If you’re playing tournament golf on a tough William Flynn design like Huntingdon Valley Country Club, pars are a good thing.
Parks Price, an instructor at the Country Club of York, proved that point Tuesday when he finished with 17 pars on his scorecard to go with a lone birdie at the ninth hole for a 1-under-par 69 that gave him a two-shot victory in the Philadelphia Section PGA’s William Hyndman III Memorial Classic.
Price made a big splash on the Philadelphia Section circuit last September when he rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff to win the richest prize offered in any PGA Section tournament in the country, the $100,000 first-place check that goes to the winner of the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic at Sunnybrook Golf Club.
“It was a good day out there,” Price told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “I kept the card clean, which is always fun. I had a lot of five-footers. If you can make five-footers, that can be the name of the game. Putting my name on the Hyndman Trophy … you just cannot go wrong with that.”
The tournament honors the memory of Huntingdon Valley’s legendary amateur standout, Bill Hyndman, whose 50-year career included U.S. Senior Amateur crowns 10 years apart in 1973 and 1983. He was a runnerup in the U.S. Amateur once and in The Amateur Championship three times and played on the U.S. side in the Walker Cup Match five times.
Spring Ford Country Club head pro Rich Steinmetz, winner of last month’s Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship in his first year as a senior player, headed a group of three players who finished in a tie for second place at 1-over 71.
Steinmetz was joined at that figure by another of the Philadelphia Section’s senior standouts, John Cooper of Green Valley Country Club, and Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Lookaway Golf Club and a consistently good player in Philadelphia Section events.
Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb, the Philadelphia Section’s two-time reigning Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year winner, headed a group of three players tied for fifth place, each landing on 2-over 72.
McNabb is coming off two recent appearances in PGA Tour Champions major championships, the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in late May at the Harbor Springs Resort in Benton Harbor, Mich. and the last month’s U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem.
Joining McNabb at 2-over were a couple of the Philadelphia Section’s talented assistant pros, Trevor Bensel of Sandy Run Country Club and Michael Young of Allentown’s Brookside Country Club.
Alex Knoll, an instructor at Glen Brook Golf Club and back-to-back winner of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship in 2019 and 2020, headed a group of five players tied for eighth place at 3-over 73.
Joining Knoll at 3-over were Andrew Cornish of Cedarbrook Country Club, Alex Willey of Burlington Country Club, Mike Paukovits, the head golf coach at Chestnut Hill College, Dave Pagett, the head pro at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club and Nick Iacono of Chester Valley Golf Club.
The William Hyndman III Memorial Classic was a Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year points tournament.
It was also the third of four qualifiers for the Silvercrest Cup, a new event with a total purse of $30,000 that will be played in September at Gulph Mills Golf Club. In addition to the William Hyndman III Memorial Classic purse, Price earned $3,000 out of a Silvercrest Cup bonus pool for its qualifying events and the three runnersup, Steinmetz, Cooper and Sheftic each received checks for $2,000 from the bonus pool.
Steinmetz and Cooper shared the top spot in the Senior division with their 1-over 71s. McNabb took third place with his 72.
Brian Kelly of Bucknell Golf Club, who shared second place behind Steinmetz in last month’s Senior PGA Professional Championship at Medford Village Country Club, finished in fourth place in the Senior division with a 4-over 74.
Kelly finished atop the Super Senior leaderboard with his 74. Bob Lennon of Wilmington Country Club, Bill Sautter of Philadelphia Cricket Club and Greg Farrow of Deerwood Country Club finished in a tie for second place in the 60-and-over set, each posting a 5-over 75.
A par on the third hole of a playoff gave Bensel a victory over Young in the concurrent Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization (PAO) event after each had signed for a 2-over 72.
Knoll, Cornish and Willey finished in a tie for third place in the PAO scoring with their 3-over 73s.
The William Hyndman III Memorial Classic was supported by the Hyndman family, Jack Jolly & Son, Inc., Jani-King, KM Golf Sales, Ohana Farm LLC, the Silvercrest Asset Management Group, Sterling Cut Glass and the PGA Tour.
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