McNabb, Ingraham earn tickets to U.S. Senior Open

   Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb and Stu Ingraham, the head of instruction at the M Golf Range in Newtown Square, grabbed two of the three available berths in a U.S. Senior Open qualifier Monday at Argyle Country Club in Silver Spring, Md.

   McNabb fired a spectacular 5-under 65 over the 6,446-yard, par-70 Argyle layout to claim medalist honors. Ingraham and Mark Brown, the head pro at Tam O’Shanter Golf Club in Bronxville, N.Y., were a shot back in a tie for second, each carding a 4-under 66.

   All three are headed for Salem Country Club in Peabody, Mass. to tee it up in the U.S. Senior Open, which will be played June 29 to July 2.

   It will be second PGA Tour Champions major championship that McNabb will appear in this year. He was in the field for the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship over the Memorial Day weekend, but missed the cut with rounds of 74 and 81 at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Va.

   McNabb had five birdies Monday, the longest of the birdie putts a 20-footer at the ninth.

Ingraham, remarkably, will be playing in his first United States Golf Association event when he heads for Salem. The 57-year-old needed just 23 putts to negotiate the greens at Argyle, including a 25-foot bomb to save par at the ninth.

   “That’s probably my best putting round ever,” Ingraham told the Middle Atlantic Golf Association website. 

   Brown was one of five club pros to make the cut and play four rounds at the KitchenAid Senior PGA. He was the second-best finisher among the club pros at Trump National, finishing tied for 53^rd at 3-over  291.

   Eric Egloff of Silver Spring, Md. and Dirk Schultz of Hagerstown, Md. finished tied for fourth at 2-under 68. Egloff won a playoff to earn first-alternate status and Schultz is the second alternate.

   Radnor Valley Country Club head pro George Forster, who also represented the Philadelphia Section PGA at the KitchenAid Senior PGA, carded a 2-over 72 at Argyle. Forster also missed the cut at Trump National with rounds of 74 and 83.

   McNabb and Ingraham will lead the Philadelphia Section PGA contingent at the PGA Professional Championship, which tees off Sunday at the Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore. The top 20 at what was known for years as the National Club Pro, earn a trip to the PGA Championship, the PGA Tour’s last major championship of the season, which will be held in August at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.

   When Ingraham earned his ticket to the PGA Professional Championship with a runnerup finish at the Philadelphia Section PGA Championship at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, he said it would be the 28^th national PGA event in which he’ll compete.

   McNabb and Ingraham are senior players who will be competing against a lot of young club pros at Sunriver, but they’re heading there in pretty good form.