Barbin gets on a roll to beat Sheehan for GAP Junior Boys' Championship at Coatesville

   WEST CALN – The final of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 105^th Junior Boys’ Championship Wednesday at Coatesville Country Club offered a little bit of a glimpse into the future of Big Ten golf. And it looks pretty bright.

   Austin Barbin, the recently crowned Delaware high school champion who is headed for Maryland, claimed the Junior Boys’ Championship, part of the GAP Junior Series, presented by Citadel, with a 5 and 4 victory over Patrick Sheehan, who finished tied for third in last fall’s PIAA Class AAA Championship and is joining the Penn State program later this summer.

   Barbin, a recent graduate of Red Lion Christian Academy in Bear, Del., broke open a close match with a stunning barrage of 6-under-par golf over a six-hole stretch to put his name on the Peg Burnett Trophy.

   Both these guys can really play as they displayed in making match play in last week’s BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Stonewall and again this week over the 6,265-yard, par-71 Coatesville layout that almost couldn’t contain their big games.

   Sheehan, a recent graduate of Central Bucks East, edged Barbin for medalist honors with a 1-under 70 to Barbin’s even-par 71 Monday and neither player ever seemed to be in danger of losing a match heading into Wednesday’s final.

   “This is huge,” Barbin, representing Loch Nairn Golf Club, said after pulling away from Sheehan with his decisive surge. “I was disappointed I didn’t win it last year. It’s a major championship in my book. I’m just really glad my game held up, my swing held up all week.”

   Barbin’s final two match victories Wednesday came despite the fact that he dislocated his left shoulder while doing some stretching exercises in the middle of the night. His father Andy popped the shoulder back in place and after a couple of tentative swings on the driving range, Barbin unleashed a big drive off the first tee in his semifinal match with Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Patrick Isztwan.

   “It popped a little on that first drive, but it wasn’t like the pop last night,” Barbin said. “I was like, I guess I have to work with it. That’s something I’m really going to work on when I get to Maryland, to build some muscle up in my shoulders.”

   Isztwan, a junior at Penn Charter who won the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League Championship as a freshman in 2017, hung in there with Barbin and only trailed, 1-down, after nine holes. But Barbin pulled away by winning the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th holes in succession to close out the match.

   Sheehan, playing out of Talamore Country Club, dominated Shawnee Country Club’s William Mirams, 4 and 3, in a battle of two of Pennsylvania’s top high school golfers last fall. Mirams, who will join the Delaware golf program this summer, won the PIAA Class AA Championship as a senior at Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg last fall. Mirams was named the male winner of the USGA/AJGA Presidents’ Leadership Award earlier this month.

   But Sheehan threw a 3-under 32 on the front nine at Mirams and led, 4-up, through 10 holes. Barbin had the opponent he expected to see and wanted to see in the final.

   “I wanted him in the final, if it couldn’t be my brother (Evan), I was hoping for Patrick,” Barbin said. “We’re both pretty long and we both have solid games. I knew I had to make some birdies if I was playing Patrick. I guess I threw the dagger those last few holes.”

   Indeed he did. I came upon the match on the eighth hole, just in time to see Barbin draw first blood when he hit a 56-degree wedge to six feet and made the birdie putt to take a 1-up lead.

   But Sheehan knew he had missed some opportunities in those first seven holes, all of which were halved.

   “I didn’t do enough early,” Sheehan said. “I had some makeable putts that I missed that would have given me an early lead.”

   The match turned in Barbin’s favor in the next two holes. Sheehan nearly drove the green at the 364-yard ninth hole, his ball ending up just short of the front fringe, 25 feet from the hole. Barbin drove it in the right rough and wedged it to 10 feet from the cup.

   Using a putter from off the green, Sheehan crushed it 16 feet past the hole and missed the comebacker for a three-putt par. Barbin’s birdie attempt just slid by, but a chance to square the match for Sheehan was missed.

   “That was a good opportunity for me at nine,” Sheehan said. “I just blew that first putt way by. I had some fairway to go through, but I just hit it too hard. That could have been a turning point for me.”

   Barbin drilled a 4-iron to the front of the green on the 538-yard, par-5 10^th hole. Sheehan leaked his approach to the right, but was safely on in three with a birdie opportunity. But Barbin’s 25-footer for eagle never veered off line and went right in the hole. He was 2-up.

   Barbin drove it just off the back of the green at the 301-yard, par-4 11^th hole while Sheehan was a little unlucky when his drive left him under a tree to the left of the green. Sheehan made a bogey and conceded a birdie to Barbin, who had chipped it to three feet.

   And you know how it goes in match play when it starts to get away from you. Sheehan drilled a great shot to eight feet at the 229-yard, par-3 12^th hole, but Barbin hit an equally good shot just outside him. Barbin made his birdie try and Sheehan, the hole suddenly as small as a thimble, missed his.

   When Barbin’s 5-iron at the 219-yard, par-3 13^th hole finished five feet from the hole, it was all but over. He didn’t need to make the putt, but he did and he was suddenly 5-up with five to play.

   When Barbin lagged his birdie putt close on Coatesville’s No. 1 handicap hole, the 430-yard, par-4 14^th, it was over.

   Sheehan still has a summer of golf to play before heading for Penn State as part of a recruiting class that includes two other players who joined him among the top-10 finishers at last fall’s Class AAA state tournament at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort, Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s Jimmy Meyers and Greater Latrobe’s Brady Pervarnik.

   And he knows he’ll be running into Barbin again, especially at the Big Ten Championship for the next few springs to come.

   “I’ve been playing against Austin for what seems like my entire junior career,” Sheehan said. “And I’ll be seeing him at Big Tens for a few more years, so that’s pretty exciting.”

   Barbin is part of a strong group of brothers out of Elkton, Md. who have performed at a high level for several years now. Older brother Zachary will be a junior on a Liberty team that was ranked among the top 25 in Division I this spring. Younger brother Evan reached the First Flight semifinals at Coatesville before falling to eventual winner Billy Pabst Jr., 2 and 1, Wednesday morning.

   “This is the one I wanted, there is a lot of history behind this, what is it 105 years?” Austin Barbin said. “It feels really good that I held it together under pressure and that my attitude was good the whole week.”

   In the other First Flight semifinal, Conestoga junior Morgan Lofland, playing out of Phoenixville Country Club, reached the final with a 3 and 1 victory over Tyler Zimmer of Philadelphia Country Club.

   Pabst, playing out of Elmhurst Country Club, knocked off Lofland in the final, 3 and 1.