Jeff Osberg once was a member at Llanerch Country Club. Then he moved to Huntingdon Valley Country Club. These days, it is Pine Valley Golf Club in the sand barrens of South Jersey, widely acknowledged as the No. 1 golf course in America, that Osberg calls his home base.
I have a theory on that. I believe that Osberg keeps searching for the toughest golf course he can find because he thinks the best way to become a better golfer is to just keep challenging yourself.
Osberg’s golf career has had a continuous upward arc, from his days as a scholastic standout at Owen J. Roberts to a college stop that included being part of Guilford College’s 2005 NCAA Division III Championship team to a Golf Association of Philadelphia run that has seen him win six GAP major championships – and counting. One thing’s for sure, you can’t argue with the kind of success the 36-year-old accountant has had.
The latest addition to the Osberg trophy case was the Silver Cross Award, essentially the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s stroke-play championship, which he claimed for the fifth time and second year in a row by edging Liberty senior Zachary Barbin in the first hole of sudden death after they finished tied after 18 holes of a playoff Saturday at The 1912 Club.
It being 2020, the Silver Cross Award format didn’t go quite as planned. It’s usually scored from the 36 holes of qualifying for the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship and the 36 holes of the Joseph H. Patterson Cup.
The coronavirus pandemic limited the Philly Amateur qualifier at Lancaster Country Club to 18 holes and the Patterson Cup was reduced to 18 holes at The 1912 Club by Tropical Storm Isaias. It's the first time in the 114-year history of the Silver Cross Award that the competition was limited to 36 holes, so maybe it was appropriate that it took 19 more holes to identify a winner.
Osberg and Barbin were among a large group of players tied for third in the Philly Amateur qualifier, each posting an even-par 70 on the William Flynn gem that is the once (2015) and future (2024) site of the U.S. Women’s Open. The 21-year-old Barbin, one of the golfing Barbins out of Elkton, Md. who plays out of Loch Nairn Golf Club, went on to capture the Philadelphia Amateur crown, the first GAP major on his resume.
A couple of weeks ago at The 1912 Club, Barbin, Osberg and Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Gregor Orlando finished in a tie for first at 3-under 67 after the regulation 18 holes of the Patterson Cup and Barbin went on to win his second GAP major in a four-hole aggregate playoff.
But the Silver Cross was another matter. Barbin and Osberg were tied for that and an 18-hole playoff was needed to break the tie. Checking out the history books recently, Osberg realized he was getting close to the legendary J. Wood Platt himself for the most career Silver Cross Awards, Woody having taken it seven times.
“It’s a neat thing that we do, encompassing two different parts of the year, two different tournaments,” Osberg told the GAP website after taking the Silver Cross for the fourth time in six years. “It’s a good representation of who has been playing well all year.
“I saw that J. Wood Platt had seven and said, “Wow, the only I’m going to get to seven is I better win (Saturday) to get to five.’ I didn’t know that. It definitely re-motivated me.”
Osberg had a four-shot lead on Barbin through 12 holes in Saturday’s playoff. But he sailed his 3-wood off the tee at the 342-yard, par-4 15th hole out of bounds and compounded the mistake by three-putting for a triple-bogey 7 that suddenly left him a shot behind Barbin.
A par at the tough 477-yard, par-4 17th hole got Osberg even with Barbin, who made a bogey. They each made par at the 18th hole and were tied after regulation at 2-over 72.
Barbin’s tee shot at the 490-yard, par-4 first hole found the left rough and forced him to lay up short of the green. Barbin’s wedge left him 20 feet from the hole in three. Osberg, meanwhile, hammered his drive into the fairway and hit his approach on the green, 35 feet from the hole.
Osberg lagged his birdie putt to tap-in range and when Barbin couldn’t get his par putt to fall, Osberg had that fifth Silver Cross Award.
Osberg and Barbin had both trekked to western Pennsylvania to play another of the game’s shrines, the Henry Fownes design at Oakmont Country Club, site of nine U.S. Opens, for last week’s Pennsylvania Open.
Barbin missed the cut, but Osberg, Oakmont certainly fulfilling his degree-of-difficulty preference, finished in a tie for 11th place.
Not sure what Osberg’s original dance card for 2020 looked like, but the pandemic certainly altered more than a few golf plans.
If, for instance, Osberg was going to give the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship a shot, scheduled to be held in September at Kinloch Golf Club and Midlothian Golf Club in the Richmond, Va. suburbs, the USGA was forced to scrap the event, such was the level of uncertainty in the early days of the pandemic in the spring.
The Philly Am at Lancaster was one of the first real competitive opportunities in this area, played in its traditional week in June. After the 70 in qualifying, Osberg, a finalist three times in the previous six playings, reached the quarterfinals before falling.
Lookaway Golf Club in Bucks County is a course to Osberg’s liking because it’s hard. He finished alone in fifth place in the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Amateur Championship there in July.
Then came the near miss in the Patterson Cup in July at The 1912 Club and his solid showing last week at Oakmont.
Hopefully, Osberg will still get a chance to defend the Philadelphia Open title he won for the second time last summer at one of his earlier homes at Huntingdon Valley.
The Philadelphia Open was originally scheduled to be held last month at Galloway National Golf Club at the Jersey Shore. Gov. Phil Murphy’s announcement that anybody coming to New Jersey from Delaware had to quarantine for 14 days forced GAP to postpone the event on short notice.
As far as I know, the premier gathering of local amateur and professional talent has yet to be rescheduled. I’m guessing Osberg’s hoping it’s played at a golf course that’s hard. That’s the way he likes it.
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