Spring-Ford Country Club head pro Rich Steinmetz and Merion
Golf Club head of instruction Mark Sheftic remained solidly in the picture for
a trip to the PGA Championship with under-par efforts in the second round of
the 49th PGA Professional Championship Monday at the Turning Stone
Resort in Verona, N.Y.
The top 20 finishers in the National Club Pro, which is what
the event was traditionally known as, will earn tickets to the PGA
Championship, the last of the four major professional championships, to be held
later this month at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.
Steinmetz, who qualified for the last PGA played at
Baltusrol in 2005 out of this event, carded a 2-under 70 at Turning Stone’s
Kaluhyat course Monday and is tied for 15th at 2-under 142 at the
halfway point of the tournament.
Sheftic, who has qualified for the PGA three times out of
the National Club Pro, posted a 71 at the Kaluhyat course Monday and is a shot
back of Steinmetz in a tie for 23rd at 1-under 143.
The only other member of the Philadelphia Section PGA
contingent at Turning Stone to survive the 36-hole cut was Dave Quinn of the
Links Golf Club. Quinn had a 1-under 71 at Turning Stone’s Atunyote course
Monday and is at 2-over 146.
There will be another cut following today’s third round, in
which all the players will tee it up at the Atunyote course. The projected cut
to reach the final round stands at 3-over.
Omar Uresti, a PGA Tour veteran from Austin, Texas, fired a
5-under 67 at the Kaluhyat course to hold a one-shot lead at 9-under 135.
Uresti teed it up in the National Club Pro for the first time a year ago at
Philadelphia Cricket Club and finished fifth.
Uresti finished fourth in the 2006 B.C. Open when the PGA
Tour event was staged at the Atunyote course.
Ryan Helminen, a teaching pro at Ridgeway Country Club in
Neenah, Wis., had a 3-under 69 at the Atunyote course and is one shot back of
Uresti at 8-under 136. Helminen made it to the 2015 PGA at Whistling Straits in
his native Wisconsin out of the Cricket Club a year ago as well.
The 36-hole cut came at 3-over 147 and the rest of the
players in the Philadelphia Section PGA contingent failed to survive.
Stu Ingraham, the teaching pro at the M Golf Range in
Newtown Square, matched par at the Atunyote course with a 72, but finished at
6-over 150. He was joined at that figure by Radnor Valley Country Club head pro
George Forster, who added a 75 at Atunyote to his opening-round 75 at Kaluhyat,
and the Country Club of Harrisburg’s Steve Swartz, who had a 75 at Kaluhyat to
go with his opening-round 75 at Atunyote.
John Bierkan, the head of instruction at Aronimink Golf
Club, was at 152 following a 75 at Kaluhyat. He was joined at that figure by
Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb, who had a 75 at Atunyote.
John Lynch of Cripple Creek Golf & Country Club ended up
at 155 following a 76 at Atunyote. Ashley Grier of Overbrook Golf Club, who had
a 78 at Atunyote, and Jake Gernley of Trump National Golf Club, Philadelphia,
who had an 82 at Kaluhyat, both finished at 157.
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