Between Monday’s
snowstorm and Wednesday’s ice storm, this little bit of good golf news blew
into a Daily Times email inbox like the warm spring breezes to come.
Philadelphia Cricket Club, not far from the border with
Philadelphia in Montgomery County, has a long and illustrious history, which
includes hosting the 1907 and 1910 U.S. Opens.
Joining a recent trend that will bring the 2016 U.S. Women’s
Amateur to Rolling Green Golf Club right here in Delaware County and the 2016
U.S. Middle Amateur Championship to Stonewall in Chester County, the PGA will
stage the 48th PGA Professional National Championship, presented by
Club Car, Mercedes-Benz and OMEGA, to the Cricket Club June 21-24, 2015.
The National Club Pro, the moniker by which the event was
known for many years, brings together the top club professionals from around
the country. In addition to the most lucrative purse the club pros play for,
there is the added incentive of a berth in the PGA Championship later in the
summer for the top 20 finishers.
Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club,
earned his third trip to the PGA Championship last summer with a tie for fourth
at the National Club Pro at the Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore. Stu Ingraham,
the teaching pro at the M Golf Range in Newtown Square, has taken the National
Club Pro route to the PGA Championship six times in his career.
The Cricket Club boasts two great layouts, one, the
Wissahickon Course (formerly known as the Flourtown), is a classic A.W.
Tillinghast and the other, the Militia Hill Course, is the work of Dr. Michael
Hurdzan and Dana Fry.
The Cricket Club was formed in 1854 and its first nine-hole
layout, the St. Martins, was built by Willie Tucker and still exists as a
nine-hole course. Nine holes were added to the original St. Martins and that’s
the course over which the two early Opens were played.
Tillinghast’s Wissahickon course was completed in 1922 and
the Hurdzan’s and Fry’s work in creating the Militia Hill course was completed
in 2002.
I covered a Philadelphia Section PGA Championship at the
Wissahickon Course, probably in 1978 or thereabouts. Delco’s own Eddie
Dougherty dominated the tournament until a sore hand derailed his chances.
Pretty sure Mike Nilon won that in a four-way playoff in fading daylight, but the course was a gem, in
much the same way that so many of its neighbors are, like Whitemarsh Valley and
Sunnybrook and Manufacturers.
I’ve covered a pair of Inter-Ac Tournaments at the Militia
Hill course, one won by Haverford School’s Michael Kania and one won by
Haverford School’s Cole Berman, and found it long and demanding. Berman, by the
way, is a member at the Cricket Club and won the decisive point that gave the
club the Golf Association of Philadelphia Team Match title last spring.
The 312-player National Club Pro field will alternate
courses in the first two rounds with the final 36 holes being contested at the
Wissahickon Course after the field is cut.
“It’s exciting to have our PGA National Professional
Championship coming to Philadelphia Cricket Club, a venue that connects much of
the early history of golf in this country with the design excellence of A.W.
Tillinghast, who was a key adviser at our founding nearly a century ago,” said
Ted Bishop, president of the PGA of America, in a PGA release this week. “Our talented
field of PGA professionals will find a great test at Philadelphia Cricket Club
and we anticipate that an outstanding champion will be crowned in 2015.”
Bob Bauer is the Philadelphia Cricket Club 2015 Tournament
Chair and is anxious to see how some renovations to the Wissahickon Course will
hold up against a talented field of club pros.
“We’re very honored to host the 2015 PGA National
Professional Championship, with our historic Wissahickon Course designed by our
legendary member, A.W. Tillinghast,” Bauer said. “After years of research and
planning, the club hired Keith Foster, a Tillinghast golf course restoration specialist,
to return the original and distinctive features to the course and bring it up to
date to account for changes in golf technology.
“We are confident this historic course will provide a worthy
test for the finest PGA professionals competing in this prestigious
championship. We look forward to welcoming the PGA of America in 2015.”
Foster’s work is expected to be completed this spring.
The 7,119-yard, par-70 Wissahickon course has been the site
of numerous Golf Association of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Section PGA
events since its opening. The 7,199-yard, par-72 Militia Hill layout has regularly
appeared on lists of top 25 courses in Pennsylvania since its arrival on the scene
a little more than a decade ago.
“We have a fantastic membership that I know is looking
forward to hosting this national championship,” said Jim Smith Jr., PGA
director of golf at the Cricket Club. “Wissahickon and Militia Hill are two
distinctly different courses, but complement each other so well.
“Militia Hill received rave reviews for its design and
conditioning while hosting multiple section and Golf Association of Philadelphia
events. Our membership is confident that the restoration of Wissahickon will
have this Tillinghast design mentioned as one of his finest classic courses.”
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