Braden Shattuck, the director of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club, has been a runnerup in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship in each of the last three playings of the Philadelphia Section PGA’s most coveted crown.
The way Shattuck played his second nine holes Tuesday, the outgoing nine at Concord Country Club, would indicate that second place isn’t on his agenda this time.
Shattuck, who learned the ropes of being an effective club pro under Mike Moses at Concord, had earned a share of the lead with Aronimink Golf Club assistant pro Riley Wheeldon with an opening round of 5-under 66 Monday.
Shattuck, a product of Sun Valley in Aston, not all that far from Concord, started Tuesday’s second round off the 10th tee and wasn’t sharp early.
After not making a bogey in his opening round, Shattuck made bogeys at the 12th and 14th holes. After a birdie at the 16th hole, Shattuck made another bogey at 17.
But a birdie at the reachable par-5 finishing hole at Concord got Shattuck back on track.
After making a birdie at the second hole, Shattuck ripped off consecutive birdies at five, six and seven before finishing up with another birdie at nine as he toured Concord’s front nine in a scintillating 5-under 30.
It added up to a 4-under 67 in the second round, which combined with his opening-round 66, gave Shattuck a 9-under 133 total and a three-shot lead over Wheeldon going into Wednesday’s final round.
“Rough start, but I really found something on the next nine,” Shattuck, the three-time reigning Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year in the Philadelphia Section, told the Philadelphia Section website. “I’ve been playing well and I know I’ve been hitting it well, so I just have to keep attacking pins and keep trying to make putts.”
The 104th Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship is the beginning of a road that could potentially lead to the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club, all of about 15 miles from Concord.
It is a road with which Shattuck has become familiar.
The top finishers following Wednesday’s final round at Concord will earn a trip to the PGA Professional Championship next spring at the Bandon Dunes Resort on the rugged Oregon coast.
The top 20 finishers at Bandon Dunes will form the Colebridge Financial Team that will represent club pros all over the country in next May’s PGA Championship at Aronimink.
Two springs ago, Shattuck captured the title in the PGA Professional Championship in dramatic fashion at the Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M. to earn a trip to the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country in Rochester, N.Y. for his first appearance in a major professional championship.
Shattuck failed to survive the 36-hole cut at Oak Hill, but a year later he was back at the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. after again earning a spot on the Colebridge Financial Team by finishing in a tie for 16th place in the PGA Professional Championship at PGA Frisco’s Fields Ranch East Course at the PGA of America’s new headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
This time Shattuck survived the 36-hole cut and was the low club pro at Valhalla.
Shattuck still has an exemption to next spring’s PGA Professional Championship from his 2023 win at Twin Warriors, but you know he would like to get to the Dunes, one of the game’s premier destinations, as the winner of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship.
And once there? A Delco guy playing in a PGA Championship at Aronimink? Almost too sweet to imagine. But he’s already done it twice.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Wheeldon came to Concord on a pretty nice roll of his own, having claimed his second Philadelphia Section victory of the season in the Pro-Am for Wishes a little north of Concord on Route 202 at Penn Oaks Golf Club earlier this month.
Wheeldon finished in a tie for third place in last week’s Pennsylvania Open at Llanerch Country Club, another hidden Delco gem, while Shattuck finished fifth.
Wheeldon had the lead for much of the day Tuesday as he added a 1-under 70 to his opening-round 66 for a 6-under 136 total. Shattuck’s late birdie barrage dropped Wheeldon into second place going into Wednesday’s final round.
Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Course and the 2023 winner of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship, and Will Scarborough of The Peninsula Golf & Country Club were tied for third place, each ending up a shot behind Wheeldon at 5-under 137.
Oakley, a colleague of Shattuck’s in the Bidermann pro shop before Shattuck moved over to Rolling Green, matched Shattuck’s 4-under 67 in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 1-under 70.
Oakley was also a member of the Colebridge Financial Team that advanced out of the PGA Professional Championship at Fields Ranch East to Valhalla in 2024.
Scarborough added a 2-under 69 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening-round 68 to join Oakley at 5-under.
Zach Barbin, part of the Barbin family that owns Chesapeake Bay Golf Club, was alone in fifth place at 4-under 138 after recording a second straight 2-under 69.
Barbin, winner of a pair of Golf Association of Philadelphia major championships, the BMW Philadelphia Amateur and the Patterson Cup in the pandemic summer of 2020, played college golf at Liberty.
Trevor Bensel, an assistant pro at LuLu Country Club who hit the jackpot earlier this year by winning the title in the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic and its top prize of $100,000 at Sunnybrook Golf Club, headed a group of three players tied for sixth place at 2-under 140, two shots behind Barbin.
Bensel matched the low round of the day with a 4-under 67 after opening with a 2-over 73.
Bensel was joined at 2-under by Danny Lewis of Trout National – The Reserve and Chris Krueger of Kings Creek Country Club.
Laws signed for a second straight 1-under 70 while Krueger posted a 2-under 69 after matching par in the opening round with a 71.
Defending champion Brett Walker of Chester Valley Golf Club headed a group of four players tied for ninth place at 1-under 141 as he matched par in Tuesday’s second round with a 71 after opening with a 1-under 70.
Walker’s colleague in the Chester Valley pro shop, Sam Ambrose, was also in the quartet at 1-under as he tallied a solid 3-under 68 in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 2-over 73.
Joanna Coe, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club, was also in the group at 1-under as she carded a 1-over 72 in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 2-under 69.
Coe represented the Philadelphia Section in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major on the LPGA Tour, at Fields Ranch East in June.
Coe has played in the PGA Professional Championship before. In 2019 Coe, then working at Baltimore Country Club, and Ashley Grier, then playing out of the pro shop at Overbrook Golf Club, became the first two women to survive two cuts and play all four rounds of the PGA Professional Championship at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C.
Rounding out the foursome tied at 1-under was Tom Michaels of Berkshire Country Club as he matched Coe’s splits, adding a 1-over 72 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening round of 2-under 69.
There was a cut to the low 60 players and ties following Tuesday’s second round. That cut fell at 9-over 151 and one of the notable survivors was the ageless George Forster of Radnor Valley Country Club.
Pretty sure Forster is in his late 60s, but he added a 5-over 75 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening-round 76 to make the cut on the number at 151.
The Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship is presented by Club Car, Colebridge Financial and Rolex. The event is supported by Gallagher, The Golf Channel, the PGA Tour, Titleist/Footjoy, Callaway, Nike, Ship Sticks, TaylorMade, Visit Delco and StrackaLine.
No comments:
Post a Comment