It was an Overbrook Golf Club pro shop battle when last
week’s rain-shortened GALV Lehigh Valley Open came down to a playoff.
Assistant pro Trevor Bensel and his boss, head pro Eric
Kennedy, each toured the par-72 Northampton Country Club layout in Easton in
4-under-par 68 before weather forced suspension of play in the Philadelphia
Section PGA Omega points tournament, presented by The Haverford Trust Company, last
Monday.
Leftover showers delayed the start of play Tuesday and the
decision was made to shorten the scheduled 36-hole event to 18 holes. Mother
Nature has not been kind to the GALV Lehigh Valley Open and it was more of the
same last week.
When play finally resumed Tuesday, nobody was able to catch
Bensel and Kennedy and the two Overbrook pros headed out to the par-4 18th
hole at Northampton to settle the issue.
Both players hit the green in regulation and made routine
pars. They returned to the 18th tee and this time, both players
missed the green, but converted easy up-and-downs that sent them back to the 18th
tee for a third time.
Bensel spun his approach off the backstop behind the pin and
nearly holed the shot before it settled eight feet below the hole. Kennedy’s
approach finished inside his assistant. Bensel got first crack at it and
dropped the birdie putt and Kennedy was unable to match Bensel’s birdie, giving
the assistant pro the victory over his boss.
It was Bensel’s first victory in a points event since he
captured the 2017 Match Play Championship.
“I have been playing well this season, I just haven’t been
able to score,” Bensel told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “The delay
wasn’t ideal, but I just tried to keep things in perspective and wait it all
out. Eric and I both played good golf and it was fun to play in a match-play
setting.”
Kennedy was in the first group out Monday and completed a
five-birdie, one-bogey round with a birdie at the 18th hole to put
up a 4-under total for the rest of the field to shoot at.
Bensel was in the final group to complete its round before
play was suspended and he had an eagle, four birdies and two bogeys in matching
Kennedy’s 68.
Alex Knoll of Blue Shamrock Golf Club, the top finisher from
among the Philadelphia Section’s contingent to the PGA Professional
Championship this spring at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C., headed a group of four
players tied for third place at 3-under 69, a shot behind the top two.
Also in that group were two recent winners of the
Philadelphia Section’s Omega Player of the Year honor, Lookaway Golf Club’s
Michael Little (2016) and Radley Run Country Club’s Brett Melton (2017).
Rounding out the foursome at 3-under was Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction
at Merion Golf Club.
Two representatives out of the Philadelphia Cricket Club pro
shop, Mark Ferguson and Nathalie Filer, headed a trio of players tied for
seventh at 2-under 70. Travis Deibert of Doylestown Country Club rounded out
the group at 2-under.
Reigning Philadelphia Section PGA Omega Player of the Year
Billy Stewart, an instructor at The ACE Club, headed a nine-player logjam tied
for 10th place at 1-under 71.
Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club, also
carded a 71. Oakley earned low-pro honors in a runnerup finish to amateur Jeff
Osberg in the Philadelphia Open earlier this month at Huntingdon Valley Country
Club.
Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb, the reigning
Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year in the Philadelphia Section, was
also part of the big group at 1-under.
Rounding out the group at 71 were Brian Bergstol, an
assistant pro at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, Chris Miller of the
Scranton Golf Center, Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club, John Appleget,
the head of instruction at The Shore Club, Jordan Shuey of West Shore Country
Club and Mark Anderson of the Cricket Club.
Four players from that group at 71, McNabb, Quinn, Appleget
and Anderson, shared the top spot in the Senior division.
Amateur Steve Kluemper made a run at the overall title when
he got it to 6-under, but he settled for low-amateur honors when three late
bogeys left him at 3-under 69.
Rick Fleiser, working out of the Applebrook pro shop, carded
a 2-over 74 to claim top honors in the Super-Senior division.
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