Trevor Bensel, coming off an ultimately disappointing week at the PGA Professional Championship at the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas, opened the Philadelphia Section PGA’s Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year points events schedule with a victory in the Philadelphia PGA Tournament Players Division Championship April 25th at Hartefeld National Golf Club in New Garden Township, Chester County.
Bensel, who moved from the Overbrook Golf Club pro shop to Sandy Run Country Club over the winter, had opened the PGA Professional Championship with a sparkling 5-under 65 at Omni Barton Creek’s Coore Crenshaw Cliffside Course that had him contention.
But Bensel never could solve the Fazio Foothills Course and missed the 54-hole cut with a pair of 5-over 76s in the second and third rounds.
Competing at that level, though, sharpens your game pretty quickly and Bensel had four birdies and an eagle to put together a modified Stableford total of 31 points to get his Philadelphia Section campaign off to a fast start.
Modified Stableford scoring gives a player nine points for a double eagle, six for an eagle, three for a birdie, one for a par, no points for a bogey and minus-one for a double bogey or worse.
Bensel made an eagle at the par-5 second hole and added birdies at six, nine, 14 and 17. He didn’t have a bogey on his scorecard.
Steve Sanderson, who joined the Pine Valley Golf Club pro shop over the winter, was the runnerup to Bensel with 27 points. Sanderson survived two cuts and played four rounds in the PGA Professional Championship at Omni Barton Creek.
Rich Steinmetz, the veteran head pro at Spring Ford Country Club, was three points behind Sanderson in third place with 24 points. Steinmetz captured top honors in the Senior Division with his effort.
Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Lookaway Golf Club, finished a point behind Steinmetz in fourth place with 23 points.
Joanna Coe, a Jersey Shore native who moved to Merion Golf Club as an instructor from Baltimore Country Club over the winter, headed a group of three players tied for fifth place with 22 points.
As a player, Coe, who was an NCAA Division II individual champion during her collegiate career at Rollins College in Florida, is one of the top women club pros in the country. She finished atop the Women’s division at Hartefeld National.
Joining Coe in the tie for fifth place were Berkshire Country Club’s Andrew Turner and Rick Gibney, who plays out of the Colonial Golf & Tennis Club pro shop.
One of the Philadelphia Section’s top senior players, Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club, headed a group of five players tied for eighth place, each finishing with 21 points.
Quinn represented the Philadelphia Section in a pair of PGA Tour Champions major championships in 2021, teeing it up in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. and in the U.S. Senior Open at Omaha Country Club in Omaha, Neb.
Alex Knoll, an instructor at Glen Brook Golf Club and winner of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship back to back in 2019 and 2020, was also in the group tied for eighth place with 21 points.
Rounding out the quintet tied for eighth place were John DiMarco of The Legacy Club of Woodcrest, Parks Price, an instructor at the Country Club of York, and Mike Paukovits, the golf coach at Chestnut Hill College.
Gibney was the runnerup to Steinmetz in the Senior division with his 22 points and Quinn and DiMarco finished in a tie for third with their 21-point totals.
The Tournament Players Division Championship was supported by Kevin McClellan Golf Sales, Scott and Karen Hutchinson, Golf Max, Callaway Golf and the PGA Tour.
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