Nicholas makes it a Philly Am-Philly Open double with his victory at Bidermann

 

   Drue Nicholas is a really good player. Sometimes it sounds like the only person who needs to be convinced of that fact is … Drue Nicholas.

   Maybe Nicholas’ victory in last week’s 121^st Philadelphia Open Championship in record-breaking fashion at Bidermann Golf Club in Wilmington, Del. will be enough to allow Nicholas to count himself among the region’s premier amateur golfers.

  It was his second victory in a Golf Association of Philadelphia major championship in as many months as Nicholas captured the title in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship last month at Aronimink Golf Club.

   Nicholas became the first player to achieve the Philly Am-Philly Open double since Jay Sigel, one of America’s finest amateur golfers ever, did it in 1987. Sigel died in April of this year.

   Nicholas’ winning total of 12-under 132 established a new standard in relation to par for the venerable Philly Open, a fascinating event that brings together the region’s top amateur players, college guys, or in Nicholas’ case recent college grads, mid-ams, even high school kids and a remarkably talented group of Philadelphia Section PGA professionals.

   Adding to the luster of Nicholas’ win was the fact that he outdueled the very best of those Philadelphia area club pros, Braden Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club.

   The 30-year-old Shattuck, a Sun Valley graduate, is the Philly Section’s three-time reigning Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year. His victory in the PGA Professional Championship two years ago marked him as one of the top club pros in the country.

   The 23-year-old Nicholas was a junior star growing up at the Jersey Shore and appeared headed for professional golf when he joined the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power North Carolina State.

   But Nicholas had a change of heart and came home to study finance at Drexel. He was the best player on the Philadelphia college scene during his time with the Dragons.

   Nicholas’ victory in the Philadelphia Open gives him three legs of GAP’s grand slam of major championships, lacking only the Middle-Amateur Championship, for which he won’t become age eligible for a couple more years.

   Nicholas, who is playing out of Galloway National Golf Club at the Jersey Shore, was still at Drexel in 2022 when he captured his first GAP major crown, outlasting Michael R. Brown Jr. in a dramatic aggregate playoff to capture the title in the Patterson Cup in 2022 at St. Davids Golf Club.

   “As far as the GAP scene goes, I felt like I was capable of winning those things,” Nicholas told the GAP website. “You don’t think you are till you actually do it. Winning the Patterson Cup was big. I still wouldn’t call myself a somebody. I’m going to work at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

   “GAP is a tight-knit community. It’s great to be a part of that and have a pretty good reputation.”

   Nicholas grabbed a one-shot lead over Shattuck by opening with a sizzling 7-under 65 in sizzling conditions over the 7,003-yard, par-72 Bidermann layout.

   Nicholas, playing Bidermann for the first time, shot out of the gate with birdies at the first, second, fifth, sixth and ninth holes on the outgoing nine. He got it to 7-under with back-to-back birdies at 12 and 13 before the only blemish on his scorecard, a bogey at 14. He got that shot right back with a birdie at the 15^th hole to get to the clubhouse at 7-under.

   Shattuck had a lot of supporters at Bidermann, where he worked as an instructor before moving on to Rolling Green, and they had a lot to cheer about as he opened with a 6-under 66.

   Trailing by a shot going into the final round July 17^th, Shattuck ripped off three straight birdies at the second, third and fourth holes, added another birdie at six and then drove the green at the 307-yard, par-4 seventh and two-putted for another birdie. Suddenly, he was 11-under for the championship, three shots ahead of Nicholas and seemingly in command.

   But Shattuck’s putter would go cold and Nicholas resolutely chipped away at his deficit.

   At the 477-yard, par-4 10^th hole, Nicholas converted a nice up-and-down for par and Shattuck missed a five-footer for par after going over the green in two.

   Nicholas drew even with Shattuck when there was a two-shot swing at the 155-yard, par-3 11^th. Nicholas stuck an 8-iron shot to six feet and made the birdie try while Shattuck three-putted from 18 feet for a bogey.

