Hornberger right at home at Lancaster as he grabs opening-round lead in Pennsylvania Open

   Playing close to home, probably for the first time in a while, Craig Hornberger, the 2012 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Manheim Township, fired a 5-under-par 65 at Lancaster Country Club Monday to take a two-shot lead in the not-quite-completed opening round of the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s 102^nd Open Championship, presented by LECOM.

   Play was delayed at the start, although Lancaster must not have received quite the deluge that hit a little farther east and play got under way at the William Flynn design, home of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open, at 9:30 a.m. A late storm forced play to be suspended at 7:53 p.m.

   It appears Hornberger is playing on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, but he couldn't resist putting the Pennsylvania Open on his schedule since it’s being played at Lancaster, his home course as he was growing up.

   Hornberger started on the 10th tee and opened his round with a bogey, but he quickly turned the round around with an eagle at the par-5 13th. He added a birdie at the 16th to get it to 2-under as he headed for the first tee.
   Hornberger played the front nine like somebody who had been there before as he made birdies at the first, fourth and seventh holes and six pars to finish at 5-under.

   Five players, led by Stu Ingraham, the head of instruction at the M Golf Range in Newtown Square, are tied for second, two shots behind Hornberger. The 58-year-old Ingraham, the Philadelphia Section PGA’s reigning eight-time Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year, toured the tough Lancaster layout with a very efficient three-birdie, no-bogey effort.

   The ageless Ingraham shared second when the Pennsylvania Open visited another William Flynn design at Rolling Green Golf Club three years ago.

   Also in that group at 2-under is Chris Crawford, the former Drexel standout. After qualifying for the U.S. Open as an amateur for the second year in a row last summer, Crawford decided to turn pro.

Travis Howe, who was going by T.J. when he qualified for the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club two years ago, is also at 2-under. Howe was an NCAA regional individual champion at Penn State in 2010, leading the Nittany Lions to the NCAA Championship as a team.

   Rounding out the group at 2-under are amateur Zach Barbin, a sophomore at Liberty University and a member of the golfing Barbin family of Elkton, Md., and Ben Boyle, a pro from Boiling Springs.

   Five more players are in the group tied for seventh at 2-under, although one of them, Waynesborough Country Club assistant pro Zac Oakley, still has five holes to play and will have an opportunity to take it a little lower when he finishes up his first round.

   Three talented Philadelphia Section PGA pros each completed a 2-under 68 to get a share of seventh, including LedgeRock Golf Club head pro Tony Perla, Kevin Kraft, an instructor at the Bumble Bee Hollow Golf Center in Harrisburg, and Sunnybrook Golf Club assistant pro Andrew Turner, another Lancaster County guy who starred scholastically at Warwick High.

   Rounding out the group at 2-under 68 was amateur Carey Bina, whose scholastic career at Radnor High I chronicled in my days at the Delco Daily Times. Bina has played some outstanding golf this summer, including a tie for seventh in the Pennsylvania Amateur Championship at Sunnehanna Golf Club in Johnstown a couple of weeks ago.

   Pretty sure the field will be cut if Mother Nature cooperates – and that hasn’t happened a whole lot this summer -- and lets the second round to be completed Tuesday. The final round is scheduled for Wednesday.