Austin Barbin is finally playing the golf he knows he is capable of. In the span of 10 days in June, Barbin blitzed the fields to win the Maryland Amateur and the BMW Philadelphia Amateur.
The tournaments, each consisting of stroke-play rounds which narrowed the field for match play, had never been won by the same player in the same year until Barbin’s magnificent run. He finished near the top of the leaderboards in stroke-play qualifying – third in Maryland and second in Philadelphia – before racing through match play.
Of his 10 matches in the two tournaments, Barbin, of Elkton, Maryland, won seven of them by five or more holes. His two championship matches, which were scheduled for 36 holes, produced his two biggest victories. Barbin bested Lehigh’s Jake Roth, 7 and 6, for the Maryland title and former Drexel standout Aaron Fricke, 9 and 7, for the Philadelphia crown.
For Barbin, these victories were especially sweet because his dad, Andy, was on the bag for both. Andy had broached the idea of Barbin retaining his amateur eligibility for a few extra weeks so he could play in the two events after graduating from Liberty University.
Andy had seen Barbin play well in the Maryland and Philadelphia events in previous years and thought his son’s competing in the two tournaments could be a fun way to cap off an amateur career, especially as Austin’s older brother Zach had won the Philadelphia Amateur in 2020.
Andy Barbin recalled a conversation with his son, telling him: “There’s not a whole lot going on the first few weeks of June. You’re exempt into everything because of your play last year. You didn’t have your A-game this time last year. Who knows? Wouldn’t it be cool to have a great thing for you to remember for the rest of your life?”
Barbin was, admittedly, ready to turn the page to a professional golf career immediately after a difficult five years of college golf; two seasons at the University of Maryland and three at Liberty.
Barbin’s college career was especially disappointing because he went into school in 2019 with a résumé chock full of victories. Barbin had captured the Maryland and Delaware state junior titles and the Philadelphia Junior. He fired a course-record 63 at DuPont Country Club’s DuPont Course in the process of winning the AJGA’s Imperial Headwear Junior Classic by 11 strokes, among many other titles.
At Maryland and Liberty, he did not extend his winning ways. He had a few top-fives and top-10s but never consistently played to the level he expected.
“I was kind of perceived as, ‘This guy was a good junior golfer, but he can’t really perform in college,’ and that’s how it started to feel,” Barbin said.
After graduating, Barbin was excited to surround himself with people who knew how deep his struggles were and how much his college years were unrepresentative of his abilities as a golfer. This was easy for Barbin because his family owns his home course, Chesapeake Bay Golf Club in Rising Sun, Maryland, where his dad is the director of golf, mother Allison helps run the business, older brother, Andrew Jr., is the head professional and older brother, Zach, is the assistant pro. Barbin’s younger brother, Evan, who will be a rising junior at Liberty and also helps at the home course, won the recent Delaware Amateur.
“I changed a few things [with my] putting,” Austin said about his preparation for the Maryland and Philadelphia Amateurs. “Other than that, everything else was pretty much the same … getting in a comfortable place, being back home, and having less expectations because I wanted to play pro golf and I was done with amateur golf.”
As Barbin knows well, life does not always go to plan, and he now finds himself ready to retain his amateur status for the entire summer, as his win at the Maryland Amateur got him an exemption into the U.S. Amateur. The tournament, set for August 12-18 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, will be a poetic setting for the end of Barbin’s amateur career. His only previous appearance in the event was in 2019 at Pinehurst (North Carolina) Resort, site of the recent U.S. Open.
“Golf is really just a game. It doesn’t define me; it doesn’t define my family; it doesn’t define what I think of myself.”
Austin BarbIN
Back then, Barbin was at the precipice of what he expected to be an excellent college career. That, of course, didn’t go as planned. Now, he’ll be playing in the same tournament on the eve of what he hopes will be a successful professional career. Barbin has the confidence and the will to make his dreams come true. He will not take these opportunities for granted because he knows just how fickle this game can be.
Barbin will continue to practice at Chesapeake Bay and compete in events around the Philadelphia area in the run-up to the trip to Hazeltine. He was scheduled to play in the Maryland Open, which begins today at Talbot Country Club in Easton. He’ll still compete in those intense matches with his brothers, where iron has and will continue to sharpen iron on the course they call home. He’ll remain steadfast in his Christian faith as he has throughout his winding golf journey.
“Golf is really just a game. It doesn’t define me; it doesn’t define my family; it doesn’t define what I think of myself,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s just a game. My goal is to give God the glory in anything I do.”
Whether or not he finds professional glory, Barbin is certain to have the satisfaction of his dad on the bag for the U.S. Amateur and the life lessons only the peaks and valleys of golf can provide.
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PHOTOS COURTESY LIBERTY UNIVERSITY