Gross' roller-coaster round at Merion leaves him with work to do to make match play in the U.S. Amateur

 

   HAVERFORD – When it comes to the U.S. Amateur, this isn’t the first rodeo for Nick Gross.

   Still, this one was a little different with the 126^th U.S. Amateur teeing off Monday with the first round of stroke-play qualifying for match play at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township and Philadelphia Country Club in the Gladwyne section of Lower Merion Township, not all that far from Gross’ Downingtown home.

   When it was announced that Gross, the 2021 PIAA Class AAA champion as a sophomore at Downingtown West and a junior at Southeastern Conference power Alabama, would be going off the 11^th tee at Merion at 7:15 a.m. Monday, I was determined to get down there and follow his round. Somehow, I arrived less than a minute before Gross’ first ball was in the air.

   What followed was a roller-coaster ride that resulted in a 3-over-par 73 over a Merion East Course that is hosting the U.S. Amateur for the seventh time.

   Full disclosure, I was a Merion looper as a much younger man, that stage of my caddying career ending following the second round of the 1981 U.S. Open, so, yeah, I can get pretty geeky when the subject is Merion.

   But I was even more geeked up to follow Gross, a kid who first showed up in this blog when he was dominating the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour’s 12-and-under nine-holers, as he challenged my favorite golf course with his considerable talent.

   To say it was an up-and-down round would be an understatement. There were six birdies. Really good. There was a sloppy triple bogey at the classic finishing hole, the par-4 18^th, although having started at 11 that was only the eighth hole of his round. Not good.

   There were six bogeys, including a stretch of three straight at the fifth, sixth and seventh holes after Gross had worked his way all the way back to even-par following the disaster at 18 with birdies at one, three and four. Some good, some bad.

   But Gross knows how all this works. He knows he will have some work to do when he tees off the first tee at Philadelphia Country Club Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.

   Gross was in a tie for 144^th place when first-round play was halted with 39 players still having to finish their rounds.

   “This is my fourth U.S. Amateur, so I have a pretty good idea about how the week flows,” Gross said not long after his adventurous round at Merion was completed. “There were positives and negatives today and I’d rather emphasize the positives. I made six birdies.

   “I made some bad swings on some approaches that led to bogeys, but I hit some good wedges and made some big putts. I don’t think 3-over puts me out of it. I just have to go over to Philly Country (Tuesday) and play a good round. Experience matters in a U.S. Amateur.”

   The idea, as always is to be among the 64 players who qualify for match play at the end of 36 holes of stroke play Tuesday.

   Gross was one of those 64 four years ago and when match play got under way, the kid, about a week shy of his 16^th birthday, marched all the way to the quarterfinals at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J.

   A year before that Gross made the cut in the 2021 Pennsylvania Amateur at Merion as a 14-year-old. He got reacquainted with the East Course in a practice round Saturday.

   “The rough was a little tougher, you just don’t want to get in it,” said Gross, who has his high school coach at Downingtown West, Rob Coyne, on the bag. “The greens were faster today, but that was to be expected.”

   One guy who got off to a great start Monday at Philly was Norristown native Josh Ryan, who carded a 3-under 67 at the William Flynn design that has him among the contenders for medalist honors.

   Scores are coming in as I put this post together and we’ll see where everybody stands at the end of the day. Oh yeah, and there’s a nasty little cell of weather that looks like it might clip the Ardmore section of Haverford Township. A storm did force play to be halted for 54 minutes, which ultimately led to darkness forcing the first round to be suspended.

   Like Gross, there are tons of Josh Ryan posts in this blog, dating back to 2017 when the high school freshman qualified for the PIAA Class AAA Championship in a regional at Golden Oaks Country Club.

   Ryan is coming off a spectacular victory in the Pennsylvania Amateur at Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh and plans to turn pro following the U.S. Amateur.

   I’ll be back at Merion Tuesday and Ryan made the decision on whom to follow really easy. He tees off the first tee at the East Course at 12:30 p.m. I’ll get back to Ryan’s opening round in a bit and I’ll be trying to wrap up a pretty solid local contingent as the afternoon rounds are completed.

