JACKSON BELONGS WITH STATE’S BEST AMATEURS
Palmer Jackson is one of the few recent high school graduates who knows what it’s like to leave the course and go to bed with at least a share of the lead heading into the final day of a tournament.
He did it in the PIAA Class 3A finals at Heritage Hills in York when he was in a three- way for first with Patrick Sheehan of Central Bucks East and Andrew Wallace of Harriton with a 2over 73. He came out the next day and fired a 67 to become the first Franklin Regional golfer ever to win the state title.
Earlier this month he had the same situation after the second round of the 119th Western Pennsylvania Golf Association Amateur Championship as he headed into the final round with a twoshot lead after posting an even- par 142 in the first two rounds.
“I knew going into the last round that I had to shoot something around par because my goal is obviously to shoot as low as I could and to try to play under par, but the course is so difficult the field would come back right to where I was,” Jackson said. “I had to stay on my game and, to be honest, to win, I had to play as good as I did the first two days.”
This time, however, he wasn’t trying to hold the lead against high school kids but established regional players who had prior experience in the event. And he wasn’t playing at Heritage Hills.
He was teeing it up at Oakmont Country Club.
Jackson played his final round at 6- over 77 and finished in a three- way tie for second, two shots behind champion Connor Schmidt, a 2016 Peters Township graduate who was a secondteam all- Colonial Athletic Conference selection at Drexel for the 2018- 19 collegiate season.
“It was really cool and the venue itself is fantastic,” Jackson said. “Just playing at Oakmont is pretty special. Oakmont is difficult for anyone and, the two- shot lead I had, out there it’s really nothing because you can make a big score on any hole.”
Jackson opened up the third round with a pair of pars, but double- bogeyed No. 3 and also posted bogeys on No. 8 and No. 9 to make the turn at 40. Though still in contention at that time, he then bogeyed No. 16 and the closing hole, which put the lead out of reach.
“I was just a little off in the final round,” Jackson said. “But I didn’t really play well enough to win.”
Losing a two- shot lead in the final round might have been disappointing, but he rebounded quickly. On Tuesday, he became the first three- time winner of the WPGA’s C. R. Miller Match Play Invitational at Latrobe Country Club. He ousted three- time WPIAL Class 2A champion Skyler Fox of Riverside, 6- and- 5, in the semifinals and toppled PIAA Class 2A state finalist Angus McHolme of Elizabeth Forward, 7- and- 6, in the finals.
Both the win and the loss will be outstanding learning experiences for Jackson as he heads off to play at Notre Dame in the fall.
“It’s pretty good because you don’t get a lot of chances to win, especially at a big tournament, so I can look back on it when I’m in college so that I know how to play with a lead, I know how to play with great players because there were great collegiate players in that tournament,” Jackson said. “I also know what it’s like to play on a good course, so it’s all positive for me.”