Barbaree Rallies to Win U.S. Junior Amateur


Philip Barbaree, 17, of Shreveport, La., matched the largest comeback in U.S. Junior Amateur history in defeating Andrew Orischak, 16, of Hilton Head Island, S.C., in Saturday's final match.

Five holes down with eight holes remaining, Barbaree managed to rally for a 37-hole win on the 7,366-yard, par-72 Colleton River Plantation Club's Dye Course in Bluffton, S.C. It was the most holes played in championship history since the USGA went to a 36-hole final 10 years ago.

In becoming the first Louisiana resident to win the U.S. Junior Amateur since Willie Wood (Lake Charles) in 1977, Barbaree matched Andy Hyeon Bo Shim's comeback three years ago at the Golf Club of New Hampshire for the largest comeback in the event's 68-year history. Shim trailed 2010 champion Jim Liu, 5 down, at the lunch break before winning eight of the next 10 holes for a 4-and-3 victory.

"It's definitely the biggest junior tournament out there and to win it means a lot," said Barbaree. "It says a lot about how much I've been practicing for this and how hard I've been working for this."

As champion, Barbaree, a junior at C.E. Byrd High, receives exemptions into the next two U.S. Amateurs - next month's championship at Olympia Fields (Ill.) Country Club and at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., in 2016. He also is exempt from U.S. Open local qualifying for the next three years. Orischak also is exempt into the 2015 U.S. Amateur and from U.S. Open local qualifying next year.

Because of various suspensions caused by bad weather, Barbaree played 84 holes in two days. He admitted to being low on energy by the afternoon portion of the 36-hole finale. "I got four or five hours of sleep [Friday] night," he said. "Then to come out and play 84 holes, I had no idea how to do it."

Most of the gallery came to support Orischak, who saw Barbaree birdie the 29th and 30th holes to get within three, birdie the par-4 36th hole to reach all-square, before encountering trouble on the 15th hole - the 37th of the match - and losing to Barbaree's bogey. The junior at nearby Hilton Head High, who plays out of Long Cove Club, admitted he might have thought the match was over when he went 5-up with eight to play.

"The whole week I just said I was going to hit one shot at a time and I thought that the mentally toughest person was going to win," said Orischak. "And it wasn't me because I got ahead of myself. I was thinking about winning before the match was over, and I still had golf to be played."

The above report is courtesy of the USGA. For more information, visit www.usga.org.