Drue Nicholas, who starred at Drexel, quickly established himself as the region’s top amateur player when he captured titles in a pair of Golf Association of Philadelphia major championships in the summer of 2025, the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship and GAP’s Open Championship.
Tuesday at Lancaster Country Club, Nicholas, playing out of Merion Golf Club, buttressed that resume by becoming the first player to repeat as the Philadelphia Open winner since Andrew Mason achieved the feat in 2011 and 2012 by defeating Norristown native Josh Ryan in a four-hole aggregate playoff.
A bogey on the final hole of regulation, the 18th at the William Flynn gem that is LCC, dropped Nicholas into a tie with Ryan, winner of the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship three straight times from 2020 to 2022, each ending up with a 3-under 137 total.
The four-hole aggregate playoff was contested on the 15th through the 18th holes and the 320-yard par-4 16th decided the outcome in Nicholas’ favor.
A poor approach by Ryan left him with an impossible chip and ultimately led to a double bogey.
Nicholas, who had birdied the 16th hole in regulation when he dropped a big left-to-right breaker from 15 feet, did it again, knocking a 50-degree wedge to six feet and was once again able to curl in a right-to-left slider for birdie.
The three-shot swing gave Nicholas a two-shot lead, which he maintained, winning the aggregate playoff by a margin of 16 to 18.
“I didn’t have high expectations (coming in here),” the 24-year-old Nicholas told the GAP website. “Not because I didn’t think I could do it, but defending is really hard. It’s a big sigh of relief being able to defend.
“I don’t know why, but I felt getting that fourth major really puts me in a pretty elite class.”
Ryan had grabbed a share of the lead with his 2-under 68 in Monday’s opening round and he got off to a great start in Tuesday’s second round with birdies at the first and second holes.
Ryan gave a shot back with a bogey at the third hole, but got it right back with a birdie at four.
The par-5 seventh hole was Ryan’s nemesis at Lancaster and a disastrous double bogey there dropped him back to 2-under for the tournament.
Ryan bounced back with a birdie at the eighth hole, but again fell back to 2-under with a bogey at nine. Ryan settled down the rest of the way with a birdie at the 12th hole giving him a 1-under 69 and leaving him tied at the top of the leaderboard with Nicholas following the regulation 36 holes at 2-under.
Nicholas, an Egg Harbor Township, N.J. native who was a scholastic standout at St. Augustine Prep, had opened with a solid 1-under 69 Monday and made birdies at the fifth and 10th holes to get it to 3-under for the tournament.
Nicholas dropped a shot with a bogey at the 13th hole, but seemed to have one arm wrapped around the John J. McDermott Trophy when he dropped the big breaker for birdie at 16 and then drilled a 6-iron to 10 feet at the 176-yard, par-3 17th and converted the birdie try to get it to 4-under.
Nicholas’ closing bogey, though, left him with a 2-under 68 for the round and dropped him back to 3-under, sending him and Ryan to the 15th tee for the start of the aggregate playoff.
Ryan told the GAP website that he will turn pro before the end of the summer.
I first ran into him when he qualified for the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman, representing Norristown High on the golf course while doing his schoolwork with Commonwealth Connections Academy, in the fall of 2017.
Following my exit from the newspaper business early in 2016 I had expanded this blog’s original mission as a supplement to my golf coverage at the Delaware County Daily Times to the entire region with a particular emphasis on the junior and high school scenes.
And Ryan has always been right in the middle of all of it. Denied a chance to become a four-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier – which he most assuredly would have been – by the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, Ryan took a gap year and then became a steady addition to the program at Liberty.
Wishing Ryan nothing but good luck – a little luck goes a long way in the sport of golf – as a pro. His focus and passion for the game make me think we’ll be hearing more from Josh Ryan at the next level.
Aronimink Golf Club’s Hunter Stetson – saw him win the Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac League’s individual title as a sophomore at Episcopal Academy in the fall of 2021 at Bluestone Country Club – finished a shot out of the playoff as he added a 2-under 68 to his opening-round 70 for a 2-under 138 total.
