In the fall of his freshman season, Ryan was the hottest Flame in Liberty's last two events

    It took a little time for Josh Ryan, the District One Class AAA champion in 2019, to get settled in his freshman season at Liberty, a program that has reached the NCAA Championship in each of the last three playings of the event. It was like a month or so.

   Once Ryan, who won the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Boys’ Championship for a third straight time in the summer at Bala Golf Club, started finding his comfort zone, he was a Flame on fire.

   Ryan was home-schooled and represented Norristown as a scholastic player. He was only a junior when he claimed the district title in 2019 and went on to finish in a tie for third in the PIAA Class AAA Championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County behind Central York standout Carson Bacha, who is a fixture in the starting lineup for Auburn, the No. 1 team in the latest Golfstat rankings.

   Norristown shut down its athletic programs in response to the coronavirus pandemic in the fall of 2020 and Ryan was unable to compete as a senior. He most certainly would have been a four-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier and would have contended for a state title.

   Since he was still eligible to compete as a junior player this past summer, Ryan took a gap year and didn’t begin his college career until this fall.

   But all along there were hints that this kid’s game would translate to the next level. He beat some of the best amateur players in Pennsylvania in winning the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship in 2020 at the Country Club of York.

   It was a little lost in the excitement over the hole-out for eagle at the iconic 18^th hole at Merion Golf Club’s East Course that won Carlisle’s John Peters the Pennsylvania Amateur crown in the summer of 2021, but Ryan was really tough that week, finishing two shots behind Peters in a tie for fourth place with a 2-over 212 total.

   Ryan didn’t compete at the national level while still eligible to compete as a junior this past summer, choosing to play the GAP junior circuit. It’s easy to forget that when many national events shut it down in the coronavirus summer of 2020, GAP played its full schedule of events. I think that played a role in Ryan’s loyalty to GAP events in the summer of 2022.

   Ryan gave a gracious acceptance speed via audio tape at the recent GAP Awards dinner, where he was honored as Junior Player of the Year, the second time in the last three years that Ryan has won that award. The other was in that aforementioned coronavirus pandemic summer of 2020.

   That acceptance speech was delivered a few days before Ryan and Liberty completed the fall portion of the wraparound 2022-2023 season with a trip to Hawaii for the Ka’anapali Classic Collegiate at the Royal Ka’anapali Course in Lahaina, which wrapped up Oct. 30^th.

   Ryan had opened some eyes a couple of weeks earlier by finishing in a tie for seventh place in his second appearance in the Liberty starting lineup in the Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational at Quail Valley Golf Club in Vero Beach, Fla.

   Ryan had closed out his performance there with a sizzling 6-under-par 66 over the 7,460-yard, par-72 Quail Valley layout that helped Liberty finish in a tie for second place behind perennially underrated North Florida with a 36-under 828 total.

   If anybody thought that was some kind of fluke, Ryan backed it up at in Hawaii, opening up with another 6-under round, this time a 65 over the 6,700-yard, par-71 Royal Ka’anapali layout. Ryan followed that up with a back-to-back 3-under 68s in the final two rounds as he finished in fourth place in the individual standings with a 12-under 201 total, matching the best individual score in program history in a team event.

   Ryan’s final-round 68 was part of a team round of 13-under 271, matching the third-lowest score in program history at Liberty. It was a bit of a birdie-fest at Royal Ka’anapali and the Flames’ 26-under 826 total was only good enough for third place as the title went to Big 12 power Oklahoma, which took the No.-1 ranking into the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. last spring and fell to Arizona State in the quarterfinals after earning a spot in the match-play bracket.

   Oklahoma posted a 41-under 811 total with Atlantic Coast Conference power Clemson 12 shots behind the Sooners with a 29-under 823 total. Oklahoma heads into college golf’s midseason pause at No. 15 in the latest Golfstat rankings. Clemson is ranked 41^st, a notch behind Liberty, which stood at No. 40 following its strong showing at Royal Ka’anapali.

   Ryan had made his debut in the Liberty starting lineup in the inaugural playing of the Fields of Honor Collegiate in late September at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Mich.

   It was a bit of a tentative start for Ryan as he sandwiched an 80 in the second round with a pair of 75s over the 7,216 -yard, par-72 American Dunes layout and finished among a group tied for 49^th place with a 14-over 230 total.

   The Flames got an outstanding showing in the Fields of Honor Collegiate from Jonathan Yaun, a senior from Minneola, Fla. who claimed his second collegiate victory with a 5-under 211 total. Yaun led Liberty to a fifth-place finish in the team standings with a 15-over 879 total.

   A couple of weeks later in the Quail Valley Collegiate it turned into a coming-out party for Ryan. He got off to a solid start with a 4-under 68 before matching par with a 72 in the second round. Then came the third round as Ryan established a career best with his 6-under 66 that left him in a tie for seventh place with a 10-under 206 total.

   The addition of Ryan to the lineup gives the Flames three of the last four winners of the GAP Junior Player of the Year award. Before Ryan earned the honor this year and in 2020, Austin Barbin of the golfing Barbin family of Elkton, Md., was the 2019 GAP Junior Player of the Year with a spectacular summer of junior golf that included a victory in the Junior Boys’ Championship at Coatesville Country Club.

   After beginning his college career at Maryland, Austin Barbin followed older brother Zach, winner of both the BMW Philadelphia Amateur and the Patterson Cup in 2020, to Liberty. A senior, Austin Barbin was in the starting lineup for all four of the Flames’ fall tournaments.

   Austin Barbin shared medalist honors for the Liberty contingent with Yaun in the Flames’ season opener, the Rod Myers Invitational at the Duke University Golf Club in Durham, N.C., finishing in the group tied for 17^th place with a 1-over 217 total. Barbin’s effort included a 3-under 69 in the second round.

   Barbin finished in the group tied for 42^nd place in the Fields of Honor Collegiate with a 12-over 228 total, ended up among the group tied for 49^th place at Quail Valley with a 2-under 214 total and landed in the group tied for 22^nd place at Royal Ka’anapali with a 5-under 208 total.