For the third straight year, Braden Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club, and Joanna Coe, the director of instruction at Merion Golf Club, were the best male and female players, respectively, in the Philadelphia Section PGA.
Shattuck was named the Philadelphia PGA Rolex/Haverford Trust Player of the Year and Coe the Philadelphia PGA Rolex/Haverford Trust Women’s Player of the Year at the Philadelphia Section PGA Fall Membership Meeting Oct. 28th at Medford Village Country Club in Medford, N.J.
Shattuck also earned the F. Edward DeBaufre Trophy for scoring average with a 68.42 average, the best average since the award was first handed out in 1964. Shattuck had won the DeBaufre Trophy in 2022.
Shattuck, who starred scholastically at Sun Valley, began his season in April as the defending champion in the PGA Professional Championship at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco at the PGA of America headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
Shattuck needed a birdie on the final hole at Fields Ranch East to finish in a tie for 16th place and earn a trip to the PGA Championship, one of professional golf’s four major championships, as part of the Colebridge Financial Team teeing up at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
Banking on his experience from his first major championship at the PGA a year earlier, Shattuck matched par in the opening round at Valhalla with a 71 and added a 1-under 70 in the second round. He was one of just two members of the Corebridge Financial Team to survive the 36-hole cut at Valhalla.
After a sparkling 3-under 68 in the third round, Shattuck closed with a 3-over 74 to finish with a 1-under 283 total and claim low club-pro honors.
Driving through the night from Louisville, Shattuck arrived at Bellewood Country Club across the Schuylkill River from Pottstown just in time to tee it up in the Delaware Valley Open and proceeded to set the course record with a sizzling 8-under 63 that gave him the tournament title.
Shattuck’s two other Philadelphia Section victories were nearly as impressive as the one at Bellewood.
Shattuck blitzed the Conestoga Country Club layout with a 6-under 64 to capture the title in the Conestoga Classic in June and posted another 6-under 64 at the underrated Moselem Springs Golf Club to claim the top spot in the Jock Jolly & Son Championship in September.
Shattuck also a couple of near misses in a couple of the Philadelphia Section’s marquee events.
He lost in a playoff to John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodlock Springs and the winner of the Section’s Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year award, in the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic at Sunnybrook Golf Club the day after Memorial Day.
The Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic offers a whopping top prize of $100,000 to the winner, the biggest pay day for any Section tournament in the country.
Shattuck was also the runnerup for the third straight year in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship, which wrapped up at Shattuck’s home course, Rolling Green, in late August.
The second-place finish did earn Shattuck a return trip to the PGA Professional Championship – the National Club Pro as it was once known – in April at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Shattuck might have been exempt into the PGA Professional Championship with his low club-pro finish in the PGA Championship, but he made sure with his solid showing in the Philadelphia Section’s championship.
While Shattuck was in the midst of his hot spring of golf, Coe was preparing to deliver her first child, which she did in June.
The pregnancy cost Coe an appearance in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash.
The PGA of America, however, granted Coe a waiver and the exemption she earned with a fifth-place finish in the LPGA Professional National Championship in the summer of 2023 will get her into next year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Professional Championship, a major on the LPGA Tour, at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco at the PGA of America’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
Having delivered her daughter Jenny, Coe got right back to delivering on the golf course, claiming a victory in the Philadelphia Women’s PGA Professional Championship in September at the Union League’s Torresdale Course, a Donald Ross classic that was known for years as Torresdale Frankford.
In October, Coe was a member of the winning U.S. team in the Women’s PGA Cup, an international event played at the Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore. It was the second straight appearance for Coe on the U.S. team in the Women’s PGA Cup.
In addition to their talents on the golf course, Shattuck and Coe are both very accomplished instructors. I’ve run into any number of players who testify to the improvement in their games because of the work they’ve done with Shattuck and Coe.
It was a bustout year for the 57-year-old Pillar, who also was named the Philadelphia Section’s Comeback Player of the Year.
In addition to hitting the jackpot by claiming the $100,000 top prize in the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic at Sunnybrook, Pillar bested the always formidable field to capture the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship in June at Sandy Run Country Club.
Pillar also topped the senior division in the TaylorMade Classic in May at Tavistock Country Club.
Bill Sautter, playing out of the Philadelphia Cricket Club pro shop, was the Philadelphia Section’s Super Senior Player of the Year, as he dominated the 65-and-over set, finishing at the top of the super-senior division at seven Philadelphia Section events in 2024.
Brian Bergstol, the talented director of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, was the Philadelphia Section Central Counties Chapter’s Player of the Year, topping the Central Counties field eight times this season.
Sandy Run’s talented assistant pro Trevor Bensel was named the Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization’s Player of the Year.
Bensel captured the title in the PAO Tour Championship at Aronimink Golf Club and topped the PAO field at the William Hyndman III Memorial Classic at Huntingdon Valley Country Club.
Bergstol and Bensel both represented the Philadelphia Section in last week’s National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla., Bergstol finishing in a tie for 25th place in the 72-hole test and Bensel ending up in the group tied for 15th place.
Mark Parson of Harbor Pines Golf Club received the Ike Turner Most Improved Player Award. Parson’s season was highlighted by a tie for second place in the Philadelphia Players Championship at Lookaway Golf Club
Four Philadelphia Section members were reelected to a second two-year term to the Board of Directors, including DuPont Country Club’s Michael Caldwell representing District 2, Elmhurst Country Club’s Mike Molino in District 4 and Rolling Green Golf Club’s Scott Chisholm and Gulph Mills Golf Club’s Tom Gilbert in District 6.
The Bud Jennings PGA Golf Management Scholarship winners were Olivia Gardenhour of Chambersburg Country Club and Kevin Kennedy II of Applebrook Golf Club.
The Bud Jennings scholarships were created by the Jennings family to honor the memory of Bud Jennings, a lifelong golfer and longtime Chester Valley Golf Club member. The Jennings family sees the scholarships as the perfect way to preserve the legacy of a man who loved the game of golf and always sought to give back to the game and help others.
The Fall Golf Membership Meeting was supported by Cobra Puma Golf, Evolve Golf, GolfForever, GolfStatus, Motocaddy, Signature Golf and StickX.
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