Bensel bests his boss Kennedy in a playoff in weather-shortened GALV Lehigh Valley Open

   It was an Overbrook Golf Club pro shop battle when last week’s rain-shortened GALV Lehigh Valley Open came down to a playoff.

   Assistant pro Trevor Bensel and his boss, head pro Eric Kennedy, each toured the par-72 Northampton Country Club layout in Easton in 4-under-par 68 before weather forced suspension of play in the Philadelphia Section PGA Omega points tournament, presented by The Haverford Trust Company, last Monday.

   Leftover showers delayed the start of play Tuesday and the decision was made to shorten the scheduled 36-hole event to 18 holes. Mother Nature has not been kind to the GALV Lehigh Valley Open and it was more of the same last week.

   When play finally resumed Tuesday, nobody was able to catch Bensel and Kennedy and the two Overbrook pros headed out to the par-4 18^th hole at Northampton to settle the issue.

   Both players hit the green in regulation and made routine pars. They returned to the 18^th tee and this time, both players missed the green, but converted easy up-and-downs that sent them back to the 18^th tee for a third time.

   Bensel spun his approach off the backstop behind the pin and nearly holed the shot before it settled eight feet below the hole. Kennedy’s approach finished inside his assistant. Bensel got first crack at it and dropped the birdie putt and Kennedy was unable to match Bensel’s birdie, giving the assistant pro the victory over his boss.

   It was Bensel’s first victory in a points event since he captured the 2017 Match Play Championship.

   “I have been playing well this season, I just haven’t been able to score,” Bensel told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “The delay wasn’t ideal, but I just tried to keep things in perspective and wait it all out. Eric and I both played good golf and it was fun to play in a match-play setting.”

   Kennedy was in the first group out Monday and completed a five-birdie, one-bogey round with a birdie at the 18^th hole to put up a 4-under total for the rest of the field to shoot at.

   Bensel was in the final group to complete its round before play was suspended and he had an eagle, four birdies and two bogeys in matching Kennedy’s 68.

   Alex Knoll of Blue Shamrock Golf Club, the top finisher from among the Philadelphia Section’s contingent to the PGA Professional Championship this spring at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C., headed a group of four players tied for third place at 3-under 69, a shot behind the top two.

   Also in that group were two recent winners of the Philadelphia Section’s Omega Player of the Year honor, Lookaway Golf Club’s Michael Little (2016) and Radley Run Country Club’s Brett Melton (2017). Rounding out the foursome at 3-under was Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club.

   Two representatives out of the Philadelphia Cricket Club pro shop, Mark Ferguson and Nathalie Filer, headed a trio of players tied for seventh at 2-under 70. Travis Deibert of Doylestown Country Club rounded out the group at 2-under.

   Reigning Philadelphia Section PGA Omega Player of the Year Billy Stewart, an instructor at The ACE Club, headed a nine-player logjam tied for 10^th place at 1-under 71.

   Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club, also carded a 71. Oakley earned low-pro honors in a runnerup finish to amateur Jeff Osberg in the Philadelphia Open earlier this month at Huntingdon Valley Country Club.

   Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb, the reigning Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year in the Philadelphia Section, was also part of the big group at 1-under.

   Rounding out the group at 71 were Brian Bergstol, an assistant pro at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, Chris Miller of the Scranton Golf Center, Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club, John Appleget, the head of instruction at The Shore Club, Jordan Shuey of West Shore Country Club and Mark Anderson of the Cricket Club.

   Four players from that group at 71, McNabb, Quinn, Appleget and Anderson, shared the top spot in the Senior division.

   Amateur Steve Kluemper made a run at the overall title when he got it to 6-under, but he settled for low-amateur honors when three late bogeys left him at 3-under 69.

   Rick Fleiser, working out of the Applebrook pro shop, carded a 2-over 74 to claim top honors in the Super-Senior division.