   Nicholas put himself in front to stay with a birdie at the 516-yard, par-5 12^th hole, where he struck his approach from 30 yards to three feet and made the putt.

   Forced to lay up at the 541-yard, par-4 15^th hole when he found a fairway bunker, Nicholas knocked it to eight feet and gave himself some breathing room by converting that birdie opportunity.

   Nicholas added another birdie at the 17^th hole, his sixth of the day, as he added a 5-under 67 to his opening-round 65 for that record-setting 12-under total.

   Shattuck wasn’t bad as he closed with a 3-under 69 for a 9-under 135 total that left him three shots behind Nicholas in second place. He also got a nice consolation prize by pocketing the $8,000 check that goes to the low pro in the Philly Open.

   Shattuck’s recent record in the Philly Open is pretty strong. He put his name on the John J. McDermott Trophy by capturing the title two years ago at Lookaway Golf Club and finished in a tie for second place three years ago at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course, getting a share of the low-pro prize with Sunnybrook Golf Club’s Robert Fenton.

   A trio of amateurs accounted for the next three spots on the leaderboard.

   Aaron Williams of the Bayside Resort Golf Club and Charlie Barrickman of Radley Run Country Club finished in a tie for third place, each ending up three shots behind Shattuck with a 6-under 138 total.

    Williams, a senior on the South Carolina Beaufort golf team, added a 4-under 68 to his opening round of 2-under 70.

   Barrickman will be a senior on the Unionville golf team this year and has probably had as strong a summer as any returning high school player in District One. He has been at or near the top of the leaderboard in every junior event in which he has teed it up.

   Barrickman, a two-time PIAA Class AAA Championship qualifier, opened with sparkling 5-under 67 and trailed Nicholas by just two shots going into the final round. He closed with a 1-under 71 to get a share of third place.

   LedgeRock Golf Club’s Jake Haberstumpf was another shot behind Williams and Barrickman in fifth place with a 5-under 139 total.

   Haberstumpf, a scholastic standout at Bethlehem Freedom who played collegiately at Moravian and at Temple, added a 4-under 68 in the second round to his opening round of 1-under 71.

   Zach Barbin, playing out of the pro shop at Chesapeake Bay Golf Club, bounced back from an opening round of 1-over 73 with a 5-under 67 in the second round that left him alone in sixth place with a 4-under 140 total.

   Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann and one of the Philadelphia Section’s top players, and Aaron Fricke, another former Drexel standout playing out of LuLu Country Club, finished in a tie for seventh place, each landing on 3-under 141.

   Oakley matched par in the second round with a 72 after opening with a 3-under 69.

   Fricke, who reached the final of the Philly Am a year ago before falling to Zach Barbin’s younger brother Austin at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, had the same splits as Oakley, matching par in the second round with a 72 after opening with a 3-under 69.

   Trevor Bensel, the talented assistant pro at LuLu, headed a group of four players who finished in a tie for ninth place at 1-under 143 to round out the top 10.

   Bensel, winner of the $100K top prize in the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic in May at Sunnybrook, added a 2-under 70 in the second round to his opening round of 1-over 73.

   A trio of amateurs – the Cricket Club’s Mark Miller, Fieldstone Golf Club’s Joseph Tagani and Ben Ortwein – joined Bensel in the tie for ninth place at 1-under.

   Miller, the 2007 Philadelphia Open champion who is having a solid summer, matched Bensel’s splits, adding a 2-under 70 in the second round to an opening-round 73.

   Tagani, who reached the quarterfinals of last month’s Philly Am at Aronimink, matched par in the opening round with a 72 before adding a 1-under 71 in the second round.

   Ortwein, a scholastic standout at Notre Dame Green Pond, is a senior at Nevada and spent the first two years of his college career at Rider. He opened with a 2-under 70 before adding a 1-over 73 in the second round.