Ellis is par for the course to claim Pennsylvania Open crown at tough Oakmont

    Deep down inside, every one of the talented field of 120 pros and amateurs who assembled for the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s 104^th Open Championship, presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods, knew that even-par for 54 holes at Oakmont Country Club, one of the great American golf courses, would be good enough to get the job done.

   Of course, there is that no small matter of execution, made so difficult by the many challenges served up by the 7,017-yard, par-71 Henry Fownes design. If ever a golf course lives up to the description of tough, but fair it is Oakmont.

   Ultimately only one player, western Pennsylvania mid-amateur Jimmy Ellis of Venetia, got it done. His final line read even-par 71, even-par 71, even-par 71, even-par total of 213. And, as Ellis and the rest of the field were well aware, it was good enough.

   Ellis gutted out the last of those even-par efforts in Wednesday’s final round with a classic back nine of eight straight pars and a bogey at the last that all those pars gave him the luxury to afford. The one-time  Ohio University Bobcat finished a shot ahead of Little Mill Country Club’s Troy Vannucci and Whitemarsh Valley Country Club’s Will Davenport, a couple of Golf Association of Philadelphia mid-ams.

   “This place … it’s just so hard,” Ellis told the PAGA website. “It’s been a long week, but to come out of it with a win, it’s unreal.”

   Oakmont and its nine U.S. Opens is revered by golfers everywhere, but particularly in Pennsylvania and that goes double for the remarkable little subset of golf talent that is western Pennsylvania. Sure, it is the region that gave the world Arnold Palmer, but it is more than that because there are just so many nice players, pros and amateurs alike.

   And Jimmy Ellis achieved something Wednesday that will allow him to puff his chest out a little whenever that fraternity gathers to play and swap stories.

   Playing in the final group with former Holy Ghost Prep and Drexel standout Chris Crawford, who had a three-shot edge on the rest of the pros in the field, and one-time Malvern Prep standout Cole Willcox, a reinstated amateur, Ellis three-putted from 50 feet on the first hole to fall back to 1-over for the tournament.

   Ellis drilled a 7-iron to four feet at the 180-yard, par-3 sixth hole and got it back to even-par by dropping the birdie try. He put a nose in front by reaching the 475-yard, par-5 ninth hole in two and getting a two-putt birdie from 30 feet to get it back to 1-under for the round and the tournament.

   Then came those eight straight pars. He had to get it up and down from bunkers at the brutish par-3 16^th hole and at the sneaky short par-4 17^th.

   Ellis had a two-shot lead on the 18^th tee and laid back off the tee with a 3-iron. His approach from 238 yards was pin high left of the green. He flopped it to 12 feet, rolled it a little more by than he would have liked, but got the bogey putt to fall. It was even-par 71 for even-par 213.

   Vannucci, who teamed with Vince Kwon to reach the semifinals of the 2019 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Bandon Dunes, made birdies at the 16^th and 17^th holes for a second straight even-par 71 that left him a shot behind Ellis at 1-over 214.

   Davenport, the 2019 GAP Middle-Amateur champion, struggled at the start of Wednesday’s final round, making bogeys at four of the first five holes. But he made five birdies the rest of the way, three of them on an efficient back nine that also included six pars.

   For the former Yale standout, it was love at first sight this week at Oakmont and he never stopped battling. Davenport qualified for match play in the 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at the Colorado Golf Club, lost in the first round and picked up the bag of Aussie Lukas Michel and helped the 25-year-old become the first foreign-born U.S. Mid-Am champion.

   Heading a group of three players tied for fourth place at 3-over 216 was one who finished the day $8,000 richer as Lancaster’s J.D. Dornes, a Penn State standout of recent vintage and a product of the Manheim Township scholastic program, earned low-pro honors.

   Dornes admitted he isn’t playing much pro golf these days, having accepted a job in the ticket sales department of the Washington Wizards. He was as aggressive as he could be, making five birdies to offset three bogeys and a double bogey.

   A birdie at the little par-4 17^th helped Dornes complete a second straight even-par 71 and join Drexel senior and former Peters Township standout Connor Schmidt and West Virginia redshirt junior and former standout at The Kiski School Mark Goetz at 3-over.

   More importantly, that birdie at the 17^th hole left Dornes a shot ahead of Crawford, who struggled a little to a final round of 4-over 75 that left him alone in seventh place at 4-over 217. A veteran of the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, which he played in as an amateur, Crawford was solid in finishing second among the pros.

   Schmidt, who briefly played under Crawford, who was a Drexel assistant coach while completing a five-year academic program, was right in the middle of things before faltering down the stretch with a bogey at the 15^th hole and a double bogey at that sneaky 17^th. Schmidt and Goetz each posted a 2-over 73 to join Dornes at 216.

   Willcox faded a little with a final round of 5-over 76 to join a couple of top Tri-State Section PGA pros, Kevin Shields and Daniel Obremski, in a group tied for eighth place, a shot behind Crawford at 5-over 218..

   Shields had the only sub-70 round of the day, a sparkling 2-under 69, to make a big move up the leaderboard while Obremski signed for a solid 2-over 73.

   Jeff Osberg, GAP’s reigning William Hyndman III Player of the Year, and Carey Bina, the former Radnor High standout who is taking his shot at professional golf, landed in a tie for 11^th place at 6-over 219.

   The 34-year-old Osberg, owner of six GAP major championships, closed with a 3-over 74 while the 24-year-old Bina bounced back from a second-round 78 to finish up with a solid 2-over 73.

   Mike Van Sickle, who, like Crawford, earned his way into the field for the 2016 Oakmont Open, joined two other pros, Travis Howe of Bellefonte and David Denlinger of Lancaster, as the trio rounded out the top 15, finishing in a tie for 13^th place at 7-over 220.

   Van Sickle closed with a 4-over 75 and Howe finished up with a 3-over 74. Denlinger, the 2008 PIAA champion as a senior at Lancaster Mennonite, made a move up the leaderboard with a 1-under 70 in Wednesday’s final round.