PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. – If you looked at the leaderboard at around 9:30 a.m. Monday, you’d need a search warrant to find Owen Mulhern.
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Starting his 36-hole marathon day at Sunnybrook Golf Club on the second nine, Mulhern was 6-over through his first five holes. A long ways away from match play in the 126th BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship.
“After my start, I was looking for the parking lot,” Mulhern said. “I contemplated just playing my round at Sunnybrook and withdrawing. I quickly told myself that would be disrespectful to the game, to GAP and to the Philadelphia Amateur. It took me getting back to getting prideful. I was thinking my son is carrying my bag, my wife is watching the scores and my buddies are paying attention.
“In a 36-hole day, there are going to be opportunities. That’s the beauty of stringing a couple of solid holes together. You get a fist bump from your caddie, you delete a bogey from your scorecard and all of a sudden you have a vibe with a bounce in your step.”
Mulhern rallied with five consecutive birdies on Nos. 15-18 and No. 1 to find himself back in the thick of it. He’d add an eagle, a birdie and a bogey on his remaining holes to shoot a miraculous 1-under 71. He fired a 2-over 72 at The 1912 Club to earn the No. 8 seed.
“The game hasn’t been feeling great,” Mulhern, 48, of Exton, Pa., said. “I performed really poorly in the GAP Mid-Am at Jeffersonville and have been scraping it around. Having my son Keller on the bag this morning was a huge help. We have had a lot of success together. He has an amazing, cool and calm demeanor. He helps me get out of my own way. I was a mess this morning. He kept me in it.”
Keller is a recent graduate of St. Joseph’s University, Dan Feeney a freshman at St. Joe’s, manned Mulhern’s bag in the afternoon at 1912.
The last three years have been an example of how to take advantage of exemptions. In 2023, Mulhern qualified for the U.S. Mid-Amateur. It earned him an exemption into the GAP Middle-Amateur, Philadelphia Amateur and Joseph H. Patterson Cup for 2024. He missed match play for the Philly Amateur in a playoff in 2024. He earned his spot back through qualifying at Elmhurst Country Club in 2025. He grabbed the last spot in match play last year at Aronimink Golf Club once again through a playoff.
“I would say being exempt into the GAP Majors is a Catch-22,” Mulhern said. “I think there’s a part of it where qualifying sharpens your game. If you are preparing for tournaments you can’t replicate tournament play other than competing. Some years where you have to qualify, your game sharpens up. Being exempt is certainly a bonus.”
He will take on No. 25 seed Evan Eichenlaub of Saucon Valley Country Club at 7:45 a.m.
“It is nice to play well in a big spot,” Mulhern said. “In this spot, you are given an opportunity to put up a number to prove you are worthy of getting the exemption. For me and my son Keller, we are two of the only guys that play out of Whitford in GAP competitions. We take a ton of pride representing Whitford. That matters to us quite a bit. I’m sure there are plenty of texts on my phone. We relish the opportunity to compete for ourselves and for our club.”
Mulhern won a Division III National Championship in Lacrosse at Washington College in Chestertown, Md. in 1998. He makes a living working in wealth management. He takes golf like he enjoys his cigars. Slow and easy. The same will be needed when he tees it up Tuesday in his Round of 32 match.
“Playing golf is how I get my competitive juices after playing hockey and lacrosse,” Mulhern said. “There’s a lot of pride. I’ll go home proud of how I fought today with how I started. The last few years, I made it in by the skin of my teeth in a playoff. This time, I am comfortable and don’t have to sweat. It’s a really good feeling.”
Sako makes match play for the first time
Seiji Sako has been waiting for this day as long as he’s played competitive golf. He’s always believed he had the game. He’s always known the potential was there. But the results never seemed to show up in GAP events.
And even when it finally happened in the Stroke Play Qualifying for the 126th BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship Monday at Sunnybrook Golf Club and The 1912 Club, it didn’t come easy.
Sako arrived at 1912 at 6:15 a.m. without a spot in the field. He gained his position at 7 a.m. for Caleb Taylor of LuLu Country Club. Talk about making the most of his opportunity.
“It’s a weird mindset standing on the tee thinking you’re in, and then being told you’re in a playoff,” Sako, 19, of Wynnewood, Pa., said. “But in a 10‑for‑9 playoff, all you gotta do is get the ball in play.”
Moments after the sudden shift of mindset, Sako stepped up and delivered the par he needed to advance into the bracket of 32 vying for the J. Wood Platt Amateur Trophy.
This year, the summer before he heads to Penn State University (Main Campus), hoping to walk onto the golf team, everything finally aligned. Sako found himself standing in the biggest moment of his young career: making match play at the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Sunnybrook.
His track record shows why this breakthrough mattered. In the 2024 Philadelphia Amateur, he shot 82 at North Hills Country Club and 81 at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, finishing 20-over-par and 17 shots outside of qualifying for match play. In 2025, he failed to make the championship proper at all, carding a round of 84 at Blue Bell Country Club in qualifying. For a player talented enough to hold the course record of 55 (-11) at McCall Golf Club, the frustration was real.
He knew exactly what making match play meant for the future.
“What I was told by [my groupmate] Scott McNeil was that making match play gets you exempt through qualifying next year,” Sako, a recent graduate of Lower Merion High School, said. “All of us can shoot even par to a couple over on any given day. So getting the exemption for next year is obviously big.”
Last year, Sako left disappointed, but he kept working and waited for the day when the pieces finally clicked.
“I was pretty upset last year because I really wanted to play Aronimink,” he said. “But this tournament is always so much fun. Great people, great time. A grind for everyone.”
Sako’s junior resume has always hinted at potential. He made match play at the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship in 2024 but did not advance past the first round. In 2023, he won the Francis X. Hussey Memorial with his partner Ian Larsen of Honeybrook Golf Club.
“I’ve been playing well recently,” Sako said. “Some days I putt great and strike it poorly, or the opposite. I’m just happy it all came together on a good day.”
College golf was an option, but academics won out. He will study engineering at Penn State with aspirations to go into the aviation field.
Sako will look to continue this success as the 28-seed, where he’ll face 5-seed John Barone of The 1912 Club at 8:15 a.m.
BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship
Originating in 1897, the Amateur Championship is GAP’s premier individual event. Albert H. Smith of Philadelphia Cricket Club won the first Amateur Championship, then known as the GAP Individual Championship, by defeating J.D. Winsor, Jr. of Merion Cricket Club in 37 holes. The event’s format switched to medal play in 1938. J. Wood Platt went on to win two consecutive Amateur titles under that format. His brother William “Zimmer” Platt earned the 1940 title at Philadelphia Cricket Club by being the only competitor to finish all 72 holes. The event’s format reverted to match play in 1941. The Amateur Championship wasn’t contested from 1943-45 because of World War II. Overall, 34 courses have hosted the Amateur. GAP Magazine Editor-in-Chief Martin D. Emeno, Jr. and Senior Writer Tony Regina chronicled the event’s history in the Summer 2017 edition of the publication.
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 145,000 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.
