I mentioned in my post on the Pennsylvania Open last week that I was hoping to wrap up some of the Philadelphia Section PGA events in July and August before the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship teed off. Should have checked the Philly Section schedule. The Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship teed off Monday at Concord Country Club. I’ll try to do daily roundups and make references to the Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year points events I missed.
Braden Shattuck, the director of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club, is the three-time reigning Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year. He has accomplished a lot while becoming the Philadelphia Section PGA’s best player.
One thing he hasn’t done, though, is capture the title in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship. Shattuck has been the runnerup in each of the last three summers in the Section championship.
Shattuck took a big step toward filling that little gap in his resume when he carded a flawless 5-under-par 66 to get a share of the lead following the opening round of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship Monday at Concord Country Club.
In recent years, the Philly Section has used a two-course setup for its biggest championship, but this year it’s all at Concord, where Monday’s opening round was played in cloudy and blessedly cool weather.
Which is fine with Shattuck. It was at Concord where long-time head pro Mike Moses took Shattuck under his wing and taught him the ins and outs of being an effective PGA club pro. It’s not all that far from Sun Valley High School in Aston, where Shattuck was a scholastic standout.
He was and always will be a Delco guy.
Shattuck was joined at 5-under by Aronimink Golf Club assistant pro Riley Wheeldon, who has been one of the Philly Section’s hottest players.
The Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship is the first step in a process that could very well end at Aronimink next May when the PGA Championship, one of professional golf’s four major championships will be staged.
It will be the first time the Philadelphia Section will host the PGA Championship since Aronimink was the site of the 1962 PGA Championship won by Gary Player.
The top finishers this week at Concord – Shattuck and Brian Bergstol, the head of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort are exempt – will earn a trip to the Bandon Dunes Resort on the rugged Oregon coast for the PGA Professional Championship, which tees off April 23.
The top 20 finishers at Bandon Dunes will form the Colebridge Financial Team, which will represent club pros all over the country in the PGA Championship at Aronimink.
It was the spring of 2023 when Shattuck holed a 12-foot putt for par on the 72nd hole at the Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M. to become just the second Philly Section player to capture the title in the PGA Professional Championship.
It was called the National Club Pro in 1985 when Ed Dougherty, another Delco guy, became the first Philly Section representative to capture the title.
In the spring of 2024, Shattuck again earned a spot on the Colebridge Financial Team at the PGA Professional Championship at Fields Ranch East at the PGA of America’s new headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
He was one of just two club pros to survive the cut in the PGA Championship a few weeks later at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. and emerged as the low club pro.
Shattuck was at his efficient best in Monday’s opening round at Concord. He made birdies at the sixth, eighth, 10th, 14th and 18th holes and didn’t have a bogey on his card.
Wheeldon started off the 10th tee at Concord Monday. He got off to a fast start with birdies at the 10th, 11th and 13th holes before stalling a little with bogeys at 15 and 17 around a birdie at 16.
He picked up another birdie at Concord’s reachable par-5 finishing hole and settled down on the outgoing nine with birdies at the first, fourth and eighth holes and six pars.
Shattuck and Wheeldon have emerged as the Philly Section’s top two players as this long, hot summer wore on.
Shattuck earned his first Rolex/Haverford Trust Company points victory of the season with a 5-under 67 in the Doylestown Open at Doylestown Country Club July 25th.
Bergstol matched Shattuck’s 5-under total, but didn’t stick around for the playoff as a long weather delay turned it into a long day.
Bergstol represented the Philadelphia Section in this year’s PGA Championship at The Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. after finishing in a tie for third place in the PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Bergstol opened with a 1-over 72 Monday at Concord to join a large group tied for 21st place following the opening round of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship.
Wheeldon finished in a tie for third place in Doylestown with Austin Barbin of Chesapeake Bay Golf Club, each posting a 3-under 69.
Wheeldon earned a Rolex/Haverford Trust Company points victory in the Pro-Am for Wishes at Penn Oaks Golf Club, just up Route 202 from Concord Aug. 4th.
Wheeldon added a 4-under 67 in the second round at Penn Oaks to his opening round of 2-under to finish a shot ahead of a trio of players, including Shattuck.
Shattuck added a 2-under 69 in the second round at Penn Oaks to an opening round of 3-under 68 for a 5-under 137 total. Shattuck’s splits were matched by LuLu Country Club assistant pro Trevor Bensel.
