Knoll two shots out of the lead after opening round of PGA Professional Championship

   Alex Knoll, the head pro at Blue Shamrock Golf Club, headed the group of Philadelphia Section PGA pros competing in the 52^nd 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 74^th.

   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 109^th 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 162^nd 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 31^st 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 185^th. Terry Hertzog, the head pro at The Country Club of York, is in the group tied for 207^th 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 242^nd 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 298^th.

   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 30^th.

   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.