Peters makes eagle at 18 to capture Pennsylvania Amateur crown as Merion once again delivers the drama

    HAVERFORD – Hy Peskin’s photograph of Ben Hogan drilling a 1-iron into the 18^th green at Merion Golf Club’s East Course in the 1950 U.S. Open is as iconic a single still image as there is in the history of golf.

   John Peters, who graduated from Carlisle High in the spring and will join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke next month, was maybe 20 yards ahead of where Hogan launched one of the great shots in the history of the game. Hogan needed par on the 72^nd hole to get into a playoff. He got into that playoff and won it the next day, capping a remarkable comeback from a horrific accident – his car was hit head-on by a bus – that nearly killed him 18 months earlier.

   Peters came to the 462-yard, par-4 18^th hole a shot out of the lead in the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s 108^th Amateur Championship Wednesday. Playing partners Jimmy Ellis of South Hills Country Club and Patrick Sheehan of Talamore Country Club were tied for the lead at 1-over-par for the tournament. Up ahead, Mark Goetz of Hannastown Golf Club was in the clubhouse at 1-over.

   Maybe it would be best to just let Peters take it from there.

   “I was 193 yards and I hit an 8-iron,” said Peters, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Carlisle. “Ever since I hit the pin at 13, I was just trying to control my distance. Normally, 193 would be a 6-iron, but I had so much adrenaline. When I hit it, I thought it was a great shot, but I probably hit it a groove thin and downwind and as fast as the greens were, I knew it was going to run out.

   “It landed on and it disappeared over the mound. I was waiting for a while. They had clapped for Patrick Sheehan’s shot, so I was hoping to hear some clapping. And then …”

   And then they didn’t just clap, they erupted. There were only 40 or 50 people around the 18^th green, but this was no birdie clap, this was a hands-up-in-the-air, eagle eruption. They had watched Peters' shot clear the mound in the middle of the green and slowly, but surely roll toward the pin in the back left corner of the green. And then they watched the ball disappear.

   A big part of Merion’s greatness is all the great things that have happened there. After a while, though, you have to wonder if there isn’t something in the air, the ghosts of Jones and Hogan having some fun in golf heaven.

   Peters did a dance and let go of the 8-iron he had just used in the direction of his caddy. The eagle at 18 enabled him to match par with a 70 and finish the championship at even-par 210. Suddenly, he was in the lead.

   And, despite the characterization that Peters’ win was a walkoff, it wasn’t over yet.

   They had clapped for Sheehan’s shot because he had eight feet for birdie below the hole to get into a playoff. And Ellis, who looked like the winner for the longest time on a beautiful late July summer day, was just off the back. Ellis had just delivered as masterful a chip as you’ll ever see on the 241-yard, par-3 17^th hole, nearly holing it for birdie from the rough just left of the front of the green.

   Sheehan, a junior at Penn State, had held a three-shot lead going into Wednesday’s final round, but quickly saw it disappear when he made bogeys at four of the first six holes.

   But he kept battling and got a share of the lead going to the final hole when he drilled a 4-iron to six feet at the 17^th, as tough a par-3 as you’ll find anywhere, and made the putt.

   “Probably the best 4-iron I’ve hit in my life,” the 20-year-old Sheehan said.

   Ellis’ chip, though, came out of the deep grass hot and went by the hole. He would miss the comebacker for a 2-over 72 and finish in a tie for fourth place at 2-over 212.

   Sheehan’s birdie putt went by the hole for a closing 74 that left him in a tie for second place at 1-over 211 with Goetz.

   “It broke a cup, but I just hit it too hard,” Sheehan said.

   The 18^th green is all of about 100 yards away from the 13^th green that the 18-year-old Peters mentioned. A little over an hour before his dramatics at the 18^th hole, Peters thought he might have a hole-in-one at the little 124-yard, par-3 13^th as his tee shot was right on line. Until it hit the flagstick halfway up, bounded past the hole and spun wildly back off the green into the deep grass. He got it up and down for a par, but it was a tough break.

   “I had just made birdie at 12 and the adrenaline was flowing,” Peters said. “It cut like a yard and was going right at it. Those flagsticks are thick. I had red paint on my ball. It was a bad break there, but I guess the good break I got on 18 made up for it.”

   It was a terrific battle all day among the final three.

   Peters and Sheehan both made double bogey at the 358-yard, par-4 11^th hole. Peters tugged his approach into a greenside bunker that is much bigger than it once was. He got it out, but barely and had to chip out of some deep rough. His chip went 10 feet past the hole and he missed the comebacker. Sheehan’s approach cleared the brook in front, but barely and bounced agonizingly back into the water.

