philadelphia Cricket
Club’s Militia Hill Course.
Thursday a Penn Charter freshman, a coaches’ pick, carded a
5-over-par 75 on a Huntingdon Valley Country Club layout that was just really
difficult, fast and firm with some gusty winds early in the day that made club
selection a guessing game and some pin placements that made it tough to get the
ball close to the hole
His name is Patrick Isztwan. Huntingdon Valley is Patrick
Isztwan’s home course, but that doesn’t change the fact that he had the
patience to grind out a birdie-less 5-over-par round on a golf course that had
most of the field, including Patrick’s big brother Brian, a senior, shaking
their heads. And like his big brother three years ago, Patrick Isztwan is the
Bert Linton Inter-Ac League champion.
Patrick Isztwan had a really nice Inter-Ac League regular
season going through the first four of the six mini-tournaments that make up
the schedule. He was fourth on the points list that determines the league’s top
regular-season player. But a 46 at Bluestone Country Club and a 45 at Merion
Golf Club’s West Course Monday dropped him back to 19th in the final
standings.
But his play throughout the season made him an easy choice
as a coaches’ pick.
“I feel like I redeemed myself a little after the last two
invitationals,” Patrick Isztwan said after edging The Haverford School’s
Charlie Baker by a shot.
The field started on the back nine of the challenging
6,786-yard, par-70 William Flynn design and Patrick Isztwan made bogeys on 12,
17 and 18 to make the turn at 3-over 38. He added bogeys at two and six on the front nine.
“lt was pretty hard out there,” Patrick Isztwan said. “The
greens were really slick and the wind, especially early, made it tough. I think
it’s the hardest it’s played all year.”
Isztwan was in the second group off of the eight threesomes
that made up the elite field. There were
reports around the golf course about where everybody stood. Isztwan had
figured out that nobody was going to go real low on this golf course on
this day.
He fell back to 5-over with the bogey at six, but he still
had tough finishing stretch with seven, eight and nine to contend with.
“I didn’t want to know where I stood,” Patrick Isztwan said.
“It’s not like I started the day thinking I could win. It was a very good
field.”
But he parred out on the last three and then waited to see
if it would hold up.
Several players still out on the course seemed to have a
chance to catch him, including Malvern Prep juniors Andrew Curran and John Updike, the 2016 Pennsylvania
Junior Boys’ champion. But late bogeys kept stopping the momentum of any of
Isztwan’s challengers.
Only Baker could get as close as one shot to Patrick
Isztwan. Battling back after opening up with a 5-over 40 on the back nine at
Huntingdon Valley, Baker toured the front in 1-over 36, but couldn’t quite catch
Isztwan.
Baker had carded a 1-under 34 on the front nine at Merion
West Monday to lead the Fords to a team win in the final invitational of the
season that returned the Inter-Ac team trophy to Lancaster Avenue for the first
time in three years.
Malvern Prep’s senior captain, Matt Davis, matched par on
the front nine with a 35, but it was too little, too late after a 42 on the
back. Davis’ 7-over 77 was matched by his teammate Updike, but Davis received
the third-place plaque in a match of cards. The front-nine 35 gave him the
tiebreaker edge.
Malvern Prep’s Matt Civitella posted a 78 to finish alone in
fifth, a shot behind his teammates Davis and Updike.
Malvern Prep’s Curran, Episcopal Academy’s Cole Kemmerer and
Justin Hershey, and Haverford School’s A.J. Aivazoglou were another shot behind
Civitella in a tie for sixth at 79.
No one else broke 80. Haverford School’s David Hurly,
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy’s
Justin Dougherty and Episcopal’s Jon Nolan Perry finished tied for 10th at 81. Haverford School’s
Peter Garno was alone in 15th with an 84.
Haverford School’s Mac Costin and Tyler Roland and
Episcopal’s Robbie Copit finished tied for 16th at 85, Penn
Charter’s Noah Schwartz finished 19th with an 86 and Germantown
Academy’s Nick Schnur was 20th with an 87.
It wasn’t quite the finishing act Brian Isztwan envisioned
as he finished tied for 21st with Haverford School’s Cal Buonocore,
each posting an 88.
But he did pick up some hardware after winning the
individual points race during the regular season for the second year in a row,
the first player since the points format was adopted with the Inter-Ac’s switch
to the fall in 2011 to win the title twice, let alone repeat.
Brian Isztwan was the runnerup to Temple freshman Dawson Anders
in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Boys’ Championship with
Patrick on the bag, finished tied for fifth in GAP’s Christman Cup at Stonewall’s
North Course despite having an old guy on the bag, and was the runnerup in the
AJGA’s Philadelphia Junior at Huntingdon Valley.
Last week he was one of just 25 junior standouts named to
the AJGA Transamerica Scholastic Junior All-America team, which earns him a
spot in the AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions at the PGA National Resort &
Spa’s Champion and Fazio Courses in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. next month. I
tacked some of the qualifications for that award on to the post earlier this
week about Haverford School’s clinching win at Merion West.
It was one bad day in a very good year.
And Patrick’s victory made it a clean sweep of the
Inter-Ac’s individual titles for Team Isztwan.
By the way, I was only second-best former sportswriter on
the grounds at Huntingdon Valley Thursday. The great Ted Silary, who covered
high school sports for the Philadelphia
Daily News better than anyone ever has anywhere, was picking up some
material for his high school sports website, TedSilary.com, that most writers
who cover high school sports in the Philadelphia area consult regularly to
check on historical facts for the Inter-Ac and the Philadelphia Catholic
League over the last 40 years or so.
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