Forster drops birdie putt on seventh playoff hole to capture Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic's $100K top prize

   Radnor Valley Country Club head pro George Forster has been one of the best senior club pros in the country for more than a decade.

   Which means he’s over 60, 63 to be precise. He’s a Super Senior. Does that mean he’s too old to compete with the younger club pros in the Philadelphia Section PGA? The answer is a resounding no.

   What it means is that if you wanted a guy to make a 12-footer for birdie on the seventh hole of a playoff that stretched over two days for a twitch-inducing first prize of a hundred grand, George Forster is still that guy.

   Forster has won the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic, which offers the richest top prize of any PGA Section event in the country, before. It was back in 2008 when the top prize was only $37,500.

   Forster put together a patient 2-under-par 70 at Sunnybrook Golf Club during the bulk of the tournament Tuesday. Turned out it was a total matched by six other Philadelphia Section pros.

   As I followed the running scores Tuesday, there were several players that got it to 3- and 4-under, only to fall back. Pretty sure Rusty Harbold, a talented assistant pro out of the Philadelphia Cricket Club pro shop, could have hit the jackpot if he had been able to make a par on the 18^th hole at Sunnybrook, but a bogey dropped him back to 2-under and created the seven-man playoff with darkness starting to fall in Whitemarsh Township.

   Overbrook Golf Club’s Trevor Bensel, who captured the National Car Rental Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship last month at Chester Valley Golf Club, was the first of the seven to fall by the wayside, making a bogey on the first playoff hole.

   Ross Seaman of Manufacturers Golf & Country Club was out after he made bogey at the second playoff hole.

   Forster, Harbold and reigning Philadelphia Section PGA Omega Player of the Year Billy Stewart of The ACE Club were still alive after making pars on the third playoff hole while Brett Melton, an assistant pro at Radley Run Country Club, and Chris Krueger of Kings Creek Country Club, chose to sleep on par putts on that third playoff hole.

   The five playoff survivors Wednesday morning were whittled to just two when Forster drilled his 2-hybrid approach at the 18th hole -- the only hole used for Wednesday's part of the playoff -- and Harbold nearly jarred his approach. Both made birdie and Stewart, Melton and Krueger were eliminated.

   On the sixth playoff hole, Forster and Harbold both missed the green and both made bogey, sending the playoff back to the 18th tee for the seventh hole.

   This time Forster's approach, again with a 2-hybrid, finished 12 feet from the hole and with one more chance to grab the big prize, he just buried it.

   Forster has represented the Philadelphia Section PGA at the Senior PGA Professional Championship almost every year since he became eligible. He will do so again this fall after he finished fifth in the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship last month at Applebrook Golf Club.

   Many of those years, he was among the top finishers in the National Senior Club Pro and represented the Philadelphia Section PGA in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, a major on the PGA Tour Champions.

   Forster will get a shot at another Senior PGA appearance when he tees it up in the 31^st Senior PGA Professional Championship, which tees off Oct. 3 at the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas.

   Forster never forced a thing during his regulation round Tuesday. He made a birdie at the third hole, bogeyed the fifth and birdied the seventh to get it back to 1-under. He then rattled off eight straight pars before a birdie at the par-5 16^th hole got him to 2-under.

   He was part of the morning wave and I’m sure for a long time he thought he hadn’t done quite enough. But at 63 he also knows that, in golf, you just never know.

   Harbold, the 2014 winner of the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic, represented the Philadelphia Section PGA in last fall’s National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He finished in a tie for 30^th and was joined there by Chester Valley’s Zachary Kempa as they shared low Philly Section honors.

   Harbold will be back in Port St. Lucie when this year’s National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship tees off Nov. 14. He earned a return trip to the National Assistant Pro event by finishing in a tie for third in the Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship last month at Chester Valley.

   Harbold also represented the Philadelphia Section in the PGA Professional Championship at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C. last spring, although he failed to survive the 36-hole cut. You get the idea, the guy’s been playing a lot of really solid golf in the last year or so.

   There were six more players who finished just a shot out of the playoff as they each carded a 1-under 71 that left them in a tie for eighth place.

   Chester Valley’s Sam Ambrose started on the back nine and had four birdies on Sunnybrook’s incoming nine to make the turn at 4-under. But three bogeys on the front nine dropped him into the tie for eighth at 1-under.

   Bidermann Golf Club’s Zac Oakley, who took low-pro honors in the Philadelphia Open last month at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, was also in that group at 71. Lookaway Golf Club’s Mike Little was also in that group. Little will join Harbold in the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club after finishing second to Bensel in the Philly Assistant Pro Championship at Chester Valley.

   Brian Bergstol, an assistant pro at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, also just missed out on the playoff with a 71. Rounding at the group at 1-under were two more of the Philadelphia Section’s talented senior players, Applebrook head pro at Dave McNabb and Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club.

   Quinn will join Forster in the Philadelphia Section contingent in the National Senior Club Pro at Barton Creek after he finished in a tie for sixth in the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at Applebrook.

   Five more players matched par with a 72 and finished in a tie for 14^th place, led by Alex Knoll of Glen Brook Golf Club. Knoll was the top finisher among the Philly Section contingent at the PGA Professional Championship at Belfair last spring, ending up in a tie for 33^rd place.

   Rounding out the group at 72 were another senior player, Bill Sautter, a colleague of Harbold’s in the Cricket Club pro shop, Joe Kogelman of GolfTEC Moorestown, Dave Fields, the head pro at Brookside Country Club in Macungie and Kevin Nicholson, a colleague of Stewart’s in The ACE Club pro shop.

   The Senior Division winner? Forster, of course, with McNabb and Quinn tied for second. The Super Senior winner? Forster, of course, with Sautter the runnerup.

   Yeah, at 63 Forster beat them all, young, old and everybody in between.

   The Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic is sponsored by the Haverford Trust Company, which is also one of sponsors for the Philadelphia Section PGA’s points race, which ultimately decides the Omega Player of the Year.

   The event is traditionally player the day after Memorial Day, but severe weather forced the postponement of this year’s Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic to the day after Labor Day. Whenever it is played, that $100,000 first-place check makes it one of the most anticipated stops on the Philadelphia Section PGA schedule each year. There is always drama, but a seven-hole playoff that stretches into the next day might have been -- to borrow a phrase from Mike Kern, the retired award-winning golf writer at the Philadelphia Daily News – a tad excessive.