   But they responded beautifully, knocking their approaches within five feet to an impossible pin on the right side of the 362-yard, par-4 12^th hole and made their birdie putts. Ellis, who had birdied the short, 306-yard, par-4 10^th hole and made bogey at 11, was even, Peters was 1-over and Sheehan was 2-over as they crossed Ardmore Avenue.

   The 35-year-old Ellis, who starred scholastically at Peters Township and collegiately at Ohio University, had won the Pennsylvania Open at the equally iconic Oakmont Country Club last summer by matching par for three straight days. He was as gritty in person as I imagined he would be.

   Ellis made the Phil Mickelson mistake, hitting it over the green at the little 13^th and failing to get it up and down from the back bunker, but he would par the next four. He had good looks at birdie at the 15^th and 16^th holes and nearly holed that chip at 17.

   I’ve seen Sheehan a lot over the years, including his victory in the 2018 District One Class AAA Championship. He kept his head down and just kept competing Wednesday. After his birdie at the 12^th hole, Sheehan parred the next four. He nearly forced a playoff with a birdie-birdie finish.

   “I was missing fairways early,” said Sheehan, who will tee it up in the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont next month. “But I was proud of the way I hung in there. I’ve been playing well this summer.

   “Of all the crazy things that I’ve seen on the golf course, that might have been the craziest,” he added in reference to Peters’ eagle at the last. “I’ve been beaten by hole-outs before, but never from 193 yards and never at Merion in the state amateur.”

   Peters also had a pretty good look at birdie on the tough par-3 17^th hole as he was nine feet away straight up the hill, but couldn’t get his putt to fall.

   “I really thought I was going to make that putt and the three of us were going to go the 18^th tied at 1-over,” Peters said.

   Goetz, a Kiski Prep product, had nearly capped his senior season at West Virginia by reaching the NCAA Championship as an individual in the spring, but settled for a runnerup finish in the Noblesville Regional at The Sagamore Club.

   Goetz matched the low score of the day with a 1-under 69 on an East Course that played really tough and with some pin placements that were, shall we say, challenging. That left him in a tie for second place with Sheehan at 1-over 211.

   Sharing fourth place with Ellis at 2-over 212 was The 1912 Club’s Josh Ryan, the 2019 District One Class AAA champion representing Norristown High. With big brother Caleb on the bag – both were three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifiers – Josh Ryan hung tough all day, posting a 1-over 71.

   Josh Ryan was in the next-to-last group of the day, which meant I could keep tabs on his group because his mother Michelle was keeping score and she’s a more dependable scorekeeper than I am. I’ve been reporting that Josh Ryan will join the program at Division I Liberty next month, but Michelle Ryan informed me that Josh will take a gap year and report to Liberty next summer.

   Cole Willcox, his amateur status restored, finished alone in sixth place at 4-over 214, two shots behind Ellis and Josh Ryan after carding a 2-over 72 in the final round. Willcox held on for low-Merion honors as Michael McDermott, who won the last of his three BMW Philadelphia Amateur championships on the East Course in 2016, and Peter Bradbeer, Merion members both, were two shots behind Willcox in a trio of players tied for seventh place at 6-over 216.

   McDermott, a quarterfinalist in the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Stonewall, closed with a 2-over 72. Bradbeer, a four-year standout at Bucknell, signed for a 3-over 73.

   Sharing seventh place with the Merion guys at 6-over was Neal Shipley, who was playing out of St. Clair Country Club. Shipley, a redshirt sophomore at James Madison and a member of Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s 2018 PIAA Class AAA championship team, briefly had a piece of the lead at even-par early in the day before finishing up with a 4-over 74.

   Jeff Osberg, a PAGA individual member, struggled to a 76 to finish in a tie for 10^th place with Briarwood Golf Club’s Brandon Berry at 7-over 217. Osberg, who owns seven Golf Association of Philadelphia major championships, battled his buddy McDermott to the 36^th hole at the East Course before falling, 1-up, in that epic 2016 BMW Philadelphia Amateur final.

   Berry, who will take a fifth year at Loyola of Maryland, matched Goetz’s 1-under 69 to get this share of 10^th place.

   Watching some great golf wasn’t my only motivation for heading down to the Ardmore section of Haverford Township for the final round of the Pennsylvania Amateur Wednesday.

   I hadn’t seen the Old Girl since the Philly Am qualifying day in 2016. I had heard she had had some “work done,” courtesy of Gil Hanse and his crack crew of golf course restoration specialists.

   I had grown up four blocks from the eighth tee of the East Course and looped there for 12 seasons, the second round of the 1981 U.S. Open my swan song. She looked pretty much the timeless old gal she’s always been.

   And dramatic flair? As I trudged up the 18^th hole, she gave me a wink and said, “Watch this.” Pure magic.

   Just might have to sneak down to Merion again next June when the top amateur women from the United States take on a side from Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup Match. Can’t wait.