   Turned out Gross wasn’t the only Downingtown connection in his group Monday.

   The swing coach for one of Gross’ playing partners, Jack Turner, a senior at Florida from Orlando, Fla. and No. 19 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Nate Dougherty, was on the bag.

   Nate’s dad Kevin, a current fellow looper of mine at Stonewall, and his uncle Denny, a former Stonewall looper, were following the group. Nate Dougherty, of course, was once a looper at Stonewall before heading to Florida and becoming a respected instructor down there. All of which made it a fun day with plenty of familiar faces.

   After missing a good look for birdie at the par-4 12^th hole, Gross dumped his tee shot at the short par-3 13^th into the yawning front bunker and made a bogey.

   Gross missed the green at the par-4 14^th hole and couldn’t get a 10-footer for par to drop and he was 2-over.

   But he bounced right back, sticking his approach to six feet at the par-4 15^th hole and draining a tough little downhill putt and then hitting it to 15 feet at the first of the quarry holes, the par-4 16^th, and making that putt to get back to even-par.

   Gross drove it poorly into the right rough at the par-4 18^th hole. All he could do was chop it out to 80 yards from the pin. His wedge shot landed on the green, but spun off, rolling 20 yards off the green.

   Gross chipped it to eight feet and then three-putted from there. The triple bogey 7 left him at 3-over.

   Gross’ approach at the short par-4 first hole spun off the green. But utilizing a nifty belly shot with his wedge, Gross chipped it right in the hole for a birdie.

   Gross made an all-world par at the par-5 second hole after driving it in the bunker that’s on the right side of the adjoining fifth. Gross played it down the fifth hole and then bombed a long iron to the right greenside bunker, from where he got it up and down.

   Gross’ tee shot at the par-3 third hole left him a 12-footer for birdie, which he made. He hit two poor shots at the par-5 fourth hole, but hit his approach from just over the cross bunker that has to be 185, 190 yards from the green, finished eight feet from the pin and he proceeded to pour that in for another birdie.

   He was back to even-par. Then came the three straight bogeys.

   Gross drove it in the right rough at the tough par-5 fifth hole and it led to a bogey. His playing partners, Turner and Edan Cui, a sophomore at Stanford from Atherton, Calif., also made bogey there. It’s just a really hard hole.

   Gross missed the green at the par-4 sixth hole with a bad swing on his approach and made bogey there before a three-putt at the par-4 seventh led to a third straight bogey. He was back to 3-over again.

   So, of course, he followed that up with a birdie at eight, sticking his approach to 10 feet and dropping the putt.

   Another poor swing off the tee at the par-3 ninth hole led to another bogey.

   Gross drove it in the bunker in front at the reachable par-4 10^th hole and blasted it to seven feet, but just couldn’t get the birdie putt to fall.

   Turner and the Gators made it into match play in the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. before falling to Oklahoma State in the spring.

   Turner probably wasn’t happy with how he was hitting it early in his round Monday as he made bogeys at the 12^th and 18^th holes, but he remained patient.

   He stuck his tee shot at the par-3 third hole to two feet and converted the birdie try. After a bogey at the tough fifth hole, Turner hit it close at six and made the birdie putt and then drained a 20-footer at eight for birdie to get it back to even-par.

   It looked like Turner had driven it on the green at the risk-reward 10^th hole, but the ball trickled off the green into a back bunker. He left it in the bunker, then nearly holed out for a birdie before making a six-footer for par.

   Turner’s even-par total left him in a group tied for 50^th place.

    Cui offset five bogeys with birdies at the East Course’s shortest hole, the par-3 13^th, and its longest, the par-5 fourth, as he joined Gross at 3-over.

