Sunnybrook Golf Club assistant pro Brett Walker left Aronimink Golf Club Wednesday with his name about to be added to 100 years worth of Philadelphia Section PGA champions on the William B. Packer Trophy and the top prize of $9,000.
The 100th Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship, presented by Cadillac, Club Car and Rolex, was shortened by what proved to be a once or twice in a hundred years deluge of rain, among other meteorological wildness, unleashed on the region by the remnants of Hurricane Ida.
When the leaders were unable to complete their third and final rounds Wednesday, the decision was made to revert back to the completed 36 holes and the title went to Walker on the strength of his spectacular 4-under-par 66 Tuesday at Aronimink, the Donald Ross masterpiece in Newtown Township, Delaware County that played host to the 1962 PGA Championship and the 2018 BMW Championship.
Added to the opening round of 4-under 67 Walker posted Monday at Applebrook Golf Club, an early Gil Hanse design in nearby East Goshen, Chester County, the 66 at Aronimink gave him an 8-under 133 total.
There was one little bit of unfinished business that required six of the region’s top club pros to return to Aronimink Thursday for a playoff for the final four spots awarded to the Philadelphia Section at next spring’s 55th PGA Professional Championship, which tees off April 17 at the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas.
The six had finished in a tie for ninth place at the end of Tuesday’s second round, each landing on 1-over 142 for two rounds over Aronimink and Applebrook.
The survivors included two of the Philadelphia Section’s senior standouts, George Forster and Hugo Mazzalupi, who plays out of the Patriots Glen National Golf Club pro shop, as well as Steve Sanderson of Pine Valley Golf Club and Parks Price of the Country Club of York.
Mike Furey of Saucon Valley Country Club emerged from the playoff as the first alternate and Philadelphia Country Club head pro Scott Reilly ended up as the second alternate.
The third and fourth alternate spots went to Team Lookaway as head pro Mike Little, the reigning Philadelphia Section Player of the Year, was the third alternate and instructor Mark Sheftic was the fourth alternate. Little and Sheftic finished in a tie for 15th place, each ending up at 2-over 143.
The fifth alternate was Whitemarsh Valley Country Club’s Dave Pagett, who was one of four players who finished in a tie for 17th place at 3-over 144.
It’s been quite a year for Walker, who had finished in a tie for fifth place in last year’s Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship. That earned him a spot in the PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. in April. A 2-under 70 at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in the final round punched Walker’s ticket to the PGA Championship, one of professional golf’s four major championship for the men, at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course on the South Carolina coastline.
Walker will get another shot at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in November when he represents the Philadelphia Section in the 45th National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship. Walker earned his ticket to that event by winning the Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship at Cedarbrook Country Club in early August.
With an appearance in the PGA Championship and his victory this week in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at a pair of quality golf courses like Aronimink and Applebrook, it will be a confident and more tested Walker who tees it up in the Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club.
“Aronimink can play difficult and has hosted major championships and PGA Tour events and I feel like my game was set up pretty well forit,” Walker told the Philadelphia Section PGA website following his victory at Aronimink Tuesday. “I am definitely going to take that to other tournaments and courses.”
Rounding out the Philadelphia Section contingent headed for Barton Creek next spring will be Bidermann Golf Club instructor Zac Oakley, the runnerup to Walker this week, Billy Stewart, an instructor at Union League Liberty Hill, Ashley Grier, an assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club and the 2020 Women’s PGA Player of the Year, Applebrook head pro Dave McNabb, Merion Golf Club instructor Terry Hertzog, Rusty Harbold of Philadelphia Cricket Club and Grier’s colleague in the Overbrook pro shop, fellow assistant pro Trevor Bensel.
Grier and Joanna Coe, an instructor at Baltimore Country Club, were the first two women to survive two cuts and play four rounds in the PGA Professional Championship in 2019 at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C.
Oakley and Bensel were very much in contention for one of the berths to the PGA Championship awarded to the top 20 finishers in the PGA Professional Championship entering the final round at the PGA Golf Club in the spring, but came up short. Oakley and Bensel, along with Walker, will give the Philadelphia Section a strong hand next spring at Barton Creek.
Mazzalupi was a fourth Philadelphia Section representative who survived two cuts and played four rounds in the PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club last spring.
The Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship was supported by Titleist/FootJoy, Nike, TaylorMade, The Golf Channel, the PGA Tour, Ship Sticks, Visit Delco, Pa. and Precise Yardage Books.
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