Knoll in position to punch ticket to PGA Championship

   Alex Knoll, the head pro at Blue Shamrock Golf Club in Palmerton, heads into Wednesday’s final round of the 52^nd PGA Professional Championship at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C. with a shot at a top-20 finish that would earn him a ticket to the PGA Championship in a couple of weeks at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. on Long Island.

   Knoll carded a 1-over-par 73 over Belfair’s par-72 West Course to join the group tied for 14^th at 1-over 216 after three rounds of the PGA Professional Championship, presented by Cadillac, Club Car and OMEGA.

   It is the second straight year that Knoll has played all four rounds in the PGA Professional Championship. He finished in a tie for 49^th in last year’s championship at the Bayonet and Black Horse Resort on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula.

   The PGA Professional Championship had traditionally been played in June, but with the PGA Championship moving from August to May, the National Club Pro, as it used to be called, also moved up a couple of months on the golf calendar.

   Knoll had opened with a 4-under 67 at Belfair’s East Course in Sunday’s opening round before posting a 4-over 76 at Belfair’s West Course Monday.

   Knoll heads a group of three Philadelphia Section PGA professionals who will tee it up in Wednesday’s final round.

   One of them, Overbrook Golf Club assistant pro Ashley Grier will be making some history. Grier and Mays Landing, N.J. native Joanna Coe, a teaching pro at Baltimore Country Club and the reigning three-time Middle Atlantic Section PGA Women’s Player of the Year, became the first two women to survive the 54-hole cut in the PGA Professional Championship.

   The 35-year-old Grier struggled a little Tuesday with a 5-over 77, but made the cut on the number at 6-over 221. Two years ago, Grier, a native of Hagerstown, Md., became the first woman to win a Philadelphia Section PGA official points event.

   Coe, 29, carded a solid 1-over 73 to join the group tied for 31^st at 3-over 218.

   Grier and Coe are both former Symetra Tour players. Grier recently accepted a sponsor’s exemption to play in the Symetra Tour’s Valley Forge Invitational, which tees off May 31 at Raven’s Claw Golf Club in Limerick Township.

   The third member of the Philadelphia Section PGA playing in the final round of the PGA Professional Championship is Lookaway Golf Club assistant pro Michael Little, the 2017 Philadelphia Section PGA OMEGA Player of the Year.

   Little matched par with a 72 at Belfair’s West Course Tuesday to move into a tie for 48^th at 5-over 220.

   Spring-Ford Country Club hear pro Rich Steinmetz carded a 78 Tuesday and his 10-over 225 left him outside the cut line to the low 70 and ties for the final round. Steinmetz starred scholastically at Perkiomen Valley back in the days when this blogger was covering high school golf for The Mercury in Pottstown.

   It looks like a couple of Metropolitan Section PGA pros are going to battle it out for individual honors at Belfair as Danny Balin, the head pro at Fresh Meadow Country Club in Lake Success, N.Y. and a Penn State graduate, and Alex Beach, an assistant pro at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y. and a Nebraska graduate, will enter Wednesday’s final round tied for the lead.

   Balin had trailed Beach by a shot entering Tuesday’s third round, but caught him by matching par with a 72 while Beach posted a 1-over 73. They both landed on 7-under 208. And, no matter what happens Wednesday, both are in very good shape to earn a trip to Bethpage Black, a Metropolitan Section PGA member, for the PGA Championship.

   Stuart Deane, a native of Australia who stepped down as the head golf coach at the University of Texas at Arlington last year, and Matt Lohmeyer, an instructor at GOLFTec in Fort Worth, Texas, are five shots behind the co-leaders in a tie for third at 2-under 213.

   Deane posted a 1-over 73 while Lohmeyer, who will play in the final group Wednesday with Balin and Beach, fell back with a 3-over 75.

   Three past champions, Matt Dobyns, a two-time winner, Rich Berberian Jr., who won the title in 2016, and 2013 winner Rod Perry are part of a group of five players tied for fifth at 2-under 214. Dobyns will be seeking to advance to the PGA Championship out of the National Club Pro for the sixth time.

   Dobyns matched the low round of the day with a 3-under 69 while Berberian and Perry of Port Orange, Fla., each matched par with a 72.

   Also in that group at 1-under 214 were Rob Labritz, the director of golf at GlenArbor Golf Club in Bedford Hills, N.Y. and Ben Cook, a pro at Cascade Hills Country Club in Grand Rapids, Mich. Labritz toured Belfair’s West Course in 1-under 71 Tuesday while Cook matched par with a 72.