Rounding out the trio tied for second in the Pro-Am for Wishes was Stephen Swartz, a member of the Philadelphia Section’s talented senior players. Swartz had grabbed the lead with a sparkling opening round of 6-under 65 before adding a 1-over 72 in the second round.
Wheeldon and Shattuck both had strong showings in last week’s Pennsylvania Open at Llanerch Country Club, Wheeldon finishing in a tie for third place and Shattuck ending up alone in fifth.
Will Scarborough, working out of the pro shop at The Peninsula Golf & Country Club, was two shots behind Shattuck and Wheeldon in third place following Monday’s opening round at Concord with a solid 3-under 68.
Joanna Coe, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club and the three-time reigning Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Women’s Player of the Year in the Philadelphia Section, headed a group of four players tied for fourth place following the opening round of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship with a 2-under 69.
Coe represented the Philadelphia Section in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major championship on the LPGA Tour, at Fields Ranch East in June. Coe missed the cut, but didn’t play badly over a Fields Ranch East layout that played tough in unrelenting heat and wind in Frisco.
Joining Coe at 2-under at Concord were Andrew Turner of the Country Club of York, Zach Barbin, another member of Team Barbin at Chesapeake Bay, and Tom Michaels of Berkshire Country Club.
Defending Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship winner Brett Walker, playing out of the pro shop at Chester Valley Golf Club, headed a group of five players who rounded out the top 10 following the opening round at Concord, each landing on 1-under 70.
Also in that group at 1-under was Zac Oakley, another of the Philly Section’s top players who is an instructor at Bidermann Golf Course. Oakley joined Shattuck in the field for the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla as he also earned a spot on the Colebridge Financial Team at Fields Ranch East.
A couple more of the Philly Section’s senior stalwarts, Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club and Terry Hatch of Royal Oaks Golf Course, were also in the group at 1-under.
Rounding out the quintet at 1-under was Danny Lewis, who is on the staff of Trout National – The Reserve, the exclusive course that is taking shape on Vineland, N.J., near the Millville, N.J. hometown of Anaheim Angels star Mike Trout, who has lent his name to the project.
The other Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year points event I missed was in early July, the Golf Association of the Lehigh Valley (GALV) Lehigh Valley/Reading Open, which was won by Green Valley Country Club assistant pro Andrew Cornish.
Cornish fired a course-record 9-under 63 at Berkleigh Golf Club in Kutztown and that held up for the title.
The second round was scheduled to be held at Moselem Springs Golf Club in Fleetwood, where the membership campaigned to add the Reading name to the tournament as a nod to the old Reading Open, once a stop on the PGA Tour.
The second round was washed out by heavy rain, a recurring theme on the local golf scene in July.
Had a chance to loop for Cornish in the Partner-Pro at Stonewall earlier this month. A quarterfinalist in the 2019 BMW Philadelphia Amateur at the ’Wall, Cornish showed he has plenty of game.
Still not quite sure how is tee shot at the downhill, par-3 fifth hole at Stonewall’s Old Course, the next-to-last hole of the day for our group, stayed out of the hole. It looked like an ace when it landed a yard past the hole and spun back.
Cornish was looking forward to the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Concord and the chance to represent the Philly Section at Bandon Dunes next April. Cornish opened with a 1-over 72 Monday at Concord and was in the large group tied for 21st place.
Cornish will be part of the Philly Section contingent at the Assistant PGA Professional Championship in November at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Cornish qualified for the trip to the PGA Golf Club at the Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club July 28th.
The title in the Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship went to Ryan Rucinski, an assistant pro at Wilmington Country Club who posted rounds of 66 and 69 in the one-day, 36-hole shootout for a 6-under 138 total.
Rucinski still has some boxes to check on the ladder to full PGA membership and is not eligible to tee it up in the Assistant PGA Professional Championship.
Oakley, who finished in a tie for second place at Whitemarsh Valley, four shots behind Rucinski, was exempt from qualifying for a trip to the PGA Golf Club after he finished in a tie for second place in last fall’s Assistant PGA Professional Championship in Port St. Lucie.
Bergstol will also be in the field when the Assistant PGA Professional Championship tees off Nov. 13. He was twice been the runnerup in the event in 2021 and again in ’22.
Also earning a trip to Port St. Lucie with strong showings at Whitemarsh Valley were the Country Club of York’s Turner, Zach Barbin of Chesapeake Bay and Matt Zehner and Chad Ferguson, colleagues in the Pine Valley Golf Club pro shop.
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.
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