Ingraham, Fieger, Forster earn spots in Senior PGA Championship

   The pro shop at Overbrook Golf Club was the home for two of the Philadelphia Section PGA’s best players in the 1990s.

   Gene Fieger, the 1979 District One champion at Nether Providence and an assistant pro at Overbrook, was the Section’s Player of the Year five times in a stretch from 1992 to 1998. Stu Ingraham was the head pro who was regularly making it to the PGA Championship out of the Professional National Championship.

   So it’s probably not a huge surprise to see Fieger, the Director of Golf at The Hideout Golf Club in Naples, Fla., and Ingraham, an instructor at the M Golf Range in Newtown Square, land on the same number when the PGA Senior Professional National Championship presented by Mercedes-Benz USA completed play Sunday at the Bayonet Course on the Monterrey Peninsula in Seaside, Calif.

   Ingraham opened up with a 73 at the Bayonet Course and fired a second-round 69 at the Black Horse Course. Weekend rounds of 69 and 73 at the Bayonet left him a 4-under 284. Fieger opened with a 67 at the Black Horse and added a second-round 72 at the Bayonet. Steady weekend rounds of 71 and 74 left him at 4-under 284.

   Fieger and Ingraham, both 55, finished in a tie for 11^th and easily qualified for the Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid in May at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Mich.

   When Ingraham finished in a tie for second in the Pennsylvania Open at Rolling Green G.C. in August he said he was starting to play well at just the right time. Since then he won the Philadelphia PGA Senior championship, which earned him the trip to Seaside, finished tied for seventh in the Philadelphia PGA Section championship, which earned him a spot in next summer’s PNC, and the solid showing in California that sends him to Harbor Shores.

   And what would a Senior PNC be without Radnor Valley Country Club head pro George Forster, who was in the field for the 10^th straight year. Maybe to celebrate that 10^th anniversary, Forster threw an ace into the mix when his 7-iron shot at the 214-yard 17^th hole at the Bayonet Course found the hole.

   “The pin was back right and I had 173 to the pin, downhill, cross-wind right to left,” Forster told the PGA of America website. “I hit a 7-iron and we could not see it because of the glare. I wasn’t sure it cleared the hump or it came back 30 feet. So, we did not see it. Then we got down there and it was in the hole.”

   The ace propelled him to a 71 at the Bayonet Course. He had opened with a 73 at the Black Horse and then fired a 68 at the Bayonet in  the second round. He then added a final-round 74 for a 2-under 286 total that left him in a tie for 17^th. 

   The 59-year-old Forster easily qualified for the Senior PGA Championship for the ninth time. Counting two U.S. Senior Open  appearances, it will be the 11^th Champions Tour major he will tee it up in.

   John DalCorobbo, a pro at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course in Indianapolis captured the title and the top prize of $20,000 with an 11-under 277 total.

Yang birdies the back nine

   It happened in the middle of the night our time and she didn’t win the tournament, so it wasn’t the lead when Lexi Thompson’s victory in the KEB Hana Bank Championship in Incheon, South Korea was reported, but Amy Yang birdied the back nine in Sunday’s final round. As in every hole on the back nine.

   Yang, the South Korean who dominated the U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club last summer for three rounds before falling short in the final round, finished her final round with nine straight birdies. Her 62 left her in a tie for fourth at 13-under 275.

   The nine straight birdies tied the LPGA record that belonged to Hall of Famer Beth Daniel.

Rohanna earns her LPGA Tour card

   I mentioned last week that the last non-District One girl to win the big-school PIAA title was Rachel Rohanna of Waynesburg Central in 2007.

   Sunday, Rohanna, who starred collegiately at Ohio St., earned her LPGA Tour card by holding on to her spot in 10^th place for 2015  at the Symetra Tour Championship.

   The top 10 finishers throughout 2015 on the Symetra Tour earned full exemptions on the LPGA Tour. Rohanna entered this weekend’s Tour Championship in the 10^th spot and her tie for 24^th at 5-under was good enough for her to hold onto to that precious 10^th spot.

   So look for a PIAA champion when you tune in to an LPGA event in 2016.