Brown's experience shows as he holds on to capture Pennsylvania Amateur crown at Lookaway

   For a long time in the final round of the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s 107^th Amateur Championship at Lookaway Golf Club Wednesday, second-round leader Michael Brown Jr. of LuLu Country Club couldn’t make a par.

   But when the 27-year-old mid-amateur really needed pars on a course he called home in 2010 and 2011, he got a bunch of them down the stretch to hold on for a one-shot victory. Brown has been in some big spots in winning three Golf Association of Philadelphia major championships, the most recent one a Patterson Cup victory at Gulph Mills Golf Club in 2018, and it showed.

   Brown closed with a 3-under-par 69 over the challenging 6,949-yard, par-72 Lookaway layout, located in Bucks County’s Buckingham Township, for a 54-hole total of 10-under 206, one shot clear of western Pennsylvania veteran Rick Stimmel of Diamond Rock Golf Club and another top Philadelphia area mid-am, Whitemarsh Valley Country Club’s Will Davenport.

   There were no complaints about the lack of pars early in the round as Brown came roaring out of the gate with birdies at the first four holes that got him to 11-under for the tournament.

   Brown proceeded to give three of those shots back with three straight bogeys at the fifth, sixth and seventh holes. He made his fifth birdie of the front nine at the eighth hole before his first par of the day at the ninth hole left him at 9-under for the tournament.

   Brown made his sixth birdie of the round at the 10^th hole to get it to 10-under. And that’s where he stayed, making eight straight pars in a gritty finish to hold on for the victory over a field filled with many of the state’s best amateur golfers, young, old and everything in between.

   “It almost seems like it was written ahead of time,” Brown, who called it the biggest win of his career, told the PAGA website. “Coming back here, seeing my friends out there following me. I just can’t believe this happened.”

   While Brown’s closest pursuers never got much going, Stimmel, Davenport and Calen Sanderson, a junior at Holy Ghost Prep, made the biggest moves of the day.

   It wasn’t quite the brilliant 8-under 64 that the 52-year-old Stimmel unleashed a couple of weeks ago at the Country Club of York that gave him medalist honors in qualifying for the R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship, but he did put together a hard-charging 5-under 67 Wednesday at Lookaway that got him in the clubhouse at 9-under 207.

   Stimmel was only 1-under for his round when he made birdie at the 12^th hole followed by an eagle at the par-5 13^th, the second eagle on his scorecard, and a birdie at the 17^th.

   The 27-year-old Davenport, GAP’s 2019 Middle-Amateur champion who earned a spot in the match-play bracket in last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at the Colorado Golf Club, trailed Brown by two shots entering the final round.

   He made birdies at the first and third holes and then made an eagle at the par-4 10^th hole to get it to 9-under for the tournament. The only blemish in his round was a bogey at the 16^th hole, but he got that shot back with a birdie at the 17^th.

   But Brown wouldn’t budge off 10-under and Davenport’s final round of 4-under 68 left him in a tie for second with Stimmel at 207.

   It was a pretty nice week for Sanderson, who never flinched while running with many of the big dogs in amateur golf in Pennsylvania.

   Sanderson, who finished in a tie for second place in last fall’s District One Class AAA Championship and then jumped off the PIAA postseason trail to compete in a national junior event, actually put a nose in front of Brown and the rest of the field when he made five birdies in the first 10 holes.

   He backed off a little down the stretch, but his second straight 3-under 69 enabled him to finish alone in fourth place at 8-under 208.

   Sanderson finished a shot ahead of the best mid-amateur in the Philadelphia area, GAP’s reigning William Hyndman III Player of the Year Jeff Osberg, who plays out of Pine Valley Golf Club, but carried the PAGA individual banner at Lookaway.

   Osberg was always there all week, but could never make a big move. His final round of 3-under 69 left him alone in fifth place at 7-under 209.

   GAP’s 2019 Junior Player of the Year, Austin Barbin, playing out of Loch Nairn Golf Club, was a shot behind Osberg in sixth place at 6-under 210 after closing with a 1-under 71. Barbin, of the golfing Barbin family out of Elkton, Md., worked his way into the starting lineup at Maryland before his promising freshman season was halted by the coronavirus pandemic.

   A couple of City Six standouts in the pandemic-shortened 2019-2020 college season, Temple junior Connor McGrath, who plays out of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, and recent Saint Joseph’s graduate Michael O’Brien, playing out of Makefield Highlands Golf Club, shared seventh place, each landing on 5-under 211.

   McGrath, who surged into contention on the strength of a Lookaway course record of 8-under 64 in Tuesday’s second round, closed with a 2-under 70.

   O’Brien, who lost in the final of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship last month at Lancaster Country Club, matched par in the final round with a 72. O’Brien accepted the NCAA’s offer of an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic and will conclude his college career at Florida Gulf Coast.

   Penn State sophomore Jimmy Meyers, playing out of Oakmont Country Club, had creeped within a shot of Brown through two rounds behind a sparkling 6-under 66 in the second round. But Meyers, the runnerup in the PIAA Class AAA Championship in 2018 as a senior at Pittsburgh Central Catholic, fell back with a 2-over 74 in the final round to finish alone in ninth place at 4-under 212.

   Kansas State senior Kyle Vance, playing out of Blue Bell Country Club, snuck into the top 10 with a final-round 70 that left him alone in 10^th place at 3-under 213. Vance was a two-time District One Class AAA champion during a brilliant scholastic career at Methacton.

   Merion Golf Club’s Tug Maude, whose second act as an amateur golfer keeps getting better, Gregory Meyer, a sophomore at High Point University who plays out of Hannastown Golf Club, and junior standout Jack Irons finished in a tie for 11^th place at 2-under 214.

   Maude, who gave professional golf a try before staying away from competitive golf for a decade or so to concentrate on work and family, closed with a 1-over 72.

   Meyer, a scholastic standout at Fox Chapel, moved up the leaderboard with a final round of 3-under 69. Irons, playing out of Makefield Highlands, capped a steady showing at Lookaway by matching par in the final round with a 72.