   Over at Philly, Ryan, teeing off at the 10^th hole, made a birdie to start at 10, made a bogey at 13, a birdie at 14, a bogey at 17 and a birdie at 18 and was 1-under turning to the outgoing nine.

 m  A birdie at the third hole got Ryan, who helped Liberty capture the Conference USA crown in his final season with the Flames in the spring, to 2-under, but he dropped back to 1-under with a bogey at six.

   Ryan, however, had one more closing burst left in him and back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth holes got him to 3-under and part of a large group tied for fifth place.

   Ryan was two shots behind the two co-leaders, William Lisle, a native of Hong Kong who plans to join the program at SEC power Texas at the end of next summer, and Germany’s Finn Koelle, a senior at Washington in the Big Ten.

   Lisle, starting off the first tee at Philly, made a bogey at the fourth hole and was flawless after that with birdies at five, seven, nine, 11, 12 and 18.

   Koelle, starting off the first tee at Merion, ripped off three straight birdies at the ninth, 10^th and 11^th holes, then went back-to-back with birdies at 15 and 16 to get it to 6-under before a bogey at the tough finishing hole dropped him back to 5-under along with Lisle.

   Max Herendeen, a senior at Big Ten power Illinois from Bellevue, Wash. and No. 26 in the WAGR, posted a sparkling 4-under 66 at Philly Country and shared third place with Drake Harvey, an incoming freshman at Brigham Young from Henderson, Nev. who still has two holes left to play at Merion.

   One of the players in the large group tied for fifth place was Miles Russell, the teen phenom from Jacksonville Beach, Fla. who has risen to No. 4 in the WAGR following his runnerup finish in last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur at Saucon Valley Country Club. Russell, starting off the first tee at Merion, carded a solid 67.

   Three local players are very much in with a shot to make the match-play bracket as they are in a large group tied for 77^th place at 1-over.

   Newly minted Merion member Drue Nicholas hit the first drive off the first tee at the East Course to get the proceedings started early Monday and gutted out a 71. Nicholas, a native of Egg Harbor Township, N.J. at the Jersey Shore who starred at Drexel, defeated Ryan in a playoff to capture the Philadelphia Open crown for the second year in a row last month at Lancaster Country Club.

   Charlie Barrickman, who led Unionville to the PIAA Class AAA team crown last fall to wrap up an outstanding scholastic career, also registered a 71 at Merion.

   Barrickman, who will join the Bucknell program later this month, had survived a playoff in Final Qualifying at the tough Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University to punch his ticket to the U.S. Amateur.

   Michael Lugiano, a scholastic standout at Lake Lehman who claimed the individual title in the NCAA Corvallis Regional at the Trysting Tree Golf Club as a sophomore at Liberty in the spring, started off the 11^th tee at Merion and got it around in 1-over.

   Aidan Emmerich of Swampscot, Mass., who wrapped up his career at Temple in the spring, and Logan Paczewski, a scholastic standout at Dallas who will join the program at La Salle as a graduate student later this month, joined Gross in the group tied for 144^th place at 3-over.

   Emmerich started off the 11^th tee at Merion while Paczewski went off the first tee at Philly Country.

   Chuck Tragresser, the PIAA Class AAA runnerup in 2020 as a senior at Franklin Regional and has another season of college golf left at Robert Morris, went off the 10^th tee at Philly Country and recorded a 5-over 75 that left him in the group tied for 215^th place.

   Former Episcopal Academy standout Hunter Stetson, a junior at North Carolina State, started off the 10^th tee at Philly Country and posted a 6-over 76 that left him in the group tied for 241^st place.

   Stetson, the winner of the Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac League individual championship as a sophomore with the Churchmen in 2021, earned his spot in the field by winning the Delaware Amateur title earlier this summer at Rehoboth Beach Country Club.

   Another past Bert Linton winner, Patrick Isztwan, went off the first tee at Philly Country and tallied an 8-over 78 that left him in the group tied for 276^th place.

   Isztwan, who won the Bert Linton as a freshman at Penn Charter on his home course at Huntingdon Valley Country Club in 2017, has twice been beaten in the final of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship.