Trevor Bensel is one of those guys who makes golf look easy and the game is anything but.
Still, it had to be a little nerve-wracking when Bensel needed to get it up and down for par on the 18th hole at Sunnybrook Golf Club Tuesday to capture the biggest prize offered in any PGA Section tournament in the country.
No problem. Bensel stuck his third shot three feet from the pin and calmly drained the par putt that made him $100,000 richer.
Bensel’s 5-under-par 67 gave him a one-shot victory over three-time reigning Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Philadelphia Section PGA Player of the Year Braden Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club.
It was the 27th Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic playing out in its traditional spot on the calendar, the day after Memorial Day. The life-changing top prize is unusual for any PGA Section event and it brings with it some added tension.
I followed Bensel’s group when the Pennsylvania Open was held at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course in the summer of 2021 and was struck by the seeming effortlessness with which Bensel plays the game.
His talent was very much on display Tuesday at Sunnybrook as he made birdies at the first, fourth, sixth, seventh, ninth and 10th holes to get it to 6-under for the round. Bensel made a bogey at the 13th hole, a birdie at 16 and another bogey at 17 that left him at 5-under going to the last.
He needed a par at the 18th hole and he got it. Was the approach the best shot of his career, considering what was at stake?
“Definitely, without a doubt,” Bensel told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “I hit a perfect shot, it ended up three feet below the hole and I made the putt.”
It was the kind of round Bensel is always capable of putting up. A month earlier in the opening round of the PGA Professional Championship in Port St. Lucie, Fla., Bensel lit up the PGA Golf Club’s Ryder Course with a sparkling 6-under 65 that had him on the leaderboard.
Bensel tailed off after that, but still survived two cuts and played all 72 holes, finishing in a tie for 63rd place with a 9-over 296 total.
It looked like it might be Shattuck who would grab the big prize as he made birdies at the first, third, sixth, seventh, eighth and 11th holes to get it to 6-under for the round. A double bogey at the 12th hole slowed his roll. He made a birdie at the 14th hole to get it back to 5-under, but a bogey at 17 left him with a 4-under 68 and a shot behind Bensel.
The dropoff from that $100 grand to the winner is precipitous to the $5,000 that Shattuck got for second place, but that’s what made that three-footer for par for Bensel on the 18th hole a little testier than your average three-foot par putt.
It was the second straight close call for Shattuck in the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic as he lost in a playoff to John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, a year ago.
Shattuck has also been the runnerup in another of the Philadelphia Section’s biggest events, the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship, in each of the last three years.
But he also owns a victory in the biggest event for a club pro in America as he captured the title in the PGA Professional Championship at Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M. two springs ago.
It was the first time in three years that Shattuck did not represent the Philadelphia Section in the PGA Championship. He earned a return trip to the PGA Championship a year ago by finishing in a tie for 16th place in the PGA Professional Championship at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco at the PGA of America’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
Shattuck was one of the just two members of the Colebridge Financial Team, the top-20 finishers at the PGA Professional Championship, to survive the cut in last May’s PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. and earned low-club pro honors by finishing with a 1-under 283 total.
Zach Barbin, an assistant pro at Chesapeake Bay Golf Club, Parks Price, working out of the pro shop at Hanover Country Club, and Alex Knoll, an instructor at Glen Brook Golf Club, finished in a tie for third place, each ending up a shot behind Shattuck with a 3-under 69.
Price grabbed the big prize in the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic when the event was played in September in 2021 by rolling in a 25-foot bomb for birdie on the first hole of a playoff.
Heading a group of five players tied for sixth place with a 2-under 70 at Sunnybrook was Brian Bergstol, the head of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort who was coming off an appearance in this year’s PGA Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.
Bergstol had a strong showing in the PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., finishing in a tie for third place with a 3-under 283 total to earn a spot on the Colebridge Financial Team at Quail Hollow.
Bergstol failed to make the cut with rounds of 77 and 79 and a 14-over 156 total at Quail Hollow in his second appearance in one of golf’s four major professional championships. The first came 16 years ago when he qualified for the U.S. Open in 2008 at Torrey Pines.
Bergstol is also a past winner of the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic, having captured the big prize two years ago in a playoff when the winner’s check was jacked up to $150 grand.
Joining Bergstol at 2-under were Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club, Brett Walker, who has returned to the Philadelphia Section and is working out of the pro shop at Chester Valley Golf Club, Ryan Rucinski, an assistant pro at Wilmington Country Club, and Billy Stewart, an instructor at Union League Liberty Hill.
Oakley and Walker, then an assistant pro at Sunnybrook, were the other playoff participants when Price rolled in his winning putt in 2021, and Stewart captured the top prize in the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic back in 2013 when the winner’s check was only $75K.
Mark Sheftic, the director of instruction at Sunnybrook, headed a group of seven players who finished in a tie for 11th place at 1-under 71.
Joining Shetic at 1-under were Eric Kennedy, the head pro at Overbrook Golf Club, Greg Matthias of Pennsauken Country Club, Andrew Cornish, an assistant pro at Green Valley Country Club, Michael Chanaud of The Peninsula Golf & Country Club, Danny Lewis out of the soon-to-open Trout National – The Reserve, the Mike Trout-Tiger Woods production springing up in Vineland, N.J., and Logan Hay of Burlington Country Club.
The Haverford Trust Company is the title sponsor of the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic. The event was also supported by Tasc.
The Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic was the third Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Philadelphia PGA Player of the Year points tournament.
The first Player of the Year points tournament was the Tournament Players Division Championship, which was held April 21st at Union League Liberty Hill.
Matt Zehner, playing out of the Pine Valley Golf Club pro shop, defeated Anthony Sebastianelli, an assistant pro at Rolling Green, with a birdie on the second hole of a playoff to capture the title.
The two had tied at the top of the leaderboard after each piled up 32 points in an event that utilized the modified Stableford scoring system.
Shattuck, tuning up for the PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club, finished in third place with 29 points.
Brian Kelly, the retired longtime head pro at Bucknell Golf Club who is representing Titleist Fit Crew, bested the field of the Section’s talented senior contingent with 27 points.
The Tournament Players Division Championship was supported by the Radnor Golf Foundation and Penfold.
J.T. Wambold, playing out of the pro shop at Yardley Country Club, prevailed in a playoff to capture the title in the TaylorMade Classic May 5th at Ballamor Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., the second Player of the Year points tournament.
Wambold made a birdie on the second hole of the playoff to beat Nick Parga of Old York Road Country Club and Chesapeake Bay’s Zach Barbin.
Wambold, Parga and Zach Barbin each recorded a sparkling 6-under 66 in regulation.
Rich Steinmetz, the longtime head pro at Spring Ford Country Club, and Zach Barbin’s younger brother Austin Barbin, also working at the Barbin family-owned Chesapeake Bay operation, finished in a tie for fourth place, each signing for a 5-under 67.
Austin Barbin captured the title in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur last summer just before turning pro, matching the accomplishment of big brother Zach, the 2020 Philly Am champion.
The TaylorMade Classic was presented by TaylorMade and supported by KM Golf Sales and the PGA Tour.
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