Amateurs enjoy golf, talk during West Penn Open

Obremski, Gee in lead at 4 under

There’s a lot two men can talk about during 18 holes of golf.

The amount of time dedicated to chatter also increases when a three- person grouping turns into a two - person pairing, as was the case for amateurs Alex Lawson and Sasha Lobel on Tuesday at Valley Brook Country Club in Canonsburg.

They were supposed to play the opening round of the 116th Western Pennsylvania Golf Association Open Championship with fellow amateur Chad Pappasergi, but his withdrawal meant

Lawson and Lobel found themselves with newfound free time.

As the last group to tee off, the pair only had maintenance workers trailing them on the course. Nonetheless they seemingly flew up and down the rising and falling terrain of Valley Brook, leaving time to stand and talk as they waited for the groups ahead.

On the seventh tee a pause led to conversation about Lobel’s recent graduation from Brown University with a political science degree and a focus on constitutional law.

Lobel insists studying politics at an Ivy League school hasn’t made him a better thinker on the golf course, but the Allderdice High School graduate still easily draws comparisons between his two chosen disciplines.

“Both golf and politics don’t seem to have these quantum leaps,” Lobel said. “They kind of progress a little slowly, and you’re never quite going to get the exact thing that you want. But it’s about perseverance and about keeping moving forward.”

Perseverance was evident in Lobel’s opening round of 1- under 71, good enough for a tie for 12th place, three shots back of championship coleaders Daniel Obremski and Devin Gee.

Lobel was 3 under through his first five holes ( he and Lawson started at No. 12), before making a double bogey and a bogey over the next four holes. Birdies at the fifth and ninth helped steer Lobel’s round back into the red and position him well for Wednesday’s cut for those not among the low 32 scores and ties.

Alongside each blasted drive, well- placed approach shot and fortunate bounce off the cart path, Lobel changed the conversation’s topics.

He joked about being able to recognize each of the nine U. S. Supreme Court Justices should they ever walk past him in an orderly fashion, before discussing the merits of the LSAT as a measuring stick for career success.

As Lobel and Lawson lugged their college- branded bags around the course ( Lobel’s is a tan- colored Brown bag and Lawson’s has the blue and gold colors of Allegheny College), topics touched upon included Duke basketball’s likeability with Zion Williamson compared to Grayson Allen, as well as how college basketball teams struggle against zone defenses.

It’s a reflection of how at home Lobel feels playing in Western Pennsylvania. He remembers Valley Brook, although in a different configuration, from his high school days at Allderdice.

Those adolescent playing experiences were particularly useful, he said, because of how small Allderdice’s golf team was, allowing him to gain an appreciation for the sport beyond individual or team accolades.

“I taught my best friend to play the summer before our senior year so that we had enough [ players],” Lobel said. “The friendships and my ability to sort of just go out there and have fun at Allderdice gave me such an appreciation for the game.”

His unorthodox career continued at Brown, where he had no initial plans to play the sport. But as a sophomore, Lobel said he missed the game too much, and he walked on to the team before becoming a co- captain his senior season in 2018- 19.

Even before his career at Brown took off, Lobel was a recognizable figure in the Western Pennsylvania golf scene.

He became exposed to the sport through a program offered by The First Tee of Pittsburgh while he was in middle school at Sterrett Classical Academy. He served as president of The First Tee’s junior advisory board throughout high school and made a further splash following his senior season at Allderdice by winning the Pittsburgh City Amateur Championship in 2015.

“Being back here I always like to think back on those days in high school, try not to lose that sense of childish joy of playing the game,” Lobel said. “I think I was able to do that a little bit today.”

Youthful effervescence is something Lobel hopes to maintain as he plots his next career move. Without setting anything in stone, he plans to turn professional in the coming months, with his sights set on playing smaller events to try to move up through the lower echelons of professional golf.