McGrath shares medalist honors with Villanova's Minerva, leads Owls to team crown in Temple Spring Invite

   Temple junior Conor McGrath, a product of the Academy of the New Church, shared medalist honors with Villanova’s Matt Minerva, a sophomore from Elmsford, N.Y. playing as an individual, as each matched par with a 70, to lead the Owls to the team title in the Temple Spring Invite, a one-day shootout held Saturday at The 1912 Club in Plymouth Meeting.

   With the fall portion of the wraparound 2020-2021 season cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Temple head coach Brian Quinn put together the Temple Spring Invite on short notice at the Owls’ home course just to get some more reps for his players with the American Championship, the conference tournament for the American Athletic Conference, bearing down in less than two weeks.

   Villanova, which competes in the Big East, Saint Joseph’s, an Atlantic 10 representative, and Rider, out of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, are in the same boat and accepted Quinn’s invitation to compete in the one-day event.

   McGrath, a product of the junior program at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, got off to a slow start with a double bogey at the first hole. He made birdies at the third, sixth and ninth holes and bogeys at the fifth and seventh holes and was 1-over making the turn for the back nine.

   An eagle at the par-5 12^th hole followed up by a birdie at the 13^th got McGrath to 2-under for the round. He fell back into a tie for the top spot with Minerva by making bogeys at the 17^th and 18^th holes for an even-par 70 over the 6,951-yard, par-70 1912 Club layout.

   McGrath’s solid round led Temple to the team crown as the Owls finished at 7-over 287. Villanova finished 13 shots behind its City 6 rival in second place with a 20-over 300 total. Rider was another six shots behind the Wildcats in third place with a 26-over 306 toal. A third City 6 entry, Saint Joseph’s, finished in fourth place, seven shots behind Rider with a 313 total.

   Backing up McGrath for Temple was senior Dawson Anders, a Souderton product and the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 2017 Junior Boys’ Championship winner, and Graham Chase, a sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., both of whom landed in a tie for third place, each carding a 2-over 72.

   Junior Buddy Hansen, a former standout with Catholic League power La Salle, finished alone in sixth place as his 3-over 73 was the final counter for the Owls.

   Fifth-year senior Peter Bradbeer, a Friends’ Central product and transfer from Bucknell, rounded out the Temple lineup as he finished among a large group tied for 11^th place with a 77. Bradbeer, who has a GAP major championship on his resume with his victory in the 2017 Joseph H. Patterson Cup at Wilmington Country Club’s South Course, came home for the extra year of eligibility offered by the NCAA to make up for the spring of 2020 lost to the pandemic.

   Sophomore Andrew Curran, winner of the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League’s individual crown as a senior at Malvern Prep in 2018, competed as an individual for Temple and also landed in the group tied for 11^th place along with Bradbeer with a 77.

   Minerva began his round on the sixth hole in the shotgun start and a birdie at his last hole, the fifth, enabled him to catch McGrath for a share of the individual title.

   Minerva birdied the eighth hole, made bogey at nine, recorded back-to-back birdies at 12 and 13, then made bogeys at the 14^th, 16^th and the first holes to fall back to 1-over for the round before getting his closing birdie at the fifth.

   Villanova’s team effort was led by graduate student Ambrose Abbracciemento, the Newtown, Bucks County native who, like Bradbeer, came home for a fifth year of eligibility after competing at San Diego State in the 2019-’20 season. Abbracciemento carded a 2-over 72 to join Temple’s Chase and Anders in the trio tied for third place two shots behind McGrath and Minerva.

   Villanova’s veteran senior, Reb Banas of Winnetka, Ill., headed a group of four players tied for seventh place, each signing for a 4-over 74, a shot behind Temple’s Hansen.

   Joining Banas at 4-over were Saint Joseph’s Jake Avery, a junior from Avon, Conn. and a pair of Rider players, graduate student Nathan Bazant, who starred scholastically at Trinity, and Thomas Durkin, a senior from Suffield, Conn.

   Backing up Abbracciemento and Banas for Villanova were a trio of players who joined the group tied for 11^th place at 7-over 77, including senior Max Siegfried, a scholastic standout at The Haverford School, Peter Weaver, a freshman from Frontanec, Md., and Noah Peck, a junior from Hunt Valley, Md.

   Two more Villanova players competed as individuals with Luke Alexander, a sophomore from Rochester, Minn., carding a 77 to join the large group tied for 11^th place that included his fellow Wildcats Siegfried, Weaver and Peck, and Jonathan Elkins, a freshman from North Deerfield, Mass. who signed for an 82 to finish in a tie for 24^th place.

   Backing up Avery for Saint Joseph’s was junior J.T. Spina, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier in each of his last two seasons at Pope John Paul II who carded a 79 to finish alone in 19^th place.

   Freshman Kevin Smith, who led Strath Haven to the first Central League and District One Class AAA team crowns in program history as a senior in 2019, and Austin Steckler, a freshman from Glen Arm, Md., both landed among the group tied for 20^th place as each registered an 80.

   Rider senior Griffin Smith, who played his scholastic golf at Council Rock South, posted a 78 and finished alone in 18^th place. Griffin Smith’s fellow Bronc, senior Andrew Forjan, a PIAA Class AA qualifier as a senior at York Catholic in 2016, competed as an individual and joined the large group tied for 11^th place with a 77.