A junior at North Carolina State, Stetson earned himself a ticket to next month’s U.S. Amateur at Merion by defeating Evan Barbin in a marathon seven-hole, sudden-death playoff to capture the title in the Delaware Amateur Championship last month at Rehoboth Beach Country Club.
Stetson defeated Nicholas in a playoff last summer to capture the title in the Joseph H. Patterson Cup at Waynesborough Country Club, denying Nicholas what would have been an unprecedented third GAP major championship in a single season.
The best round of the tournament belonged to the Philadelphia Section PGA’s reigning four-time Rolex / Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year Braden Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club who ripped off a sizzling 5-under 65 Tuesday to finish a shot behind Stetson in fourth place with a 1-under 139 total and pocket the low-pro prize of $8,000.
It was reminiscent of Shattuck’s final-round rally in the PGA Professional Championship at the Bandon Dunes Resort on Oregon’s rugged coastline in April that earned him a spot on the Corebridge Financial Team in the PGA Championship at Aronimink in May.
The Delco native – covered his scholastic career at Sun Valley when I was still at the Daily Times – struck the opening tee shot when the PGA Championship returned to Aronimink and Delaware County for the first time in 64 years in May.
Shattuck, the 2023 Philly Open champion at Lookaway Golf Club, was coming off a victory in the Philly Section’s GALV Lehigh Valley / Reading Open last week at Berkleigh Golf Club and Moselem Springs Golf Club, but struggled a little in Monday’s opening round at Lancaster with a 4-over 74.
But he got it going early in Tuesday’s second round with birdies at the first, third, fourth and seventh holes.
A bogey at the eighth hole and a costly double bogey at nine slowed Shattuck’s roll a little, but he got it going on the incoming nine again, rattling off consecutive birdies at 11, 12 and 13 before adding another birdie at 16, his eighth birdie of the day, to secure the nice payday that goes to the low pro.
Radley Run Country Club’s Charlie Barrickman, one of the top players in District One throughout his scholastic career at Unionville, added a sparkling 3-under 67 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening round of 3-over 73 to finish in fifth place with an even-par 140 total.
It was the second straight strong showing in the Philly Open for Barrickman, who finished in a tie for third place a year ago at Bidermann Golf Course. Barrickman will join the program at Bucknell in the Patriot League later this summer.
Brian Bergstol, the head of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort and one of the Philly Section’s most consistent performers, and Dave Quinn, one of the Philly Section’s top senior players who works out of the pro shop at Laurel Creek Country Club, headed a trio of players tied for sixth place at 2-over 142.
Bergstol carded a 2-over 72 in Tuesday’s second round after matching par in the opening round with a 70. Quinn, winner of the Philly Open two decades ago in 2006, posted a second straight 1-over 71.
Joining the two pros at 2-over was Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Stephen Cerbara, the PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Holy Ghost Prep in 2015 who finished up his college career at Drexel.
Cerbara tallied a 1-under 69 in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 3-over 73.
Rounding out the top 10 was a group of five players tied for ninth place at 3-over 143, including a trio of the Philly Section’s top pros, Riley Wheeldon, an instructor at Aronimink, Anthony Sebastianelli, an assistant pro at Whitford Country Club, and Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann.
Wheeldon, the runnerup to Shattuck last week in the GALV Lehigh Valley / Reading Open, bounced back from an opening round of 4-over 74 with a solid 1-under 69 in Tuesday’s second round.
Sebastianelli, winner of last month’s Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship at Laurel Creek, added a 2-over 72 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening-round 71.
Oakley, who has been one of the Philly Section’s top performers for a while now, matched par in the opening round with a 70 before adding a 3-over 73 in Tuesday’s second round.
Rounding out the quintet tied at 2-over were Philadelphia Cricket Club veteran Mark Miller and Wilmington Country Club youngster Jack Homer.
Miller, who reached the second round of match play in last month’s Philly Am at Sunnybrook Golf Club, and Homer, who starred scholastically at The Tatnall School and capped his GAP junior career with a Christman Cup victory last summer at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Grace Course, had identical splits, each matching par in the opening round with a 70 before adding a 3-over 73 in Tuesday’s second round.
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