McGinn captures title in Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship by three shots at Bellewood

 

   I’ve fallen behind in my reporting on Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour events and have every intention of catching up. But the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship is too big an event to wait to report the results …

   Before he ever strikes a shot in a high school match for Williamsport, Logan McGinn will have teed it up in one of the marquee national events for junior golfers.

   McGinn has been knocking on the door in some big junior events the last few years, but he kicked the door down Monday in the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship at Bellewood Country Club, across the Schuylkill River from Pottstown.

   The 14-year-old from South Williamsport opened with a sparkling 2-under-par 69 at Bellewood and matched par in the afternoon with a 71 in the grueling, one-day, 36-hole test in gusty winds for a 2-under 140 total that bested the field by three shots.

   The win assured McGinn a spot in the Boys Junior PGA Championship, a national junior event staged by the PGA of America, which will tee off July 28 at Fields Ranch East and West at the PGA of America’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas.

   Players 13 to 18 were eligible to try to qualify for the Boys Junior PGA Championship. The Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour broke out its usual 16-to-18 and 13-to-15 divisions, so I’ll round up those age groups while referring to the overall scoring.

   Pretty sure only Ridley senior Declan Conner, who has had a couple of really strong weeks, is assured of joining McGinn at PGA Frisco with his runnerup finish in the overall scoring.

   Conner added a clutch 2-under 69 in the afternoon at Bellewood to his opening-round 74 for a 1-over 143 total and then defeated Quinn Gallagher, a Bryn Mawr resident and a senior on the golf team at The Haverford School, in a playoff to nail down the runnerup finish.

   The Philadelphia Section may be awarded a second wild card into the Boys Junior PGA Championship and if it does, pretty sure it will go to Gallagher.

   By the way, the time has come to graduate the Philly Junior Tour players to their next grade, so Class of 2027 guys like Conner and Gallagher will now be referred to as seniors.

   McGinn, though, is a 2030 kid and will only be a freshman at Williamsport this year. Looks like the Millionaires are getting a player. Pretty impressive that the overall winner at Bellewood came out of the younger 13-to-15 age group.

   McGinn was really steady in grabbing the lead with his 2-under opening round.

   He made birdies at the second, fourth and 18^th holes and had 14 pars on his scorecard, including a string of eight straight pars from five through 12.

   If McGinn felt the pressure of being the one everybody was chasing in the afternoon, he never let it show.

   McGinn made birdies at the second, seventh and 18^th holes and had 12 pars on his card, including a pair of runs of four pars in a row from three through six and again from 14 through 17 while matching par with a 71.

   That left him alone at the top of the 13-to-15 division and in first place in the overall scoring.

   Benjamin Allwein, who finished in a tie for seventh place in the PIAA Class AA Championship as a freshman at Annville-Cleona last fall, finished four shots behind McGinn to earn runnerup honors among the younger guys and end up in fourth place in the overall scoring with a 2-over 144 total.

   Allwein matched par in the opening round with a 71 as he made an eagle at the par-5 10^th hole, added birdies at one, seven and 15 and had 10 pars on his card, including a run of five straight pars from two through six.

   Allwein opened his afternoon round with back-to-back birdies at the first and second holes and had 13 pars on his card, including a string of five straight pars to conclude his round, as he closed with a 1-over 73.

   Allwein survived a playoff with Jaden Irvin, a senior on the Hershey golf team playing in the 16-to-18 division, to take fourth place overall. Not sure if that gets Allwein to PGA Frisco for the Boys Junior PGA Championship, buy we’ll see.

   Trebor Melendez, the talented 13-year-old from Vineland, N.J., was another six shots behind Allwein in third place in the 13-to-15 division, but was unable to crack the top 10 in the overall scoring with an 8-over 150 total.

   Melendez finished strong, making birdies at the second, seventh, 11^th and 15^th holes with nine pars on his card, as he closed with a 1-over 72.

   He had struggled in the morning with 14 pars on his card, including a run of six straight pars from the second through the seventh holes, but couldn’t find a birdie in a 7-over 78.

   Radnor sophomore Gavin Reger, who helped the Raptors finish in a tie for second place in the PIAA Class AAA team chase last fall, and Taimoor Naseem, the talented 13-year-old from Sinking Spring, finished in a tie for fourth place with a 152 total.

   Reger opened with a 3-over 74 before adding a 78 in the afternoon. Naseem struggled a little in the opening round with a 79 before closing with a solid 2-over 73.

   Bryce Bussom of Lewisburg was another shot behind Reger and Naseem in sixth place in the 13-to-15 division as he added a 5-over 76 in the afternoon to his opening-round 77 for a 153 total.

   Sam Vinc, a PIAA Class AA qualifier as a freshman at Tamaqua last fall, and Max Davis, a freshman on the Malvern Prep golf team last fall, shared seventh place among the younger guys as each landed on 156.

   Vinc opened with a solid 3-over 74, but struggled in the afternoon with an 82. Davis added a 6-over 77 in the afternoon to his opening-round 79.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division were Sebastian Leone, Reger’s classmate on Radnor’s state runnerup team, and Helmut Dang of Newtown Square as they finished in a tie for ninth place, each ending up with a 157 total.

