#PattersonCup: Barbin sweeps first two Majors of year

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa.–Zach Barbin entered the 2020 season hoping to get over the proverbial hump. He heads to Liberty University in a few weeks having leapt into the history books.

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Barbin defeated Gregor Orlando of Philadelphia Cricket Club and Jeff Osberg of Pine Valley Golf Club in a four-hole aggregate playoff for the 118^th Joseph H. Patterson Cup title Wednesday at The 1912 Club (par 70, 6,710 yards). In June, the 21-year-old from Elkton, Md. captured his first Major title, the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship. Barbin is the first player to win both titles in the same year since James Kania, Sr. of Overbrook Golf Club in 1995.

“To say you are going to win the Philly Amateur and Patterson Cup [in the same year], that’s ridiculous,” said Barbin, a Loch Nairn Golf Club member. “I came in second in Stroke-Play Qualifying for the Amateur at Stonewall in 2019 and that was kind of the point I realized I could actually play with these guys. I still can’t believe [I won]. I’m pretty stunned.”

The most shocking moment of the tournament came minutes earlier. Osberg, the reigning Patterson Cup Champion and three-time winner (2010, 2016, 2019), needed to convert a two-footer for par on the fourth playoff hole (Nos. 1-9-10-18) to equal Barbin’s score of 15 strokes. Orlando finished in 17 strokes and was eliminated. A sudden-death playoff loomed.

Instead, Barbin and a small gallery of onlookers watched in stunned disbelief as Osberg’s par putt rimmed the left edge.

“I’m really not that upset,” said Osberg, 36, of Bryn Mawr, Pa. “I feel like I hit a good putt. I don’t know what to say about it. I tapped down all of the marks that were there. I know that something didn’t cause it to happen. For that not to go in is devastating.”

Added Barbin, “He’s Jeff Osberg. He doesn’t miss those kind of putts. He is one of the best players if not the best player in our region. I can’t believe he missed it.”

The Patterson Cup is typically a 36-hole stroke-play competition. However, Hurricane Isaias washed out Tuesday’s opening round at The ACE Club and reduced the championship to 18 holes.

All three players finished regulation at 3 under.

Both Barbin and Osberg could have captured the title outright but finished their rounds with bogeys. Orlando finished his final nine in 2 under to share the lead.

In the playoff, Osberg parred No. 1 (par 4, 480 yards) compared to a pair of bogeys by his foes.

On No. 9 (par 4, 390 yards), the second playoff hole, all three players put on a clinic. Each hitting a wedge from short distance relatively tight. All three made birdies.

The count: Osberg 7; Barbin 8, Orlando 8.

Barbin’s mettle on No. 10 (par 4, 460 yards) went a long way in hoisting the sterling silver trophy at the end.

He drained a 35-foot birdie putt to draw even with Osberg.

“I hit a 9-iron from 157 yards just trying to play into the middle of the green. It’s a hard shot to get back to the hole. I figured if I could make par I would be just one down or even going into 18,” said Barbin, a rising senior at Liberty. “That putt was crazy. I wasn’t trying to make it. I was trying to lag it. It had the perfect speed and broke about three feet.”

Osberg answered Barbin’s birdie with a thrilling hole-out from 30 feet off the green to save par. He missed the putting surface left before watching his chip shot run to the other side.

Barbin and Osberg entered the final hole tied at 11 strokes. Orlando, 29, of Haverford, Pa., registered a three-putt bogey. He had 13 strokes.

On No. 18 (par 4, 450 yards), Osberg found the fairway. Barbin crushed a drive that stopped just in the right rough first cut. Osberg slightly pulled a 9-iron from 154 yards that spun off the front, left portion of the green and stopped 35 feet away. Barbin hit a pitching wedge from 157 yards up-and-over a tree in his path and landed 20 feet right of the hole. Osberg putted through five feet of fairway and watched his attempt curl left-to-right on the high side of the cup and stop two feet away. Barbin charged his birdie bid a bit. He drained a knee-knocking four-footer to save par.

Then the Osberg thing happened.

“That putt coming back was really hard. I can’t believe I made it,” said Barbin. “It’s tough to win that way. Jeff and Gregor were playing great. You want to beat the person to win, not have the guy make a mistake like that. It was a shame.”

All three players have Major pedigree. Each has won an Amateur title. Orlando was triumphant in 2017. Osberg earned his Amateur in 2014, amongst his three Patterson Cup wins and two Open Championship victories.

Silver Cross
This isn’t the last time Barbin and Osberg will see each this year. The two sit tied atop the Silver Cross Award standings with a score of 137.

An 18-hole playoff is needed with a date and site to be determined.

The Silver Cross is an annual award presented to the player with the lowest aggregate score in the qualifying rounds of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship and the two rounds of the Joseph H. Patterson Cup.

It was reduced to 36 holes this year. Amateur Qualifying was trimmed from two rounds to 18 holes due to COVID-19 procedures. The opening day of the Patterson Cup was washed out due to Hurricane Isaias.

It the first time in its 114-year history the Award consists of just 36 holes. There were five years in which the Silver Cross was not presented: 1917-18 (World War I) and 1943-45 (World War II).

Both players carded even-par 70s at Lancaster Country Club.

Osberg is in search of a fifth Silver Cross after wins in 2010, 2015-16 and 2019.

A Barbin victory would be his first.

J. Wood Platt holds the Silver Cross record of seven.

Joseph H. Patterson Cup
The second oldest Championship in the Golf Association of Philadelphia, the Joseph H. Patterson Cup memorializes a man who fostered the game in its infancy. Joseph Henry Patterson, a Philadelphia Cricket Club member, competed in the first out-of-town match played by a team of Philadelphians. Friends of Patterson donated the Cup, designed by J.E. Caldwell & Co., to the Association in 1900.

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 Association’s 288 Member Clubs and 75,000 individual members are spread across the Eastern half of Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey and Delaware. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.