2024 PA Amateur Day 2 Recap

Isztwan, Sheehan remain tied after two rounds at 111^th Pennsylvania Amateur

HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa. – For the second consecutive day, Patrick Isztwan and Patrick Sheehan are tied for the lead at the 111^th Pennsylvania Amateur, with both shooting even-par 70 in Tuesday’s second round. This year’s championship, hosted by Huntingdon Valley Country Club, qualified nine of its members into the field—of which Isztwan is the highest on the leaderboard. 

“It’s exciting and always cool to represent the club,” said Isztwan.  “It’s such a great course. We have a lot of really good players here and so whenever there’s an event here, we try to put it on the calendar.”

“I played really smart most of the round,” recalled Isztwan. “Had a couple par saves early to help make all pars on the front, then finally had birdies on 11 and 15. On 16 I played smart as well, just four-putted, then had a great save on 18. 18 was certainly a bogey when I hit the approach shot, so par was a bit of a steal there.” 

Sheehan, of Talamore Country Club, started his day on the back nine, playing solid with birdies on 15 and 18 to go two-under, but ran into some trouble after that—with a double bogey on 1 and a bogey on 2. 

“The first nine holes was pretty clean and I was playing really well,” said Sheehan. “I tried to keep it going but tugged it a little left on hole 1 and ended up losing it. Our whole group was battling the wind the last eight holes, it was swirling and everywhere we thought it was going was not where it was so that was kind of frustrating. I made a really good up-and-down on 3, probably hit the best 5-iron I’ve hit in a long time, flew into the back of the green and found the fescue, but hit a really good shot to six feet, so that was nice.” 

Jake Haberstumpf (Steel Club) finds himself in third place after logging a solid two-under-par 68 in round two after shooting even-par on Monday. His round on Tuesday began on the back nine and started with bogeys on 10 and 14, but he equalized things with birdies on 15 and 18. On the front, Haberstumpf totaled three birdies (on 4, 7, and 9) to just one bogey (on hole No. 3). 

LuLu Country Club’s Jon Rusk is still in the hunt and has shot two rounds of even-par 70 this week to tie for fourth place along with Gregor Orlando (Philadelphia Cricket Club), who tied for the lowest round of the day with a four-under 66. 

Sixth place belongs to four competitors who are five strokes back of the leaders with a two-day total of 142 (+2): Evan Barbin (Philadelphia Publinks), Evan Eichenlaub (Saucon Valley CC), Amani D’Ambrosio (Longue Vue Club), and Chuck Tragesser (Willowbrook CC). Tragesser was the other golfer who shot 66 (-4) to tie for the lowest score of round two. 

Five additional players are tied for 10^th place with two-day totals of 143 (+3) and include Andrew Mason (Huntingdon Valley CC), Aaron Fricke (LuLu CC), John Aber (Allegheny CC), Billy Pabst (Elmhurst CC), and Karl Frisk (Out Door CC). 

41 total competitors advance to Wednesday’s final round, with tee times beginning at 7:30 a.m.

The Pennsylvania Golf Association would like to thank the staff and membership of Huntingdon Valley Country Club for the hospitality shown during today’s round. Thanks as well to DICK’S Sporting Goods for sponsorship of the event.