Earning a spot in the U.S. Amateur at a local qualifier is a
long shot, even for the best of golfers. But that doesn’t stop many players
from taking that shot, especially when the prize is a trip to play one of
America’s iconic courses, in this case the Pebble Beach Golf Links, in the most
prestigious championship in amateur golf.
The Golf Association of Philadelphia administered a pair of
local qualifiers Monday – well, the one at Chambersburg Country Club started
Monday – and only four players emerged with guaranteed tickets to Pebble Beach.
One of those four is Jack Melville, one of the top players
in District One while at Upper Dublin who is a junior at Delaware.
The 20-year-old Melville endured some difficult conditions
at one of the area’s most exclusive courses, Bidermann Golf Club near
Wilmington, Del., to share medalist honors with Eric Dulik of Great Falls, Va.
at 2-over-par 146.
The U.S. Amateur will tee off Aug. 13 at Pebble Beach on
northern California’s scenic Monterey Peninsula.
While the rain that caused headaches at the qualifier at
Chambersburg Monday mostly stayed away from Bidermann, winds gusting as high as
40 mph made things tough for the 70 players who were vying for two spots in the
U.S. Amateur.
Melville, playing in the first group of a long day, got it
around in 2-over 74 in the morning.
His afternoon round got off to a flying start when he
dropped a 25-foot putt from the fringe for a birdie. But then the wind and a
downhill birdie putt at the par-3 fourth led to a bogey that could have stopped
Melville’s momentum.
But rather than curse his luck, Melville relaxed and just
decided to embrace the conditions.
“I hit my tee shot 10 feet above the hole,” Melville told
the GAP website. “I just touched it and it went
10 feet past the hole. I missed the putt coming back up. I knew everyone
had to play in those conditions, so I didn’t let it get to me. I just moved on.
“It was probably the windiest I’ve ever played. But I was
having fun out there. I was using the wind (to my advantage). I watched the
British Open and I was like, ‘Man, this is like the British Open out here.’ I
just started playing more low shots, which was fun.”
A 15-footer for birdie dropped at the sixth another
three-putt at the eighth left him at even for the round. He got it to 2-under
with back-to-back birdies at 12 and 13, nearly reaching the par-5 12th
in two, chipping it close and making a six-foot birdie putt and knocking in a
15-footer for birdie at the 13th.
That gave him enough cushion to survive bogeys at 14 and 18
on the way to the clubhouse.
Dulik, playing in the last group of the day, demonstrated
the value of par in his afternoon round. After opening with a 1-over 73, the
24-year-old Dulik, who started his college career at Delaware before moving on
to Louisville, opened his afternoon round with 11 straight pars.
His morning round had featured three birdies and an eagle at
the par-5 second hole. A birdie on his 36th hole of the day, the 18th
at Bidermann, completed another 1-over 73 and gave him a share of medalist
honors with Melville.
The first alternate is Joe Tigani, a Tatnall School product
who recently completed his career at Division III Hamilton College in New York.
Tigani carded a pair of 74s to finish two shots behind the co-medalists at
4-over 148.
Austin Barbin, a senior at Red Lion Christian Academy from
Elkton, Md., is the second alternate as he added a 76 to his opening-round 73
for a 149 total. Barbin has played some outstanding golf this summer, reaching
the semifinals of the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship a week after earning a
match-play berth in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship.
Former Villanova standout Steve Skurla, a West Chester
resident, also opened with a 73 and added an afternoon 76 to match Barbin’s 149
total.
It was an interesting trio tied for sixth at 150, led by
Jolo Timothy Magcalayo of the Philippines. Magcalayo is spending the summer
getting a taste of the junior competition in the United States and showed up on
some Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour leaderboards in the spring.
Magcalayo was coming off an appearance in last week’s U.S.
Junior Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., where he earned a
berth in match play and won a match. Magcalayo had a pair of 75s at Bidermann.
Joining Magcalayo at 150 were Philadelphia Cricket Club’s
Conrad Von Borsig, the 2009 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion who opened with a
73 and backed off with an afternoon 77, and Michael O’Brien, a junior at Saint
Joseph’s from West Chester, Ohio who opened with a 77 and posted a solid 1-over
73 in the afternoon.
The hit-and-miss rains that occasionally drenched the
Philadelphia area did not miss in central Pennsylvania.
The GAP-administered qualifier at Chambersburg Country Club
played out over two days with a window Monday morning followed by a long
stretch of drenching rainfall. Only 33 players from the original field of 78 completed
two rounds.
None of which bothered Michael Brennan, a 16-year-old Wake
Forest recruit from Leesburg, Va. Brennan fired a pair of 4-under 69s over the
waterlogged 6,720-yard, par-73 Chambersburg layout to take medalist honors by
two shots with his 8-under 138 total.
Brennan is going to be playing in the U.S. Amateur at Pebble
Beach and no amount of rainfall was going to dampen his enthusiasm about that.
“I can’t believe I’m going to play Pebble,” Brennan told the
GAP website. “I’ve only been to the West Coast for a very short time, so I’m
very, very excited.”
Brennan showed remarkable poise in the homestretch at
Chambersburg, putting up eight pars and adding a two-putt birdie at the par-5
14th hole on his final nine to nail down medalist honors.
The only other guaranteed ticket to Pebble Beach went to a
talented 20-year-old Aussie, Blake Windred, who rolled in a 10-footer for
birdie on the first hole of a three-man playoff for the final qualifying berth.
The kid is No. 54 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, so he must be the real
deal.
Windred added a 2-under 71 to his opening-round 69 for a
6-under 140 total.
Losing out to Windred in the playoff were Oliver Whaley, a
sophomore at Rutgers from Rockville, Md., and Wyatt Larkin, a senior at
Kennesaw State from Morganton, Ga. Whaley, who is the first alternate, had a
pair of 3-under 70s, and Larkin, who is the second alternate, added a 2-under
71 to his opening-round 69.
One interesting name popped up in the near-miss category at
Chambersburg as Kyle Vance, the two-time District One Class AAA champion at
Methacton, added a 2-under 71 to his opening round of 1-under 72 for a 3-under
143 total.
Vance had a fairly quiet freshman season at Kansas State,
but he is a talented kid.
Penn State senior J.D. Hughes, from nearby Carlisle, was the
leader when the first round finally went into the books Tuesday afternoon with
a sparkling 6-under 67. But Hughes, a key contributor on the last two Nittany
Lion teams that have earned NCAA Regional invitations, fell back with a 77 in
the second round and ended up at 2-under 144.
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