Jeff Osberg (left) and Michael McDermott carded a 6-under-par 66 at Whitemarsh Valley.

GAP titans McDermott, Osberg top U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Qualifier

  LAFAYETTE HILL, Pa. — Jeff Osberg and Michael McDermott spent the summer sparring for Golf Association of Philadelphia supremacy. On Tuesday, the titanic talents set aside their spirited duel for a shot at shared glory.

  The collaboration, as many a Philadelphia golf pundit projected, proved impressive. Osberg and McDermott earned medalist honors in a U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Qualifier administered by Golf Association of Philadelphia at a wonderful Whitemarsh Valley Country Club (par 72, 6,872 yards). The Bryn Mawr, Pa. residents carded a scintillating 6-under-par 66 to top the 45-team field.

  Longtime friends David Liotta of West Chester, Pa. and P. Chet Walsh of Wayne, Pa. also advanced. The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball will take place May 21-25, 2016 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y.

  “If you can’t beat him, join him,” McDermott, who finished second to Osberg in the 2015 William Hyndman, III Player of the Year race, said. “I called Jeff last night and we talked about [what today would be like]. I actually approached it like I was playing against Jeff. He didn’t start off great, and I joked with him at the 6th hole and said, ‘I’m 1-up.’ Generally this summer, if I played against Jeff and stayed close, I was doing OK.”

  “As soon as the tournament came out, I thought there would be nobody better in the area, maybe in the country to partner with. Michael’s not only a friend of mine, but he’s obviously a great player,” Osberg, 31, added.

  Both Osberg and McDermott clearly demonstrated their playing prowess in 2015. They finished second and third, respectively, in the GAP Middle-Amateur Championship in May. A month later, McDermott bested Osberg in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship’s Round of 16. He also edged Osberg by a stroke for runner-up honors in the Patterson Cup. To top it off, both players competed in the U.S. Mid-Amateur earlier this month. Neither gained match play.

  “I gave Jeff one instruction: since he was 6 under midway through the back nine of every GAP tournament this year, [I said] just do that today,” McDermott, 40, said.

  “Our philosophy was to stay aggressive and try to make birdies,” Osberg, who earned his second Silver Cross Award this year, added. “We had some good shots that didn’t end up exactly where we thought they were going to be, and we had a couple that we played for the wind and didn’t hit them.”

  Firm and fast greens, challenging hole locations and shifting winds complicated the seismic smashers’ strategy at Whitemarsh Tuesday. Osberg and McDermott joined a gaggle of teams tied atop the leaderboard at 1 under early. Their mark came courtesy of kick-in birdies on the par 5, 565-yard No. 3. Osberg bolstered their qualifying prospects with an invigorating 3 on No. 8 (par 4, 480 yards). He knocked a gap wedge 132 yards to 10 feet above the flagstick.

  “That was a really big putt because we had nothing going at that point,” McDermott, a five-time William Hyndman, III POY, said. “I was playing OK but I kept hitting it to 20 feet with a putt that I’m just begging to get close.”

  The Osberg and McDermott team started to separate with a pair of birdies to start its inward tour. After clearing a stack of left fairway bunkers with a towering drive, Osberg skied a lob wedge 55 yards to five feet on No. 10 (par 4, 381 yards). He hammered a 3-wood from 245 yards into the front right bunker on the par 5, 515-yard 11th hole. Osberg then splashed out to eight feet.

  Five pars later, the Osberg and McDermott team arrived at the par 5, 488-yard 17th hole needing more red to feel safe. The notorious long-hitters capitalized on a downhill, downwind tee scenario. Osberg, from the fairway’s center, hit an 8-iron 167 yards to 10 feet below a back-right hole location and drained the eagle putt. McDermott, a Merion Golf Club member, executed a testy 12-footer to save par on the closing 18th hole (par 4, 464 yards).

  McDemott won his first BMW Philadelphia Amateur title in 2008 at Whitemarsh Valley. He reclaimed the J. Wood Platt Trophy in 2013. Osberg followed suit a year later. The two also hold Patterson Cup trophies to their credit: McDemott in 2007, Osberg in 2010.

  Individual success aside, Osberg and McDermott feel thrilled with the opportunity to compete alongside one another on a national stage.

  “It’s definitely something that’s cool to look forward to over the winter,” Osberg, a Huntingdon Valley Country Club member, said. “It’ll motivate us pretty hard in April to get the clubs out and to get our games in shape to compete with the rest of the country.”

  Liotta and Walsh agreed to a “home-and-home” contract concerning the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball. They competed in a qualifier at Philadelphia Country Club, Walsh’s home course, a year ago. Liotta is a Whitemarsh member, so a failure to advance Tuesday would sever the partnership. A break-up is currently on standby.

  “We have the same sense of humor. We rib each other so you’re loose the entire time,” Liotta, 46, said. “There’s a mutual respect between each other. You take the good shots and bad shots with a grain of salt and move on.”

  “He knows the golf course and where you can’t hit it,” Walsh, 50, added. “I joked with him that I wasn’t allowed to pull a club unless he told me where to go. We were fortunate to not get frustrated. When we realized how hard the golf course was playing, we said, ‘Let’s just be patient and get it to 4 or 5 under, and 4 under was enough.”

  An incident on the par 4, 370-yard 13th hole showcased the team’s dynamic. Liotta stopped a shot from the front right bunker at four feet. Walsh, meanwhile, landed his approach 35 feet above the hole location. His ensuing request for Liotta to finish was met with verbal resistance. The latter missed the four-footer and blamed Walsh for the error. The exchange somehow worked in the team’s favor.

  “He had been reading every one of my putts and I said, ‘Stay away from me. You have too much negative energy right now,’” Walsh said. “He made a solid par on the next hole and great par on No. 16 when I missed the green.” Walsh two-putted for par on No. 13.

  “That sort of made me batten down the hatches a little bit,” Liotta said.

Golf Association of Philadelphia
  Founded in 1897, the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) is the oldest regional golf association in the United States and serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. Its 151 Member Clubs and 57,000 individual members are spread across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. As Philadelphia’s Most Trusted Source of Golf Information, the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.