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Austin Barbin Makes Match Play at Maryland Am

Austin Barbin 96th Maryland Amateur

Chesapeake Bay Golf Club junior golfer Austin Barbin participated in the 96th Maryland State Golf Association’s Amateur Championship June 8-9, 2017 at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Austin was exempt from pre-qualifying for the Maryland Amateur as a participant in the 2016 US Junior Amateur.

About the Maryland Amateur

“The Maryland Amateur is open to any amateur golfer with a USGA handicap index of 7.1 or less, who is a member of an MSGA member club. An entry of 403 golfers in the Amateur Championship has been narrowed down by means of four qualifying rounds to a final field of 132 golfers, which includes 32 exempt players. On Thursday, a stroke-play qualifying round will be played for a chance at 31 spots in the match play field, since the defending champion automatically qualifies.”

Austin Barbin Wins 14-for-1 Playoff with 25 Foot Putt

Thursday, June 8, 2017 Stroke-Play

“The major excitement in on-site qualifying for the 96th Maryland State Amateur
championship was generated at opposite ends of what became the 32-man draw. Ben
Warnquist, the 2015 medalist/champion from Manor Country Club, blitzed the field
with a course-record 34-31–65 at Columbia Country Club to easily claim the
medal, and Austin Barbin, from the Chesapeake Bay GC, survived what started as a
14-for-1 playoff to earn the final spot in the bracket.

With all 131 players tackling the 6,615-yard course on Connecticut Avenue from
the first tee, Warnquist was 1 over par for the first six holes before taking
charge of his game. He birdied the seventh and ninth holes, then more than
offset one bogey with five birdies on the back, including a 16-17-18 finish.

“I hit it well — that was the key,” he said of his round against a par of
35-35–70. “I just tried to keep it in play. It was hard to judge the wind
[which blew steadily on a sunny and mild day] so I was concerned with ball
flight and keeping the ball below the hole [on the slick greens].”

His 65, five shots clear of his closest pursuer, bettered the previous course record of
66, a mark achieved by seven players in the past.  It was also one stroke shy of Josh Eure’s qualifying record of 64, set at Chartwell CC  in 2012, the year he won the championship.

When Benton Weinberg and Patrick McCormick, the final pairing, posted 72 and 71, respectively, this time, there was defender Tyler Herriott, an automatic at the top of the draw, and 30 other players at 74 and better. With one of the 75’s failing to start, the other 13 played the par-3 16th twice, which took care of eight the first time and one the second. At the par-4 17th, Barbin was the only one of four to make par.

Barbin, 16, a junior at Red Lion Christian School, hit the 16th green the first time and two-putted for his par. The second time, his drive almost went into the pond guarding the green but stopped on the slope and he managed to chip up and hole a 15-foot putt. At 17, which features a severely elevated green, he missed the green, chipped to 25 feet and watched his downhill putt curl into the hole.

His reward, like the 32’s before him, was a 7 a.m. (June 9) start against the defender, Herriott, who plays from Old South CC. A year ago, at the Elkridge Club, he defeated Connor Flach in the final. Flach, from Turf Valley CC, made it this time with a 74.”

Austin Barbin paired with Defending Champ Tyler Herriott

Friday, June 9, 2017 Match Play

“Defender Tyler Herriott, from Old South CC, moved through the two rounds with victories over Austin Barbin, from Chesapeake Bay GC, Thursday’s playoff winner for the last spot in the draw, and Tyler Newton, from Winter’s Run GC.”

Source: MSGA.org