Stewart makes his move in PGA Professional Championship at the Bayonet Black Horse Resort

   Billy The Kid is on the move at the PGA Professional Championship at the Bayonet Black Horse Resort in Seaside, Calif. on the scenic Monterey Peninsula.

   Billy Stewart, an assistant pro at The ACE Club making his first appearance at an event once known quite simply as the National Club Pro, headed a group of five Philadelphia Section PGA pros who survived the 36-hole cut following Monday’s second round.

   Stewart, who starred scholastically at Malvern Prep and collegiately at Saint Joseph’s University, opened with an unspectacular 3-over-par 75 at the 6,904-yard, par-71 Black Horse Course Sunday, but got it going on Day 2 Monday at the 7,084-yard, par-72 Bayonet Course, finishing with a 1-under 71 that moved him into a tie for 34^th at 2-over 146.

   The ultimate goal at the PGA Professional Championship is to finish in the top 20, which gets you a ticket to the PGA Championship, the final major professional championship of the year, which will tee off Aug. 9 at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis.

   Stewart gave himself a shot with his sub-par effort Monday, a round that looked for a while like it might be even better.

   The field of 312 was cut to the top 90 and ties after every player in the field got a shot at both courses. There will be another cut to the low 70 and ties following Tuesday’s third round.

   Brendon Post, the assistant coach and director of player development for the Delaware men’s golf program, also bettered par with a 1-under 71 at the Black Horse Course after opening with a 76 at Bayonet Sunday and is tied for 51^st at 3-over 147.

   Radley Run Country Club assistant pro Brett Melton, the Philadelphia Section’s reigning OMEGA Player of the Year, and Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb, who lost in a playoff in the PGA Professional Championship a year ago at the Sunriver Resort in Oregon, both landed in the group tied for 66^th at 4-over 148.

   Melton, who came to Seaside off back-to-back wins on the Philadelphia Section PGA circuit, added a 3-over 75 at Black Horse to the solid 1-over 73 he carded in Sunday’s opening round at Bayonet. McNabb struggled in a 4-over 76 Sunday at Bayonet, but bounced back by matching par with a 72 at the Black Horse Course Monday.

   Bethlehem Golf Club pro Alex Knoll made the cut on the number at 5-over 149. Knoll led the Philadelphia Section contingent in Sunday’s opening round when he matched par with a 72 at Bayonet. But he fell back with a 5-over 77 Tuesday at the Black Horse Course.

   Bayonet, where the final two rounds will be played, generally seemed to play the tougher of the two courses. Stewart, winner of the 2015 Pennsylvania Open at Rolling Green Golf Club before missing 2016 while rehabbing from surgery, got it going there Monday.

   Stewart got it to 4-under for the round and 2-over the championship with birdies at two, five, seven and 10. He backed off with bogeys at 13, 15 and 16, but he finished on a positive note with a birdie at the par-5 finishing hole. I’m assuming he started on No. 1, but it is possible he started on 10, which would mean Stewart rallied to make sure he got inside the cut line.

   The PGA of America changed the way its scoring appears on its website and I’m still trying to figure out if it’s noted anywhere where a player starts his or her round.

   Bottom line is Stewart gave himself a chance at a top-20 finish and a trip to St. Louis in August for the PGA Championship. And he seemed to find the Bayonet Course to his liking.

   Philmont Country Club’s David Quinn, the reigning Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional champion, improved off an opening-round 78 at Black Horse Sunday with a solid 2-over 74 at Bayonet, but his 152 total was three shots off the cut line.

   He was joined at that figure by Jordan Gibbs, who earned his trip to Seaside with his third-place finish in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship last fall at Laurel Creek Country Club while an assistant at Gulph Mills Golf Club. It looks like Gibbs may have moved on from Gulph Mills. He opened with a 75 at Bayonet Sunday before adding a 77 at Black Horse Monday.

   Stu Ingraham, the head of instruction at the M Golf Range in Newtown Square, Merion Golf Club head of instruction Mark Sheftic and LedgeRock Golf Club pro Tony Perla all landed in the group tied for 172^nd at 9-over 153.

   Ingraham, the Philadelphia Section’s reigning eight-time Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year, improved from the opening-round 79 he carded Sunday at Bayonet with a 2-over 74 at the Black Horse Course. Sheftic got off to a solid start with a 2-over 74 at the Black Horse Course, but struggled to a 79 Monday at Bayonet.

   Perla opened with a 3-over 75 at the Black Horse Course Sunday before adding a 78 Monday at Bayonet.

   Ingraham, playing in his 30^th national PGA of America event, has taken the National Club Pro route to the PGA Championship six times in his remarkable career. Sheftic has done it three times.

   Pretty sure Spring-Ford Country Club head pro Rich Steinmetz has at least twice played his way to the PGA Championship out of the PGA Professional Championship. Steinmetz added a 76 at Bayonet to the opening-round 78 he posted at the Black Horse Course for a 158 total.

   Gene Fieger, an assistant pro at The Club at Pelican Bay in Naples, Fla. who dominated the Philadelphia Section in the mid-1990s, added a 78 at the Black Horse Course Monday to the opening-round 79 he posted at Bayonet Sunday for a 157 total. Fieger, a Nether Providence graduate, teed it up in last month’s Senior PGA Championship, a PGA Tour Champions major, at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Mich., but failed to make the cut.

   Terry Hertzog, the head pro at The Country Club of York who captured the Philadelphia PGA Professional championship for the third time last summer at Laurel Creek, carded a 3-over 75 at the Black Horse Course Sunday. Despite multiple perusals of the scoreboard, I could not locate his second-round score.

   Three players are tied for the lead at the halfway mark at 4-under 140 and all three, like Applebrook’s McNabb, made it through a year ago at Sunriver and teed it up in the PGA Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.

   Ryan Vermeer, the director of golf at the Happy Hollow Golf Club in Omaha, Neb., added a 2-under 70 at the Black Horse Course to the 2-under he carded at Bayonet Sunday. Kenny Pigman, playing out of the pro shop at Goose Creek Golf Club in Mira Loma, Calif., fired a sparkling 4-under 68 at Bayonet Monday after matching par with a 72 at the Black Course Sunday. Greg Gregory, an assistant pro at Hidden Creek Golf Course in Burleson, Texas, carded a 2-under 70 at Bayonet after opening with a 2-under 70 Sunday at the Black Horse Course.

   Billy Stewart is just six shots away from the top of the leaderboard. I always thought Stewart, a product of the junior program at Llanerch Country Club who won the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship before the ink was dry on his Malvern Prep diploma in 2002, might thrive in the National Club Pro environment.

   Stewart finished tied for fifth in his first shot in the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. in November.

   And now he’s off to a pretty good start at the Bayonet and Black Horse Resort.