Stewart receives Philadelphia Section PGA's Omega Player of the Year award

   After Billy Stewart won the Pennsylvania Open at Rolling Green Golf Club in 2015, he said he was doing what he wants to be doing, teaching and promoting the game he loves and competing with his fellow club pros in the Philadelphia Section PGA and hopefully, in the near future, at the national level as well.

   Three years later, one of which was spent recovering from surgery to repair an injury, Stewart, an assistant pro at The ACE Club, is doing just what he said he hoped he would be doing.

   A year ago, he qualified for the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course and finished tied for fifth. Early this summer he survived two cuts and finished in a tie for 69^th in his first appearance in the PGA Professional Championship, presented by Club Car and Omega, at the Bayonet and Black Horse courses on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula.

   When he heads to the PGA Professional Championship at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C. next spring, Stewart will do so as the winner of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship, a title he won in September at Concord Country Club.

   A pretty strong 2018 got a little better last week when Stewart received the Philadelphia Section PGA award as the Omega Player of the Year, presented by The Haverford Trust Company. The award was given out at the Philadelphia Section PGA’s Fall Meeting at the SteelStacks in Bethlehem.

   The kid who was a product of the Llanerch Country Club junior program, who won a BMW Philadelphia Amateur championship a couple weeks after he graduated from Malvern Prep and who starred at Saint Joseph’s before turning pro was the best player in one of the most competitive PGA sections in the country in 2018.

   Oh yeah, he also captured a title he has yearned for since his amateur days, beating the top pros and amateurs in the area in the Philadelphia Open at St. Davids Golf Club. Stewart will be representing the Philadelphia Section next week when he tees it up in this year’s National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship for the second straight year back at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

   One of the players he beat in a four-hole aggregate playoff for the Philly Open title, Radley Run Country Club assistant pro Brett Melton, was the runnerup to Stewart in The Haverford Trust Company points race that determines the Player of the Year. Stewart denied Melton a second straight Omega Player of the Year honor as Melton had captured the award for 2017.

   Such is the talent level in the senior division in the Philadelphia Section that Philmont Country Club’s Dave Quinn finished third in the Omega Player of the Year battle, but had to settle for runnerup honors in the race for Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of Year award.

   That award went to Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb, who is competitive against players of all ages in the section. McNabb nailed down the award with a victory in the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at White Manor Country Club.

   McNabb will represent the Philadelphia Section in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y. next spring after finishing in a tie for 11^th in the Senior PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. a couple of weeks ago.

   McNabb finally put an end to the eight-year reign as Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year by Stu Ingraham, the head of instruction at the M Golf Range in Newtown Square. Ingraham did not tee it up in the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship, but, at 58, he was still good enough to chase Stewart home for second in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Concord.

   Behind Quinn in second in the Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year race was Radnor Valley Country Club head pro George Forster in third.

   With the Philadelphia Section PGA crowning a Super Senior Player of the Year for the first time in 2018, it’s probably not a huge surprise that that award went to Forster, who, at 62, remains competitive against players of all ages.

   Greg Farrow, the head pro at Deerwood Country Club, was the runnerup to Forster for Super Senior honors and Don DeAngelis, who will be looking for a new course where he can hang his shingle after the recent demise of Center Square Golf Club, finished third.

   The Howard “Ike” Turner Most Improved Player award went to Whitford Country Club’s Michael Wheeler. He rose more than 100 spots on The Haverford Trust Company points list and he shaved four shots off last year’s scoring average by averaging 74.86 per round in 2018.

   So what do the Philadelphia Section players do when the Fall Meeting is over? Play golf, of course, at nearby Saucon Valley Country Club.

   The Fall Meeting Pro-Pro Scramble was contested over two of the three wonderful layouts at Saucon Valley, the Old Course and the Grace Course.

   Brian Bergstol, the talented assistant pro at the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort, teamed with Joe Kogelman of GolfTEC Moorestown to top the group at the Old Course with a 9-under-par 62. Bergstol will join Stewart in the field at next week’s National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club.

   Four tandems shared second place, a shot behind Bergstol and Kogelman, including the Lookaway Golf Club team of Chuck Rininger and Michael Little, The Springhaven Club’s Ben Debski and Mark Parson of Harbor Pines Golf Club, the Aronimink Golf Club pair of head pro Jeff Kiddie and Sam Ambrose and Mahoning Valley Country Club’s Bill Smith and Mike Furey.

   Michael Caldwell and Keith Clawson, out of the Bidermann Golf Club pro shop, fired a 12-under 60 to top the field on the Grace Course. Rob Rohrbach of Foxchase Golf Club and Jeff Fick of Chapel Hill Golf Club were a shot back in second with an 11-under 61.

   Chris Brosius, the head pro at Maple Dale Country Club and Eric Shillinger of Moselem Springs Golf Club and Trevor Bensel of Overbrook Golf Club and Kevin Nicholson finished in a tie for third at 10-under 62. A couple of Saucon Valley pros, Charles Schuyler and Mike Wood, finished alone in fifth with a 9-under 63.