Barbin pulls away from O'Brien to claim BMW Philadelphia Amateur crown at Lancaster

   A year ago Zach Barbin and younger brother Austin both made it into the match-play bracket in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Stonewall, Austin prefacing a summer of junior domination by firing a spectacular 5-under-par 65 on the North Course.

   By the end of the summer, Austin Barbin, on his way to the University of Maryland, had won two of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s major junior championships, the Junior Boys’ Championship and the Christman Cup, among other accomplishments, and was named GAP’s Junior Player of the Year.

   But Saturday at Lancaster Country Club, Zach Barbin did his younger brother one better, etching his name on the most prestigious trophy in GAP, the J. Wood Platt Trophy that goes to the winner of BMW Philadelphia Amateur.

   The 21-year-old Zach Barbin, a senior at Liberty University, pulled away from the 22-year-old Michael O’Brien, a recent Saint Joseph’s graduate who will play a fifth year of college golf at Florida Gulf Coast beginning later this summer, on the front nine of the afternoon round of the scheduled 36-hole final and claimed a 5 and 3 victory.

   There was another opponent that Barbin and O’Brien battled all week just to get to the Philly Amateur final. That would be the 6,694-yard, par-70 William Flynn-designed Lancaster layout. The course hosted the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open, an event that was such an unqualified success that the USGA tapped Lancaster for a return engagement for the U.S. Women’s Open in 2024.

   And nobody did that better than Barbin. He never trailed in a match all week. Barbin was 4-under, with the usual match-play concessions, for the 15 holes of Saturday’s afternoon rally.

   The Barbins’ home base is Chesapeake Golf Club in Rising Sun, Md., but Zach Barbin plays out of Loch Nairn Golf Club, a public course in Toughkenamon, Chester County, for GAP events. His victory Saturday made him the first winner representing a public course in the history of the Philly Amateur. O’Brien, too, represented a public course, Makefield Highlands Golf Club in Bucks County.

   A year ago at Stonewall, Zach Barbin was knocked out in the opening round of match play. This year he would not be denied.

   “I’ve been in the mix here and there,” Barbin told the GAP website. “I haven’t really won anything this big in my career. To be able to break the ice and win something like this is just an honor. Especially being one of the oldest tournaments in golf.

   “There are no words to describe how I’m feeling. I worked really hard on my game, so the fact I’ve put myself in this position and the fact I got it done and my game held up under pressure. I’m pretty proud of myself.”

   As he had all week, O’Brien, a West Chester, Ohio native, battled hard. Twice in the morning round – pace of play was never an issue in this two-hour, 50-minute sprint – O’Brien fell 2-down.

   The first time he bounced back to square the match, winning the 10^th and 11^th holes. The second time, late in the round, O’Brien won the 18^th hole to cut his deficit to 1-down heading to the afternoon round, although with weather concerns, the second 18 holes probably started well before noon.

   O’Brien struggled with his swing a little following the 10-minute break between rounds and Barbin pounced..

   Barbin won the 20^th hole with a par, then ripped off nearly identical birdies on the 21^st and 22^nd holes, the par-4 second and third holes. Both times, Barbin had 84 yards to the hole and both times nipped a 58-degree wedge to five feet and converted the birdie try.

   Barbin found the fairway with a 2-iron off the tee at the seventh hole, the 25^th of the match, while O’Brien twice found the water on the hole and was 5-down. When Barbin got it up and down from a greenside bunker, holing a tough six-foot par putt, at the par-3 eighth hole, the 26^th of the match, he had a commanding 6-up advantage.

   O’Brien had one last gasp left, getting back-to-back wins with birdies at the 31^st and 32^nd holes.

But Barbin had two putts to win the match on the next hole, the 33^rd of the match, and watched his tough downhill putt roll right in the cup for one final birdie.

   As I mentioned early in the week, Barbin couldn’t really crack the lineup at Liberty a year ago as a sophomore, which said a lot more about the talent on the Flames’ roster than it did about Barbin’s ability. Liberty qualified as a team for the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. and was ranked 22^nd by Golfstat heading into the regionals.

   He had worked his way into the lineup this season, but then came the coronavirus pandemic and the premature end to the 2019-2020 season. A Philly Amateur can do nothing but boost the talented guy’s confidence as he heads back to Liberty later this summer.

   Speaking of the pandemic, give GAP and Lancaster credit for pulling off what was really the first major golf competition in this area since stay-at-home orders were relaxed earlier this month.

   Not allowing fans was understandable, although it might have been OK to allow a few friends and families of the competitors to come out. I think players should have been allowed to have caddies if they wanted one.

   But I’m nitpicking because, again, GAP stepped up and went first. GAP and everybody else who will try to stage a golf tournament this summer were taking notes. If there are areas where some restrictions can be relaxed, they might be relaxed because the Philly Amateur showed they maybe could be.

   The list of winners for many sports events in future years will say 2020 – None, pandemic. Not the BMW Philadelphia Amateur. Its list will say 2020 – Zach Barbin and GAP deserves credit for getting it done.