   Leone added a 7-over 78 to his opening-round 79 while Dang bounced back from an opening-round 85 with a solid 1-over 72 in the afternoon.

   Conner was a District One Class AAA qualifier as a junior for Ridley last fall, but he has really taken his game up a notch this month.

   Conner’s runnerup finish in the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship enabled him to punch his ticket to a second major national junior championship in less than a week.

   Last Thursday, with temperatures rising, Conner was the runnerup in a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered U.S. Junior Amateur qualifier with a 2-under 70 at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Weyhill Course.

   That means Conner will be right back at Saucon Valley when the U.S. Junior Amateur tees off July 20 at the Old Course and the Grace Course.

   Crediting a switch from one Scotty Cameron putter to another in a roundup of the qualifier on the GAP website, Conner made enough putts to survive the heat and the always pressure-packed atmosphere of a USGA qualifier to earn a return trip to Saucon Valley.

   A couple of Jersey guys, Roger Rice, a senior at Chatham High School, and Daniel Kim of Franklin Lakes, nabbed the other two tickets to the U.S. Junior Amateur at Saucon Valley.

   Rice was the medalist with a sparkling 3-under 69. Lee registered a 1-under 71 and then survived a playoff among four players for the final berth out of the qualifier to the U.S. Junior Amateur.

   Before all that, Conner showed up in the final qualifier for the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship June 3^rd at Elmhurst Country Club and unleashed a sparkling 3-under 69 that earned him medalist honors and proved to be a preview of things to come.

   Conner’s second-round 69 at Bellewood was a study in patience as he rattled off 16 straight pars before making birdies at the 17^th and 18^th holes.

   Conner only made five pars in his opening round of 3-over 74, but offset some annoying bogeys, and worse, by making birdies at the second, seventh, eighth, 14^th, 17^th and 18^th holes.

   It added up to a 1-over 143 total that left him tied for the top spot in the 16-to-18 division with Gallagher and the runnerup in the overall scoring after he defeated Gallagher in a playoff for second place.

   Gallagher had the best individual round of the day as he made birdies on the seventh, 10^th, 11^th, 15^th and 17^th holes and had 12 pars on his scorecard, including six straight pars to open his round, as he tallied a sizzling 4-under 67 in the afternoon to join Conner at 1-over.

   Those four birdies on the incoming nine enabled Gallagher to tour the back nine at Bellewood in 3-under 32.

   Gallagher made a birdie on the seventh hole and had 12 pars on his card, opening his round with four straight pars and again rattling off four pars in a row from 14 through 17, as he opened with a 5-over 76.

   Jaden Irvin, a senior on the Hershey golf team, closed with a solid 1-under 70 after opening with a 3-over 74 to finish in third place in the 16-to-18 division and in fifth place overall with a 2-over 144. Irvin lost in a playoff to Allwein from the 13-to-15 division for fourth place.

   Irvin made birdies on the first, third, seventh, 10^th and 18^th holes and had nine pars on his card while getting it into red figures in the second round. Irvin made a birdie on the seventh hole, wrapped up his round with back-to-back birdies at 17 and 18 and had 10 pars on his card in his opening-round 74.

   Cole Powell, a Fell Township resident and the PIAA Class AA champion as a sophomore at Scranton Prep last fall, finished a shot behind Irvin in fourth place among the older guys and sixth overall with a 3-over 145 total.

   Powell matched par in the second round with a 71 after opening with a 3-over 74.

   Jake Jaffe, a senior on the Central Bucks South golf team, and David Dempsey of Franklinville, N.J. finished in a tie for fifth place in the 16-to-18 division, each landing on 4-over 146. Jaffe defeated Dempsey in a playoff to take seventh place in the overall standings with Dempsey finishing eighth.

   Jaffe matched par in the opening round with a 71 before adding a 4-over 75 in the afternoon. Dempsey added a 1-over 72 in the afternoon to his opening-round 74.

   Defending champion Colby Komancheck, who will be one of the top returning players in the Inter-Ac League as a senior at Malvern Prep, and Ian Rotto, a junior on the Kennett golf team, finished in a tie for seventh place among the older guys and rounded out the top 10 in the overall standings, ending up in a tie for ninth place at 5-over 147.

   Komancheck captured the title in the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship a year ago at RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve, where his parents, Jamie and Kelly, form the husband-wife team of PGA professionals that runs the golf operation. Komancheck represented the Philadelphia Section in the Boys Junior PGA Championship at Purdue’s Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind. last summer.

   Komancheck, who capped his junior season last fall by capturing the individual title in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association (PAISAA) Championship at Radley Run Country Club, opened with a solid 1-under 70 at Bellewood, but struggled to a 6-over 77 in the afternoon.

   After opening with a 2-over 73, Rotto added a 74 in the afternoon to join Komancheck at 5-over.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division were Liam Crowley, winner of the title in the Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac’s individual championship as a junior with Episcopal
Academy at The 1912 Club last fall, and Ty Sheftic, a District One Class AAA qualifier as a junior at Wissahickon last fall, as each ended up with a 6-over 148 total.

   Crowley, who helped the Churchmen capture the Inter-Ac team crown, carded a pair of 3-over 74s. Sheftic opened with a solid 1-over 72 before adding a 5-over 76 in the afternoon.