Isztwan has the answers at Whitemarsh Valley to claim medalist honors in qualifying for BMW Philadelphia Amateur

 

   Maybe you could chalk up Patrick Isztwan’s run to the final of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur a year ago to home-course advantage since it was being held at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, the course Isztwan grew up playing.

   Isztwan, coming off his junior season at Richmond, fell 7 and 6 in the scheduled 36-hole final to Loyola of Maryland standout Mike Crowley.

   But Isztwan is a really good player on just about any golf course, a point he drove home quite emphatically by firing a 7-under-par 65 at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, the George Thomas classic that once played host to a regular PGA Tour stop, Tuesday afternoon to capture medalist honors in qualifying for the 124^th BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship.

   Isztwan had opened the long day of qualifying with a 2-under 69 at nearby North Hills Country Club. His sizzling 65 at Whitemarsh Valley in the afternoon, a round that featured five birdies and an eagle, gave him a 9-under 134 total, three shots clear of Chesapeake Bay Golf Club’s Austin Barbin, winner of the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) Boys’ Junior Championship five years ago at Coatesville Country Club.

   OK, so winning the qualifying medal in GAP’s most prestigious championship, that’s the good news. The bad news is that the luck of the match-play draw wasn’t exactly kind to Isztwan.

   Somehow there was enough daylight left to sort out a playoff among 11 players for the final nine spots in the match-play bracket. There was probably one guy in that group of 11 players that Isztwan would just as soon not have to face in the opening round.

   That would be LuLu Country Club’s Michael R. Brown Jr., who captured the Philly Am crown two years ago at Philadelphia Country Club to make him just the third player to complete the career sweep of GAP’s four major championships, the GAP grand slam.

   Of course, that’s exactly who Isztwan will face. Hey, when you’re one of the 32 survivors of 36 holes of stroke play over a couple of the Philly area’s many classic layouts, you’re going to get somebody tough in the first round. At least it wasn’t hot Tuesday – yet.

   The winners of Wednesday morning’s first-round matches will square off in the round of 16 Wednesday afternoon. By the end of the day Wednesday, only eight quarterfinalists will still be standing.

   The quarterfinals will be played Thursday morning followed by the semifinals in the afternoon when the temperatures are forecast to be rising. The scheduled 36-hole final will be held Saturday.

   Isztwan was solid in the morning at North Hills, which proved to be a tough test for many of the competitors Tuesday. He made birdies at the second, 12^th and 13^th holes before falling back to 2-under with a bogey at 14. Turned out to be Izstwan’s only bogey of the day.

   Isztwan started off the 10^th tee at Whitemarsh Valley in the afternoon, making birdies at the 12^th, 13^th and 17^th holes. He got a fourth birdie at the second hole and a fifth at the tough 241-yard, par-4 fourth hole, consistently rated as one of the toughest par-3s on the PGA Tour when Whitemarsh Valley hosted the IVB Classic back in the day. Yes kids, the PGA Tour used to visit Philadelphia every year.

   Isztwan’s 6-iron at the fourth hole landed short and rolled up to inches from the hole for a tap-in birdie.

   Isztwan punctuated a really strong round by making an eagle at the par-5 fifth hole, his 4-iron second shot from 230 yards away hitting the stick and finishing four feet away. He then parred in from there.

   Sounds like it was an up-and-down junior season at Richmond for Isztwan. He was not in the lineup for the Spiders in the Atlantic 10 Championship.

   But Richmond accepted an invitation to tee it up in the National Golf Invitational – an event put together by Golfweek designed to mimic the NIT in basketball for teams that didn’t get an NCAA regional bid – and the Spiders finished in fourth place at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Ariz. with Isztwan ending up in a tie for 17^th place, his best finish of the wraparound 2023-2024 season.

   Austin Barbin helped Liberty capture the title in the Flames’ first season in Conference USA, giving them a spot in the NCAA’s Stanford Regional.

