Patrick Sheehan, who captured the District One Class AAA
title and finished tied for third in the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall,
knew it was his final shot at the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior
Boys’ Championship.
He got that bid off to a strong start Monday as he claimed
medalist honors in the 105th edition of the Junior Boys’
Championship, part of the GAP Junior Series presented by Citadel, with a solid
1-under-par 70 at Coatesville Country Club.
Sheehan, who will start his college career at Penn State
later this summer, had to outduel Loch Nairn Golf Club’s Austin Barbin, a
Maryland recruit out of Elkton, Md. who matched par with a 71 over the
6,210-yard, par-71 Coatesville layout to finish second in the qualifying for
match play.
Sheehan, who starred scholastically at Central Bucks East
and plays out of Talamore Country Club, and Barbin also qualified for match
play in last week’s BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship about 20 miles away
from Coatesville.
For the second straight year, Sheehan reached the second
round of match play. He fell to Jack Wall, the younger brother of eventual
champion Jeremy Wall, 4 and 2. It was a match I watched a lot of and Sheehan was solid against a very talented Jack Wall, who is headed to South
Carolina at the end of the summer.
Barbin surged into the match-play bracket on the strength of
a 5-under 65 on Stonewall’s North Course, the best round of the day on either
course in the 36-hole qualifying. He is a recent graduate of Red Lion Christian
Academy.
Win Thomas, who has been a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior
Tour standout for several years, was alone in third place with a 1-over 72.
Thomas, who will be a high school freshman this fall, is playing out of Concord Country Club.
Sheehan made bogey at the par-3 second hole, the first of
three bogeys he would make on Coatesville par-3s. But he’s a big guy who can
hit it a long way and he started to overpower the Coatesville layout a little
on the inward nine.
Sheehan had a two-putt birdie after reaching the 540-yard,
par-5 10th green in two. He bombed it on the green on the 301-yard,
par-4 11th hole and made the eagle putt to suddenly get it to
2-under.
After back-to-back bogeys as the par-3 12th and
13th holes, Sheehan got it back under par by blasting a 6-iron from
204 yards away and coming up just short of the par-5 15th hole in
two. He chipped up and converted an eight-foot birdie try.
“My distance definitely helped,” Sheehan told the GAP
website. “A lot of the (par-4) holes are driveable. All of the par-5s are
reachable (in two). It helped driving it to 12 feet on No. 11 and making
eagle.”
Sheehan’s opponent in the opening round of match play
Tuesday morning will be Gulph Mills Golf Club’s Charlie Baker, who was the
final survivor of a six-man playoff for the final two spots in the championship
flight match-play bracket. Baker was a key contributor on The Haverford
School’s last two Inter-Ac League championship teams.
It is a rematch of an opening-round match last year in which
Sheehan claimed a 4 and 3 victory.
Liam Hart, a recent Holy Ghost Prep graduate playing out of
Spring Mill Country Club, headed a group of five players tied for fourth at
2-over 73, a shot behind Concord’s Thomas. Hart won the 2017 PIAA Class AAA
Championship and shared third place with Sheehan last fall at the Heritage
Hills Golf Resort.
Joining him in the group tied for fourth were Strath Haven
senior Kevin Smith, playing out of The Springhaven Club, a couple of Blue Bell
Country Club entries, Matthew Lafond and Nick Martin, and William Mirams of
Shawnee Country Club.
Like Sheehan and Barbin, Mirams, who captured the PIAA Class
AA Championship as a senior at Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg last fall, earned
a spot in match play in the Philly Am last week at Stonewall. Mirams, the
runnerup to Ryan Tall in the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship a year ago, was
named the male winner of the prestigious USGA/AJGA Presidents’ Leadership Award
earlier this month.
Michael Walz of White Manor Country Club was alone in ninth
place after posting a 3-over 74.
William Bennink, a member of Unionville’s 2017 PIAA Class
AAA championship team playing out of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, headed
a group of five players tied for 10th at 4-over 75.
A couple of Inter-Ac standouts, A.J. Aivazoglou of Rolling
Green Golf Club, and Patrick Isztwan of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, were
also in the group at 4-over. Aivazoglou, a recent Haverford School graduate,
was a teammate of Baker on the Fords’ last two Inter-Ac crowns. Isztwan won the
Bert Linton Inter-Ac Championship as a freshman at Penn Charter in 2017.
Spring-Ford’s Luke Watson, a Class AAA East Regional
qualifier as a sophomore last fall who plays out of Spring-Ford Country Club, and
Darren Nolan, a clubmate of Sheehan’s at Talamore, rounded out the quintet tied
for 10th.
Nikita Romanov, another Loch Nairn entry, joined Baker at
5-over 76 and was the first player to earn a ticket to match play out of the
playoff. Baker made par on the third hole of the playoff to eliminate William
Bennink’s twin brother Connor Bennink, another key contributor to a Unionville
team that dominated District One Class AAA the last two falls.
Indian Valley Country Club’s Stephen Butler, a PIAA Class
AAA qualifier as a sophomore at Souderton last fall, Dylan Lasecki of Blue Bell
and Tyler Zimmer of Philadelphia Country Club were the other players who landed
on 76 and were casualties of the playoff.
I’m looking forward to the opening-round match between
Concord’s Thomas, who will be a high school freshman this fall, and Huntingdon
Valley’s Isztwan, who was on the bag for older brother Brian Isztwan’s run to
the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship final two years ago at Spring-Ford.
The 73s recorded by Matthew Lafond and Martin and Lasecki’s
76 gave Blue Bell the win in the Junior Team Competition with a 222 total. The
Blue Bell contingent was able to toss the 90 posted by Kevin Lafond in the
four-score-three format.
Loch Nairn was the runnerup at 224 as Evan Barbin’s 77 was
its third score behind Austin Barbin’s 71 and Romanov’s 76.
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