Ryan cruises past Haydu in final to capture GAP's Junior Boys' Championship at The 1912 Club

   Josh Ryan is always moving forward, always getting a little bit better at the game of golf.

   The arc of his high school and junior careers has seen steady improvement. The kid who joined big brother Caleb at the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman in the fall of 2017 was the District One Class AAA champion and finished in a tie for third in the state championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County as a junior last fall.

    The summer before his freshman season representing Norristown High on the golf course, Ryan won the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior-Junior Boys’ Championship at Phoenixville Country Club.

   Thursday at The 1912 Club, Ryan, home-schooled by Commonwealth Connections Academy, became just the seventh player to add GAP’s Junior Boys’ Championship to a Junior-Junior crown with a 6 and 4 victory over Spring Mill Country Club’s Corey Haydu, who helped La Salle finish third in the PIAA Class AAA team chase as a junior last fall. It was the 106^th edition of the Junior Boys’ Championship.

   The last player to accomplish the feat was former Council Rock North standout Zach Herr, won followed up his 2008 Junior-Junior crown a year later with a Junior Boys’ title.

   “That’s a pretty cool stat,” Ryan, a GAP Youth on Course entry, told the GAP website concerning his Junior-Junior, Junior double. “I feel very blessed to win this event. It was by God’s grace that I just made it into the playoff (for match play) and through the playoff.

   “God just blessed me throughout the whole week with all of the putts I made and gave me the ability and strength to go through the round.”

   Ryan’s victory was flattered by the strength of this field. As he referenced, he had to survive a playoff among seven players who shot 2-over 72 in qualifying for the final four spots in match play. For three players, 2-over wasn’t good enough to make the Championship Flight.

   There were individual and team scholastic champions all over the place.

   Ryan claimed a 3 and 2 semifinal victory over Aronimink Golf Club’s Jake Maddaloni, a senior at The Haverford School and a key member of the Fords’ last two Inter-Ac League championship teams, Thursday morning. Haydu survived a 19-hole thriller with Metedeconk National Golf Club’s Christopher Dorey, a senior at the Peddie School, in the other semifinal.

   Ryan carried the momentum from his semifinal victory into the early stages of the championship match with Haydu and had a 5-up advantage at the turn.

   Haydu drew a tough lie right of the first green and Ryan was able to win the hole with a par. Ryan reached the par-5 third hole in two and two-putted for a winning birdie that gave him a 2-up advantage.

   Haydu’s par putt at the fourth hole lipped out and he knocked his second shot out of bounds at the fifth hole to fall into a 4-down hole.

   Haydu got one back with a win at the sixth hole, but Ryan drilled an 8-iron to 12 feet at the par-3 seventh hole and converted the birdie try and added another win at the eighth to increase his advantage to 5-up.

   Haydu battled back with a win at the 10^th hole, but he was quickly running out of holes after the two halved the 11^th and 12^th holes.

   Ryan nearly reached the green at the drivable par-4 13^th hole with a 4-iron, chipped to eight feet and made the birdie putt to restore his 5-up lead and finished the job on the 14^th hole with a conceded birdie.

   It probably didn’t hurt the cause that Ryan didn’t have to travel far from his Norristown home to The 1912 Club in neighboring Plymouth Meeting in his attempt to get his name on the Peg Burnett Trophy.

   His mother Michelle does the most supportive thing a golf parent can do at every tournament I’ve seen her at: She keeps score, every shot. And if you’re a golf blogger who’s trying to keep up with what’s going on on the junior and/or high school scene, you don’t want to miss a chance to chat with Michelle Ryan.

   Caleb Ryan was a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during his four years representing Norristown High on the golf course. Assuming Josh Ryan competes in the PIAA postseason this fall (and, with a nod to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, assuming there is a scholastic golf season), he would be a pretty good bet to do his big brother one better and become a four-time PIAA qualifier.

   There aren’t a whole lot of them, sort of like that rare breed that wins GAP’s Junior-Junior and Junior championships. Zach Herr might have been the last District One golfer to reach the state tournament four times. Josh Ryan seems to be chasing him around these days.

   If you needed any more proof as to the strength of the field gathered at The 1912 Club, you need look no further than the players in the First Flight final: Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Patrick Isztwan and Jericho National Golf Club’s Calen Sanderson.

   Isztwan was the top player in the Inter-Ac League’s regular-season standings as a junior at Penn Charter last fall. Sanderson finished in a tie for second behind Ryan in the District One Class AAA Championship as a sophomore at Holy Ghost Prep last fall.

   Isztwan, who has committed to the University of Richmond, was 1-down heading to the 18^th tee in the First Flight final Thursday. His wedge shot stopped three feet from the hole and he made the birdie try to send the match to the 19^th hole.

   Isztwan then got it up and down from a greenside bunker on The 1912 Club’s par-4 first hole, draining an eight-footer for par to win the match.

   Isztwan cruised to a 6 and 4 victory over recent Harriton graduate David Fitzgerald, playing out of Philadelphia Country Club, in his semifinal match. Sanderson reached the final with a 2 and 1 win over Aronimink’s Jack Davis.