Gross finishes in a tie for 10th in The Azalea Invitational behind runaway winner Maybank

   After winning the District One Class AAA crown for the second time in three years last fall, Downingtown West junior Nick Gross discussed what his schedule would look like for the spring of 2023.

   One of the events he seemed to be particularly looking forward to was the Azalea Invitational, the 75^th edition of which wrapped up Sunday at the Country Club of Charleston, a course that was in the national spotlight as recently as the spring of 2019 when it hosted the U.S. Women’s Open won by South Korean Jeongeun Lee6.

   The Azalea has tons of history and tradition and brings together an eclectic field of junior standouts like Gross, guys that are sneaking in a weekend in Charleston in the midst of their college season, as well as some seasoned mid-amateurs, guys like Pittsburgh’s Nathan Smith, a four-time winner of the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship who will captain the U.S. Walker Cup team at the iconic Cypress Point Club on the Monterey Peninsula in 2025.

   It has been a busy month for Gross, who finished in a tie for 29^th place in the Dustin Johnson World Junior Championship at TPC Myrtle Beach in Murrells Inlet, S.C. early in March and in a tie for 14^th in the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley in Graniteville, S.C. over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

   Gross finished solid, making pars on the last nine holes at the par-71 Country Club of Charleston layout to finish in a group of four players tied for 10^th place with a 5-under-par 279 total for the 72-hole stroke play event.

   Nobody was going to take this title away from P.J. Maybank III, a high school senior from Cheboygan, Mich. who will join the program at Big 12 power Oklahoma this summer.

   Maybank smashed the tournament record by three shots with a spectacular 22-under 262 total that included a pair of 7-under 64s, one in the second round and another in Sunday’s final round.

   The previous record was the 19-under 265 posted by 2011 champion C.T. Pan, a native of Taiwan who owns a PGA Tour win at the 2019 RBC Heritage up the South Carolina coast from Charleston at the Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island.

   Maybank went wire to wire in capturing the title in The Azalea as he grabbed the lead with a 6-under 66 in Thursday’s opening round.

   After opening with a double bogey on the first hole in his second round, Maybank really went off and never looked back. He immediately made amends for the double bogey by making an eagle at the par-5 fifth hole, then rattled off birdies at six, seven, nine, 12 and 13. Maybank stumbled briefly with a bogey at the 15^th hole, but then closed the round in style with birdies at 17 and 18, his sixth and seventh birdies of the day, to finish up his 7-under 64.

   After a comparatively ho-hum 3-under 68 in Saturday’s third round gave Maybank a four-shot lead going into the final round, he went off again, closing with a five-birdie, one eagle, no-bogey masterpiece of a 7-under 64.

   At the end, it was just a matter of by how much he would break Pan’s record.

   Hampton Roberts, a high school senior from Cary, N.C. who will join the program at North Carolina of the Atlantic Coast Conference this summer, was the best of the rest, closing with a 3-under 68 that earned him runnerup honors with an 11-under 273.

   After opening with a 1-over 72, Roberts heated up with a 5-under 66 in Friday’s second round and 4-under 67 in the third round.

   Callahan Keever, a freshman at Anderson University in western South Carolina, was Maybank’s closest pursuer for much of the weekend. Keever matched Maybank’s 7-under 64 in Friday’s second round after opening with a 3-under 68 and only trailed the front-runner by two shots.

   Keever cooled off a little with a 1-under 70 in the third round, but he was still in second place, four shots behind Maybank. A final round of 1-over 72 left Keever one shot behind Roberts in third place with a 10-under 274 total.

   Bruce Murphy, a freshman at Tennessee and an Atlanta native, Carson Brower of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., who will join the program at Florida State, another ACC power, this summer and Nate Smith finished in a tie for fourth place, each landing on 8-under  276, two shots behind Keever.

   After registering back-to-back 1-under 70s in the first two rounds, Murphy posted a 2-under 69 in the third round before closing with his best round of the weekend, a 4-under 67.

   Brower also started slowly, matching par in Friday’s second round with a 71 after opening with a 1-over 72. He got it going with a sparkling 6-under 65 in the third round before closing with a 3-under 68.

   Couldn’t find much on Nate Smith, but he played some great golf in The Azalea as he added a 2-under 69 in Friday’s second round to his opening-round 70, matched par in the third round with a 71 and then finished with a flourish, a 5-under 66.

   They are all people Gross might run into in the next few years on the amateur circuit in the summer or in college golf a few years down the line.

   Gross’ run to the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. a week before his 16^th birthday last summer caught the attention of the amateur golf world. By the fall, Gross announced his intention to join the program at SEC power Alabama in the summer of 2024.

   That run to the quarterfinals at Ridgewood has set up the summer of 2023 for Gross. He’s exempt from local qualifying for the U.S. Open. He’s 36 holes of great golf away from being a 16-year-old playing in the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. Don’t think it can happen?

   The kid finished second in an incredibly competitive U.S. Amateur qualifier at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J. to get to Ridgewood last summer. The rest is history.

   Gross will have a starting time at the U.S. Junior Amateur right back in Charleston at the Daniel Island Club in July and at the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills Country Club, a William Flynn gem in Colorado.

   In The Azalea, Gross got off to a bumpy start in the opening round with a bogey at the first hole, a birdie at two and a bogey at four. He found his groove with birdies at the fifth, seventh, ninth and 10^th holes. After a bogey at the 11^th hole, Gross settled down with pars on the final seven holes for a 2-under 69.

   Gross made his only double bogey of the tournament in Friday’s second round at the sixth hole, but surrounded it with back-to-back birdies at the third and fourth holes and back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 for a second straight 69.

   Gross only managed one birdie at the 10^th hole in Saturday’s third round and bogeys at one, 12 and 16 left him with a 2-over 73.

   Gross had nothing to lose in Sunday’s final round and his front nine included a bogey at the first hole, a birdie at five, a bogey at six, birdies at seven and eight and an eagle at the par-5 ninth hole. Gross then matched the scorecard on the back nine to complete a 3-under 68.

   Merion Golf Club’s Tug Maude, winner of the 2021 Pennsylvania Mid-Amateur Championship at Allegheny Country Club, survived the 54-hole cut after Saturday’s third round and finished in the group tied for 43^rd place with an 8-over 292 total.

   Maude added a 2-over 73 in Friday’s second round to his opening round of 1-under 70 before struggling a little in the third round with a 5-over 76. He closed with a solid 2-over 73.

   Troy Vannucci, the winner of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Middle-Amateur Championship at Jericho National Golf Club last spring, missed the 54-hole cut by two shots with a 224 total. Vannucci, who plays out of Little Mill Country Club, opened with a 2-over 73 and added a 5-over 76 in Friday’s second round before carding a 4-over 75 in the third round.

   Vannucci was one of GAP’s hottest players last spring as he backed up his win the Middle-Amateur, a GAP major, with a run to the quarterfinals of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Philadelphia Country Club, where he suffered a 1-up setback to eventual champion Michael R. Brown Jr.

   Vannucci was joined at that 224 figure by former Cowboys quarterback turned CBS analyst Tony Romo, who posted back-to-back 4-over 75s in the first two rounds before adding a 3-over 74 in the third round.

   Nathan Smith, who played on three U.S. Walker Cup sides, also missed the cut with a 230 total. He bounced back from an opening-round 81 with a 4-over 75 in Friday’s second round and a 3-over 74 in the third round.

   That U.S. Walker Cup captaincy is still a few years away, but I’m sure Nathan Smith was paying attention to some of the youngsters who teed it up at the Country Club of Charleston.