Downingtown West's Gross surges into second round of U.S. Amateur with victory over Trolio

    Nick Gross’ dream summer just got a little better.

   After an early wakeup call Wednesday, Gross, a junior at Downingtown West and the reigning PIAA Class AAA champion, was one of the 11 survivors in a 15-man playoff for the final spots in match play in the U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J.

   The details on the playoff appear to be missing from the USGA website, but they don’t matter much now. Gross was in, that’s all that mattered.

   Then he proceeded to make the most of the opportunity, surging to wins on five of the last six holes to pull away for a stunning 3 and 1 victory in the opening round over LSU sophomore Cohen Trolio of West Point, Miss.

   Trolio was the teen phenom in the U.S. Amateur at the Pinehurst Resort in 2019 when the then 17-year-old made a surprising run to the semifinals before finally falling to fellow Mississippian and eventual champion Andy Ogletree.

   Gross, who turns 16 next week, played a couple of high-stakes matches in last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur at the Bandon Dunes Resort, falling in the second round.

   That recent taste of match play had to help Gross Wednesday because I don’t think he had a whole lot of experience with the format, particularly at the level you find in a USGA championship.

   Gross, playing out of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, and Cohen only halved four holes in their 17-hole match Wednesday.

   When Cohen won the ninth and 11^th holes to turn a 1-down deficit into a 1-up advantage, Gross didn’t panic. Gross regained the upper hand in the match by winning the 12^th hole with a par and 13 with a birdie.

   Trolio drew even again by winning the 14^th hole with a par, but Gross won 15 and 16 with pars and then closed out Trolio by taking 17 with a birdie. The 15-year-old kid from Downingtown was through to the second round of the U.S. Amateur.

   Trolio was in the starting lineup as a freshman for the Bayou Tigers, who play in the tough Southeastern Conference, when they finished two frustrating shots out of fifth place in the NCAA’s Stockton Regional at The Reserve at Spanos Park. The top five teams in the regionals advance to the NCAA Championship.

   Trolio finished in a tie for ninth place in qualifying for match play as he added a 1-under 70 at Ridgewood in Tuesday’s second round to the 1-over 71 he carded in the opening round at Arcola Country Club for an even-par 141 total.

   Gross’ second-round opponent will be Chris Francoeur of Amesburry, Mass. who knocked off BYU senior David Timmins, 3 and 2, in another opening-round match Wednesday. Francoeur played at Louisville during the 2021-2022 college season for his fifth year of eligibility after being a four-year standout at Rhode Island.

   Gross’ second-round match tees off at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. The winners of the second-round matches will tee it up in the round of 16 Thursday afternoon. By the end of the day Thursday, weather permitting, of course, the quarterfinals will be set.

   Gross had opened with a 1-over 72 at Ridgewood Monday and grinded out a 4-over 74 in Tuesday’s second round at Arcola to into the mix for the playoff for the final 11 spots in the match-play bracket with a 5-over 146 total.

   Starting off the back nine at Arcola Tuesday, Gross got into a hole when made a bogey at the 10^th hole and a double bogey at 11. He bounced right back with birdies at the 13^th and 14^th holes to get it back to 1-over.

   The birdie at the 14^th hole would be his last of the day, but Gross never stopped grinding. He had bogeys at the second, fourth and ninth holes on the outgoing nine at Arcola and parred the rest. Turned out, 6-over kept him alive.

   Drexel men’s golf coach Ben Feld and two of western Pennsylvania’s top amateur players, Notre Dame senior Palmer Jackson, No. 42 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and Jimmy Ellis, winner of the 2020 Pennsylvania Open at Oakmont Country Club, were among the frustrated group a shot out of the playoff at 6-over 147.

   Feld, playing in his first USGA championship, added a 2-over 73 at the A.W. Tillinghast design at Ridgewood to the 4-over 74 he had opened with at Arcola.

   Jackson, the 2018 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Franklin Regional, was another of the young guns who made some noise in the 2019 U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst as he made a run to the quarterfinals before his college career had even started. Jackson had opened with a solid 1-over 72 at Ridgewood before recording a 5-over 75 at Arcola in Tuesday’s second round.

   Ellis matched Feld’s splits, adding a 2-over 73 at Ridgewood to his opening-round 74 at Arcola.

   It was a disappointing day for Penn State senior Patrick Sheehan as the former Central Bucks East standout had opened with a sparkling 1-under 69 at Arcola that him in a tie for eighth place. But Sheehan couldn’t solve Ridgewood in Tuesday’s second round, carding an 8-over 79 that left him with a 7-over 148 total.

   Auburn sophomore Carson Bacha, the 2019 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Central York, added a 5-over 76 at Ridgewood to his opening round of 4-over 74 at Arcola for a 9-over 150 total.

   Connor McGrath, a fifth-year player at Temple, and Dougie Ergood Jr., the Mount Laurel, N.J. native who was a senior on the North Carolina roster in the 2021-’22 season, both landed on 14-over 155.

   McGrath, who plays out of Huntingdon Valley Country Club and won the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship a year ago, added a 6-over 76 at Arcola to the opening-round 79 he posted at Ridgewood. Ergood struggled to a 79 at Arcola after opening with a 5-over 76 at Ridgewood.

   Saucon Valley Country Club’s Matt Mattare, playing not far from his Jersey City, N.J. home, added a 7-over 78 at Ridgewood in Tuesday’s second round to the opening-round 78 he signed for at Arcola for a 156 total.

   Sheehan’s old Penn State roommate, Ben Smith, who starred scholastically at West Perry, bounced back from opening-round 80 at Ridgewood with a 77 at Arcola for a 157 total.

   David Kim, a scholastic standout at Upper Dublin who played college golf at La Salle, struggled to an 85 at Ridgewood in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 77 at Arcola for a 162 total.

   R.J. Wren, who starred scholastically at Twin Valley and played college golf at Delaware (while catching the occasional loop in the summers at Stonewall), also struggled in Tuesday’s second round at Ridgewood with an 86 after opening with a 76 at Arcola as he joined Kim at 162.

   Stewart Hagestad, the dramatic winner of the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Stonewall, reached the second round with a 3 and 1 victory over England’s Sam Bairstow, who is No. 7 in the WAGR.

   Hagestad, who won a second U.S. Mid-Am crown last year at Sankaty Head Golf Club on Nantucket Island and the No. 9 player in the WAGR, will take on Ben James of Milford, Conn. in Thursday morning’s second round.

   James, who will be joining the Virginia program following this U.S. Amateur, knocked off Georgia Tech’s Ross Steelman of Atlanta, 3 and 2, in his opening-round match.