124th BMW Philadelphia Amateur: Day One Recap

HVCC’s Patrick Isztwan adds to Amateur legacy

LAFAYETTE HILL, Pa. – Patrick Isztwan of Huntingdon Valley Country Club needed a fortuitous email and some lady luck to make it into and out of BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship Qualifying last year. Tuesday, he took matters into his hands. In a record-setting way.

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Isztwan posted an Amateur Championship tournament low 9-under-par 134. The 9 under is a record score in relation to par. The 134 two-round total equals Doylestown Clint Deibert’s mark set in 2006 at Huntingdon Valley and Torresdale-Frankford Country Club (now Union League Golf Club at Torresdale).

Isztwan’s rounds were 69 at North Hills Country Club (par 71, 6,498 yards) in the morning and 65 at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club (par 72, 6,843 yards).

The first-round matches begin at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow. Second-round matches follow.

The quarterfinals and semifinals are Thursday. The 36-hole Final begins at 7 a.m. Saturday.

The cut line fell at 3-over 146. There was an 11-player for nine positions playoff.

Michael R. Brown, Jr. of LuLu Country Club, the 2022 BMW Philadelphia Amateur Champion, earned the 32^nd and final qualifying position. He plays Isztwan.

Michael Crowley, the reigning BMW Philadelphia Amateur Champion, qualified for match play and is the No. 13 seed.

Home-club hopeful Will Davenport, fresh off a sterling run to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball with partner Mike Smith at neighboring Philadelphia Cricket Club a few weeks ago, finished at 5 under and is the No. 4 seed.

“That’s pretty awesome,” said Isztwan, 20, of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., of setting the record. “I mean the names on that list are phenomenal. The history of GAP is so deep that that’s very special.

“[My caddie] Cory [Meyer] and I talked about it yesterday, about not trying to top last year. I mean, even if somehow I go on to win it this year or some other year, I’m probably never gonna top just the experience of playing at home and playing in front of everyone. So the goal this year was to not be thinking about last year and just playing the holes in front of us and letting it all fall into place.”

He did that in spades.

Isztwan’s 2 under at North Hills in the morning was one of three a.m. rounds in the red.

Then at Whitemarsh Valley for the afternoon 18 holes, Isztwan, who carried his cardboard lunch box around for the entire round, caught fire.

“I’ve done it a lot in in college events when they give you the box lunch in-between rounds,” said Isztwan, who was an alternate last year before receiving an email from GAP’s Championship Department to inform him he was in the field. “I like it because there’s food in there. And sometimes you get hungry at the end of the rounds and I don’t have a ton of like snacks in my bag. So it’s like kind of a fallback plan. Every time I do it, there’s a bunch of people asking me to take it and throw it out for me. I’m like, ‘No.’ I don’t know, maybe it [keeps me] comfortable.”

Starting on the back nine, he birdied Nos. 12 (par 3, 175 yards), 13 (par 4, 372 yards) and 17 (par 5, 484 yards). The final coming with a spectacular sand play from the left greenside bunker. A longest splash shot spun below the hole to 10 feet before he rolled it in. Isztwan added a circle on No. 2 (par 4, 431 yards), before almost recording, dare we say, a golfing first – an ace, albatross combo.

On No. 4 (par 3, 241 yards), he ripped a 6-iron that bounced short of the green and rolled up to 10 inches. From the tee, it appeared that the ball took a look at the cup.

Two shots later, on No. 5 (par 5, 509 yards), Isztwan’s 230-yard, 4-iron hit the flagstick and stopped four feet from the hole. A perfect coda to his medalist performance.

“You don’t want to end up in a playoff but the goal today was just to make match play,” said Isztwan. “And I put myself in a good position after North Hills. Then I was just able to kind of come out here and play smart and had a couple of putts drop for me. I mean there are so many good players in GAP that it doesn’t matter what seed you are, you’re gonna have a tough match. So I’m not going to be walking through anyone. I’m going to have a tough match whoever I play.

“Cory and I were very definitive with lines out there today. That’ll be the same thing tomorrow. Hopefully, not get ahead of ourselves and not get too upset. We are just trying to stay levelheaded. I played real smart. We were very disciplined out there.”

We’ll see if it’s a championship recipe, or at least a repeat championship match recipe.

GAP
Celebrating Amateur Golf since 1897, GAP, also known as the Golf Association of Philadelphia, is the oldest regional or state golf association in the United States. It serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. The organization’s 345 Member Clubs and 110,000 individual members are spread across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.