Griffin, Davenport share medalist honors in BMW Philadelphia Amateur qualifying at Lancaster

   Jalen Griffin was always one of the top players in District One during a standout scholastic career at Wissahickon.

   Griffin was a three-time PIAA qualifier and finished in a tie for fifth in Class AAA in 2012, the first year the state tournament was broken into two classes, when he was a junior.

   And, to be honest, I had lost track of the guy after that and I’ve hunted through a ton of college golf websites pursuing my college golf obsession that began when my journalism career ended in 2016.

Turns out, Griffin, ever the consistent player he was in high school and as a junior player, was a four-year fixture in the starting lineup at San Francisco and turned right around and became a volunteer assistant coach for the Dons the last two seasons.

   Griffin resurfaced Monday at Lancaster Country Club, the William Flynn gem in Manheim Township, as  he carded a 1-under-par 69 to share medalist honors in qualifying for 120^th BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship.

   Playing out of Five Ponds Golf Club, Griffin made two birdies against a lone bogey on a Lancaster layout that yielded little to an 80-man field of supremely talented amateur players.

   The coronavirus pandemic forced the Golf Association of Philadelphia to cancel the qualifiers for its premier event, which limited the field, and cut the normal 36 holes of qualifying in half. That also limited each player’s margin for error.

   Lancaster was an exacting test and nine players who finished in a tie for 29^th place at 5-over 75 will return to the course Tuesday morning in a playoff for the final four spots in the match-play bracket.

   Lancaster was considered something of a gamble when the USGA tapped it to host the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open. But the LPGA players felt the love that the Lancaster-Harrisburg-York area put out to them, they loved the golf course, the USGA loved the golf course and also felt the community’s warm embrace. Bottom line: The U.S. Women’s Open is coming back to Lancaster in 2024.

   Griffin birdied the second and 14^th holes and gave a shot back with a bogey at 17, but 1-under turned out to be a really good score on a gorgeous June Monday.

   His co-medalist was Whitemarsh Valley Country Club’s Will Davenport, winner of GAP’s Middle-Amateur Championship a year ago at Rolling Green Golf Club, another Flynn that gives you a similar vibe as Lancaster.

   Davenport was a little up-and-down on the front nine Monday. After a bogey to open his round, Davenport made a birdie at the fourth, another bogey at the seventh and a birdie at the eighth that enabled him to make the turn at even-par. On the incoming nine, Davenport made eight pars and a birdie at the 13^th hole.

   Davenport qualified for last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship and earned a spot in the match-play bracket at Colorado Golf Club, but dropped his opening-round match. He picked up the bag of Australian Lukas Michel, whom he had befriended somewhere along the amateur golf trail, and the ride didn’t end until Michel had become the first foreign-born player to win the U.S. Mid-Am.

   It seemed that back nine was especially tough Monday. I didn’t go through everybody’s scorecards, but some pretty good players got it going early only to stumble on the back nine.

   Included in that group was Pine Valley Golf Club’s Jeff Osberg, who has reached the Philly Amateur final three times in the last six years, winning the 2014 crown at White Manor Country Club. After falling in the final to repeat winner Jeremy Wall a year ago at Stonewall, Osberg promptly ripped off victories in the next two GAP majors, the Philadelphia Open at Huntingdon Valley Country Club and a rain-shortened Patterson Cup at Applebrook Golf Club.

   Osberg was one of five players who finished in a tie for third place in Monday’s qualifying at even-par 70. He had it at 3-under through 14 holes before making a double bogey at the 15^th hole and a bogey at the 17^th hole.

   Aronimink Golf Club’s Michael Davis, the runnerup to his Inter-Ac League rival Cole Berman in the 2015 Philly Amateur at Llanerch Country Club, also had it to 3-under through 14 holes before making bogeys at the 15^th, 16^th and 18^th holes to join the group tied for third at even-par. Davis starred scholastically at Malvern Prep and collegiately at Princeton.

   A couple of players who had their junior seasons in college cut short by the coronavirus, Penn State’s Lukas Clark and Liberty’s Zachary Barbin, were also in the group at even-par. Clark, a scholastic standout at Council Rock South, is playing out of Galloway National Golf Club. Barbin, the oldest of the golfing Barbin family of Elkton, Md., is playing out of Loch Nairn Golf Club.

   The final member of the quintet tied for third place was veteran GAP competitor Peter Barron III, who, like Clark, is playing out of Galloway National.

   Another guy who was having a pretty good junior year when the pandemic shut down the college golf season, Temple’s Dawson Anders, was alone in eighth place with a 1-over 71.

   Anders, a Souderton product who plays out of Indian Valley Country Club, will run into a familiar opponent in the opening round of match play as the 2017 GAP Junior Boys’ champion will get a rematch with the player he beat for that title, Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Brian Isztwan.

   Isztwan, the low amateur in last summer’s Pennsylvania Open at Waynesborough Country Club, saw his sophomore season at Harvard cut short this spring. Isztwan was one of eight players tied for 18^th in qualifying with a 3-over 73.

   Heading a group of nine players tied for ninth place at 2-over 72 was Wall, who became the first player in 25 years to repeat as the Philly Amateur champion and is bidding to become the first player in the long and storied history of this event to win it three straight times.

   It was an adventure right from the start for Wall, who plays out of the Manasquan River Club at the Jersey Shore. After making a double bogey at the first hole, Wall got the two shots right back with an eagle at the second.

   Patrick Sheehan’s freshman season at Penn State was cut short by the pandemic. But Sheehan, who capped his scholastic career at Central Bucks East by winning the District One Class AAA title and finishing in a tie for third in the PIAA Class AAA Championship in 2018, earned a spot in the Philly Amateur match-play bracket for a third straight year with his 2-over round.

   Ryan Tall, the former Conestoga standout whose sophomore season at Lafayette came to a premature end, was also in the group at 2-over. Two years ago, Tall, who plays out of Spring-Ford Country Club, reached the semifinals of the Philly Amateur at Whitemarsh Valley and then won the GAP Junior Boys’ championship at Blue Bell Country Club.

   A couple of players on the Saint Joseph’s roster this spring, sophomore J.T. Spina, who reached the PIAA Class AAA Championship in each of his last two seasons at Pope John Paul II, and senior Michael O’Brien, also landed on 72 Monday.

   Spina, like Tall, plays out of Spring-Ford while O’Brien’s home course is Makefield Highlands Country Club. O’Brien was playing some great golf for the Hawks during the fall portion of the ill-fated 2019-’20 season.

   A couple of GAP stalwarts, Saucon Valley Country Club’s Matthew Mattare and LuLu Country Club’s Michael R. Brown Jr., were also in the group at 2-over.

   Mattare pulled off a remarkable double three summers ago when he won both the Met Amateur and the Philadelphia Open and was part of the GAP contingent, along with Davenport, to the U.S. Mid-Am at Colorado Golf Club last fall. Brown’s Patterson Cup victory in 2018 at Gulph Mills Golf Club was the third GAP major win of his career.

   Rounding out the large group tied for ninth place was Campbell Wolf of Carlisle Country Club and Chris Cerminaro of Elkview Country Club. And just to bring this full circle, Cerminaro, as a sophomore at Scranton Prep, was the player who shared fifth place in the 2012 PIAA Class AAA Championship with … Jalen Griffin.

   Among the group that will be involved in the playoff for the final four spots in the match-play bracket is Austin Barbin, the younger brother of Zachary who closed out his junior career last summer with a white-hot streak that included a victory over Sheehan in the GAP Junior Boys’ final at Coatesville Country Club.

   Austin Barbin had worked his way into the starting lineup at Maryland as a freshman when the pandemic halted the college golf season. Look out for him if he can land one of those final four tickets into the match play.