   Austin Barbin opened with a 1-over 72 Tuesday at North Hills. He matched Isztwan’s 7-under 65 in the afternoon at Whitemarsh Valley, closing out his round with a birdie at the little par-3 ninth hole, as Barbin finished three shots behind Isztwan in second place in qualifying with a 6-under 137 total.

   Patrick Sheehan was Austin Barbin’s opponent in that 2019 GAP Junior Boys’ final at Coatesville.

   Sheehan, who wrapped up a standout five-year career at Penn State at the Big Ten Championships at Scioto Country Club outside Columbus, Ohio, was a shot behind Austin Barbin in a tie for third place with Whitemarsh Valley’s Will Davenport, the GAP Middle-Amateur champion in 2019, each landing on 5-under 138.

   Sheehan, playing out of Talamore Country Club, started slowly in the morning at Whitemarsh Valley, but rallied on the front nine, his second nine of the round, for a 2-under 70. Sheehan then carded a solid 3-under 68 at North Hills to get it to 5-under.

   Sheehan will also get one of the survivors of that 11-for-9 playoff for the final spots in the match-play bracket, none other than Austin Barbin’s brother Evan, the youngest of the golfing Barbin brothers of Elkton, Md., in Wednesday morning’s opening round.

   Davenport played a lot of golf in the Philadelphia area when he was pursuing an advanced degree at Penn.

   He’s in Palm City, Fla. these days, but he was back in the area to tee it up with fellow Floridian Mike Smith of Ponte Vedra Beach in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club a couple of weeks ago.

   All the Davenport-Smith duo did was make it all the way to the semifinals before falling to the eventual champions, Brian Blanchard and Sam Engel of Scottsdale, Ariz., in a hard-fought 1-up decision on the A.W. Tillinghast gem that is the Wissahickon Course at the Cricket Club.

   Davenport opened with a 2-under 70 at a Whitemarsh Valley layout that was his home base when he lived here before adding a 3-under 68 to join Sheehan in the tie for third place at 5-under. Dangerous? I’ll say.

   Mark Miller, just one of the deep stable of talent at the Cricket Club, was alone in fifth place at 4-under 139 as he bounced back from a 1-over 72 at North Hills in the morning with a sparkling 5-under 67 at Whitemarsh Valley.

   Huntingdon Valley’s Andy Butler, who was a very good player at Villanova not all that long ago, and Huntsville Golf Club’s Tyler McGarry ended up in a tie for sixth place at 2-under 141.

   Butler opened with a 2-under 70 at Whitemarsh Valley Tuesday morning before matching par with a 71 at North Hills. McGarry had the identical splits, opening with a 70 at Whitemarsh Valley and adding an even-par 71 in the afternoon at North Hills.

   Jericho National Golf Club’s Calen Sanderson was the PIAA Class AAA champion as a junior at Holy Ghost Prep in the pandemic year of 2020. He was the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Player of the Year in 2023, largely due to a runnerup finish in the Pennsylvania Open at the Country Club of York last summer.

   Such is the talent level in Division I golf these days that Sanderson had trouble making the starting lineup as a sophomore on a very good Notre Dame team. But the kid has game and he finished among a trio of players tied for eighth place in qualifying with a 1-under 142 total. After matching par in the morning with a 71 at North Hills, Sanderson grinded out a 1-under 71 in the afternoon at Whitemarsh Valley.

   Joining Sanderson at 1-under were LuLu’s Aaron Fricke, a former standout at Drexel, and Louis Giovacchini of Mercer Oaks Golf Course.

   Fricke opened with a 1-under 70 at North Hills before matching par in the afternoon with a 72 at Whitemarsh Valley. Giovacchini had a pair of 71s, which was 1-under at Whitemarsh Valley in the morning and matched par in the afternoon at North Hills.

   Crowley, the defending champion playing out of Briarwood Golf Club, was part of a group of six players tied for 12^th place at 1-over 144 as he opened with a 2-over 73 at North Hills before adding a 1-under 71 in the afternoon at Whitemarsh Valley.

   Crowley helped Loyola of Maryland capture the Patriot League title at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Grace Course, earning the Greyhounds a berth in the NCAA’s Baton Rouge Regional.