Alex Knoll, the head pro at Blue Shamrock Golf Club, headed
the group of Philadelphia Section PGA pros competing in the 52nd PGA
Professional Championship with an opening round of 4-under-par 67 Sunday at
Belfair’s East Course in Bluffton, S.C. that left him just two shots out of the
lead.
Ron Philo, the director of golf at Sawgrass Country Club in
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., grabbed the lead after the opening round with a
6-under 66 at Belfair’s par-72 West Course, which played a little easier than
the par-71 East Course. The 53-year-old Philo won the PGA Professional
Championship – I always liked the old-school name, the National Club Pro – in
2006.
The field will switch courses for Monday’s Round 2, after
which the field will be cut to the low 90 and ties. There will be a cut to the
low 70 and ties following Tuesday’s Round 3. The top 20 finishers will earn a
ticket to the PGA Championship, which tees off May 16 at Bethpage Black in
Farmingdale, N.Y. on Long Island. The top club pros from all over the country
are playing for a total purse of $650,000 at Belfair.
The PGA was traditionally the final major professional
championship in August each year, but it was moved up to May. The PGA
Professional Championship, presented by Cadillac, Club Car and OMEGA, had been
held in June, but with the PGA in May, it had to be moved up as well.
Philo might be playing in a national club pro event, but
that doesn’t mean he’s ignoring his job back in Florida. After getting in a
practice round at Belfair Friday, Philo drove to Sawgrass to oversee the
Member-Member there Saturday.
Alex Beach, an assistant pro at Westchester Country Club in
Harrison, N.Y., fired a 5-under 67 at Belfair’s West Course and trails Philo by
a shot.
Joining Knoll at 4-under was 2013 PGA Professional
Championship winner Rod Perry of Port Orange, Fla., who carded a 68 at
Belfair’s West Course.
I didn’t get to it on the blog amid the flurry of college
conference championships last week, but Knoll claimed a victory in the first
Philadelphia Section PGA points standings event of the year, the Callaway Golf
TPD Championship at Green Valley Country Club. He piled up 32 points in the
modified Stableford scoring used for the event.
Knoll survived a playoff at last fall’s Philadelphia PGA
Professional Championship at Concord Country Club to grab a ticket to Belfair.
Knoll was an assistant pro at Bethlehem Golf Club last fall, but it looks like
he moved on to accept the job as head pro at Blue Shamrock.
Knoll survived both cuts in last summer’s PGA Professional
Championship and played four rounds at the Bayonet and Black Horse Resort on
northern California’s Monterey Peninsula.
The next best score turned in by a Philadelphia Section PGA
pro was a 2-over 73 at Belfair’s East Course by Overbrook Golf Club assistant
pro Ashley Grier, one of four women in the field. She is in the group tied for
74th.
Grier recently accepted a sponsor’s exemption for a spot in
the Valley Forge Invitational, a Symetra Tour event which tees off May 31 at
Raven’s Claw Golf Club in Limerick Township.
Spring-Ford Country Club head pro Rich Steinmetz was tied
for 109th with a 3-over 75 at Belfair’s West Course. Steinmetz has
advanced to the PGA Championship out of this event at least a couple of times
in his career.
Four Philadelphia Section PGA pros landed in the group
tied for 162nd at 5-over with
Philadelphia Cricket Club assistant pro Rusty Harbold carding a 77 at Belfair’s
West Course and Billy Stewart, an assistant pro at The ACE Club, Michael Little
of Lookaway Golf Club, and Stu Ingraham, the head of instruction at the M Golf
Range in Newtown Square, each posting a 5-over 76 at Belfair’s East Course.
Stewart captured his first Philadelphia PGA Professional
Championship victory at Concord last fall and went on to earn the Philadelphia
Section PGA’s OMEGA Player of the Year honor for 2018. Stewart also played four
rounds in his first appearance in the PGA Professional Championship last summer
at Bayonet and Black Horse.
The veteran Ingraham, playing in his 31st
national PGA of America event, was the runnerup to Stewart at Concord. Ingraham
has qualified for the PGA Championship out of the National Club Pro six times
in his career.
Brian Hollins of the Links Golf Club posted a 6-over 78 at
Belfair’s West Course to land in the group tied for 185th. Terry
Hertzog, the head pro at The Country Club of York, is in the group tied for 207th
at 7-over after a 78 at the East Course.
Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club,
and Harbold’s Cricket Club colleague, Mark Anderson, are in the group tied for
242nd at 8-over. Sheftic, who has reached the PGA Championship three
times out of the PGA Professional Championship, carded a 79 at Belfair’s East
Course and Anderson posted an 80 at Belfair’s West Course.
Mike Ladden, the head pro at Whitford Country Club,
struggled to a 12-over 83 at Belfair’s East Course to land in the group tied
for 298th.
Another woman in the field, Joanna Coe, a Mays Landing, N.J.
native, carded a solid even-par 71 at Belfair’s East Course to join the group
tied for 30th.
The 29-year-old Coe is an assistant pro at Baltimore Country
Club and the three-time reigning Middle Atlantic Section OMEGA Women’s
Player of the Year.
Coe captured the PGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship in
February at PGA Golf Club’s Ryder Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla. to earn a spot
in this summer’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, an LPGA Tour major
championship, which will be held at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska,
Minn.
Coe and Overbrook’s Grier teed it up in the KPMG Women’s PGA
last summer at Kemper Lakes Golf Club in suburban Chicago, although neither
made the cut.
Coe was the 2008 NCAA Division II individual champion while
competing for Rollins College in Winter Garden, Fla. Earlier this year, she was
inducted into the Rollins Hall of Fame.
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