There is more to life than just golf for Palisadian Sean Barrett. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t out to win every round he plays. Because for him, it’s the competition itself that is fun. Barrett was a standout player at Loyola High and just completed his freshman year at Pennsylvania, where he was 10th in the Ivy League Individuals and had the second-lowest scoring average on the Quakers’ team. He also finished third in a field of 95 golfers at the St. John’s Invitational in Florida. Yet Barrett likes to keep his time on the links in perspective. ‘I had a great time playing, I got my feet wet,’ Barrett said. ‘But right now I don’t have any aspirations of playing professionally. If I did, I would’ve stayed on the West Coast for college. My focus is more on school right now but I’m also getting a chance to play good, competitive golf.’ Though he lives near Riviera Country Club, Barrett considers his home course to be Bel Air Country Club because that is where he grew up playing. When he was six years old, Eddie Merrins [now Bel Air Country Club’s pro emeritus] would let Barrett and his father, Kevin, on the course at 5:30 a.m. every Sunday for a quick round. The son’s interest continued to grow and culminated in a hole in one at the Junior World Golf Championships in San Diego when he was 10 years old. ‘My dad signed me up and I didn’t know what I was doing,’ Barrett admitted. ‘I showed up in shorts and I don’t even think I had the right shoes. I remember it was a par 3 hole, 146 yards.’ A few years later, he shot another hole in one on a 104-yard par 3 at a course in North Los Angeles County while he was an eight-grader at Harvard-Westlake. He has yet to hit another, but he consistently shoots in the low 70s. His best score ever is 67, when he shot a 36 on the front nine and 31 on the back. ‘I’d have to say consistency is my strength,’ Barrett said. ‘I hit the ball pretty straight in the fairways. The difference I see between me and the guys winning is putting, so I’m going to practice on my short game this summer.’ After helping lead Harvard-Westlake High to the Mission League golf title as a freshman, Barrett decided to transfer to Loyola because of its community service program and philanthropic activities. ‘Going to Loyola is one of the best things that ever happened to me,’ Barrett said. ‘It really prepared me for the next stage of my life.’ As a sophomore, Barrett led the Cubs to the Mission League title and the CIF championship, shooting a one-under-par 71 at Santa Barbara’s Soule Park. His junior year saw Loyola win the Mission League title again, only to lose in the CIF finals. Throughout his high school career, Barrett also won seven Southern California Golf Association events and ranked among the Top 20 in his age group by the American Junior Golf Association. Between his junior and senior years he just missed qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Championships, losing by one stroke to UCLA’s John Marrick. Barrett earned All-CIF honors his senior year, shooting a school-record 5-under-par 67 in the CIF finals. He could’ve walked on at UCLA and he was offered a partial scholarship to Georgetown, but he chose Penn because of its academics and the Wharton Business School, where he plans to major in finance.
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