UPPER MERION – The identity of the Big Three in Inter-Ac
League golf is no secret.
It’s Haverford School, which nailed down its third straight
league title earlier this week, Episcopal Academy, which claimed the 2016 crown,
and 2015 champion Malvern Prep. The three teams entered the last of the six
Inter-Ac invitationals that make up the regular season tied for first place and
the Fords edged Malvern Prep by two shots to take the title.
But Germantown Academy made a little noise this fall, the
Patriots earning second-place finishes in two invitationals and finishing
fourth with a 14-16 record.
So maybe it was not so surprising that Germantown Academy’s best
player, sophomore Luke Marvin, carded a solid 2-over-par 73 over a tough Gulph
Mills Golf Club layout on a gorgeous fall Friday to steal the spotlight from
some of the Ieague’s bigger names and capture the Bert Linton Inter-Ac
individual title.
Marvin finished 10th in the Inter-Ac’s
regular-season points race. Of the eight players between him and the
regular-season points winner, Penn Charter junior Patrick Isztwan, there were
three each from Haverford School and Episcopal Academy and two from Malvern Prep.
Friday, though, Marvin proved he was very much in the same
league with all those talented guys. And he did so on the classic Donald Ross
design at Gulph Mills, where Marvin had registered his best round of the
regular season, a 37 in The Haverford School Invitational that sparked the
Patriots to one of their two second-place finishes.
“It’s treated me well,” Marvin said of the 6,619-yard,
par-71 Gulph Mills layout. “I guess I’ve been playing pretty well lately. I
really hit my irons good today.”
Gulph Mills’ difficult green complexes demand precision
approaches and Marvin’s solid iron play helped him win the day.
I followed the final group most of the day, which included the
three top finishers in the regular-season points standings, Penn Charter’s
Isztwan and a pair of Haverford School juniors, Tyler Zimmer and Jake
Maddaloni.
And Zimmer would prove to be Marvin’s closest pursuer. After
a majestic drive on Gulph Mills’ 464-yard, par-5 finishing hole, Zimmer had
just a little more than 150 yards into the green. He gave himself a good look
at eagle with an approach that left him 20 feet from the hole.
But his eagle try slid by and he had to settle for a
two-putt birdie that left him a shot behind Marvin in second place with a
3-over 74.
Charlie Baker, the senior leader on Haverford School’s Inter-Ac
championship team, earned a spot on the Bert Linton podium as he finished two
shots behind Zimmer in third place with a 76. Baker figured to be a top
contender since he was playing on his home course at Gulph Mills.
Malvern Prep’s Jack Fialko was another shot behind Baker in
fourth place with a 77. Isztwan and Maddaloni headed a group of five players
tied for fifth place, each carding a 78. Also in that group were Episcopal
Academy senior Jacob Zeng, Malvern Prep’s Keller Mulhern and Springside
Chestnut Hill Academy’s Andrew Lauerman.
Rounding out the top 10 was Penn Charter’s Josh Felter, who
finished alone in 10th place with an 80.
But this day belonged to Marvin, who plays out of
Commonwealth National Golf Club and considers his dad the closest thing he has
to a swing coach.
Marvin made three birdies, the first coming at the 117-yard,
par-3 fourth hole, where he landed a pitching wedge six feet from the hole and
dropped the birdie try.
Marvin then made back-to-back birdies on the back nine at
the 15th and 16th holes, both par-4s. He drained an
18-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole and then stuck a 9-iron to
three feet at the 16th hole and made that putt.
That got him to even-par for the day, but then came some
anxious moments at the 213-yard, par-3 17th hole. He bunkered his
tee shot and had no chance to get it close to the precarious front pin
position. His bunker shot skittered off the green and he couldn’t get it up and
down from there for a double bogey.
But Marvin regrouped and parred the 18th hole to
get it in at 2-over. There were three more groups, populated mostly by guys
from Haverford School, Malvern Prep and EA, still on the course but Marvin’s 73
held up.
Marvin had no expectations and certainly nobody expected a
GA kid to outplay all those talented guys from the Big Three, not to mention
Penn Charter’s Isztwan.
“The way I looked at it, I had nothing to lose,” Marvin
said. “I was just out there going for all the pins. I went for everything.”
Isztwan lost all chance went he dunked two balls in the water
off the tee at the 173-yard, par-3 sixth hole. He very nearly aced the short
par-3 fourth hole, his tee shot landing inches in front of the cup and the ball
going past the hole, spinning back and lipping out on the way back. He missed
the three-foot birdie putt.
It was that kind of day for the Penn Charter junior who
easily won the regular-season points race.
Maddaloni had birdies at the fourth and seventh holes and
made the turn at 2-over. But he chunked his approach into the water in front of
the 10th green, which led to a double bogey that he never quite
recovered from.
Zimmer looked like the best player in the lead group all
day, but dropped two shots with a double bogey at the 15th hole
after he blocked his tee shot into the trees on the right side of the hole.
That dropped him back to 4-over.
Zimmer bounced right back by drilling his approach to the 16th
hole to 18 feet and pouring in the birdie putt.
But the par-3 17th was problematic for Zimmer as
well as his tee shot was short-sided in the rough just left of that tough front
pin. It led to a bogey and meant he needed eagle at the last to tie Marvin. He
almost did just that.
Three players, Episcopal Academy’s Auggie Reilly, Springside
Chestnut Hill’s Justin Dougherty and Ryan Kennedy, Malvern Prep’s senior
leader, finished in a tie for 11th place, each signing for an 81.
EA’s Shane Lawler and Haverford School’s Alec Stern shared
14th place, each posting an 82 and EA’s talented eighth-grader Jack
Yearley and Malvern Prep’s Henry Fish landed in a tie for 16th
place, each carding an 85.
EA’s Giles Elliott finished in 18th place with an
86 and Germantown Academy’s Serena Bagga was another shot behind Elliott in 19th
place with an 87.
Haverford School’s Michael Bozzi and Malvern Prep’s Patrick
Traynor finished in a tie for 20th place as each checked in with an
88.
Rounding out the 24-player field were Malvern Prep’s James
Gradisek in 22nd place with a 92, Malvern Prep’s Dylan O’Connor in
23rd place with a 94 and Springside Chestnut Hill’s Jacob Rosenbloom
in 24th place with a 112.
The top 18 finishers in the regular-season points standings
were automatic qualifiers and each head coach had a wild-card entry.
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