Two years ago, Dave McNabb, the head pro at Applebrook Golf
Club, lost in a playoff in the PGA Professional Championship, the biggest event
for club pros in America. That runnerup finish earned him his third trip to the
PGA Championship.
McNabb also teed it up in two Champions Tour majors that
year, the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and the U.S. Senior Open. He was
at Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y. this spring, again making the field
for the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. You get the point. The guy has
become very comfortable playing in big events.
In this area, the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Open
Championship qualifies as a big event. It brings together a fascinating group
of club pros and top amateurs from all over the region. It is a field filled
with talent and McNabb takes a back seat to nobody in this area on the golf
course.
He proved that point once again on a sweltering Wednesday in
the opening round of the Philadelphia Open as the Newark, Del. resident ripped
off six birdies on the front nine of the William Flynn gem that is Huntingdon
Valley Country Club on his way a sparkling 4-under-par 66 that gave him a
one-shot lead.
The area’s best mid-amateur, 35-year-old Jeff Osberg,
playing out of Pine Valley Golf Club, but until this year a Huntingdon Valley
member for six years, posted a solid 3-under 67 and is in second place heading
into Thursday’s second and final round.
McNabb, playing in the first group off Wednesday, opened his
round by knocking a 58-degree wedge from 60 yards away at the 376-yard, par-4
first hole to six feet and making his birdie putt. He added another birdie at
the 217-yard, par-3 third hole where he hit a 7-wood, a new addition to the
bag, to 15 feet and made the putt.
After a momentary lapse when a poor drive led to a bogey at
the fourth hole, McNabb really heated up, making birdies at four of the next
five holes on the front side of the 6,785-yard, par-70 Huntingdon Valley
layout.
An 8-iron at the 163-yard, par-3 fifth hole finished six
feet from the hole and McNabb drilled the birdie try. He knocked a pitching
wedge from 136 yards away at the 436-yard, par-4 sixth hole to 20 feet and made
that putt.
At the 365-yard, par-4 eighth hole, McNabb again wielded the
58-degree wedge, his approach finishing 15 feet from the hole and the birdie
putt again finding the bottom of the cup. At the downhill 458-yard, par-4 ninth
hole, McNabb sent in a 9-iron from 150 yards away and the ball finished six
feet away and he converted that opportunity into his sixth birdie on the
outgoing nine.
The back nine was pretty tame in comparison as he offset a double
bogey at the 13th hole with a birdie at the par-5 15th
hole.
“To shoot 66 around here on this golf course is really a
feat,” the 53-year-old McNabb told the GAP website. “The golf course is firm and
fast. I really love how this place plays. It is such a demanding test tee to
green. You have to pay attention for all 18 holes.”
Osberg won this championship in 2016 in a playoff at The
Ridge at Back Brook and was part of a three-man aggregate playoff in the
Philadelphia Open at St. Davids Golf Club a year ago when Billy Stewart, a
teaching pro at The ACE Club, captured the title.
Osberg played some fantastic golf as recently as last month
when he fell in the final of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Stonewall to
repeat winner Jeremy Wall.
Osberg patiently parred the front nine at Huntingdon Valley
Wednesday and then made four birdies against a bogey on the incoming nine. Much
like McNabb, Osberg is quite comfortable when the heat gets turned up in a big
event like this.
George Forster, the 60-something head pro at Radnor Valley
Country Club, was one of four players who matched par with 70s and are tied for
third, three shots behind Osberg.
Forster was joined at even par by Bidermann Golf Club pro
Zac Oakley and a couple of amateurs, John Brennan, a veteran out of the
Philadelphia Cricket Club’s seemingly bottomless well of talent, and Lukas
Clark of Jericho National Golf Club, a junior on the Penn State golf team who
was a scholastic standout at Council Rock South.
Overbrook Golf Club head pro Eric Kennedy headed a group of
three players tied for seventh at 1-over 71.
Vince Kwon, playing on his home course at Huntingdon Valley,
was also at 1-over 71. Kwon has been playing great golf all season, including a
memorable run to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at
the Bandon Dunes Resort’s Old MacDonald Course along with fellow Marlton, N.J.
resident Troy Vannucci.
Rounding out the trio at 1-over was another amateur, LuLu
Country Club’s Connor McNicholas, the one-time Hatboro-Horsham standout who
briefly played college golf at Temple.
Saucon Valley Country Club’s Matthew Mattare, who won the
2017 Philadelphia Open title at Philadelphia Country Club, headed a group of
eight players tied for 10th at 2-over 72.
Two pros, the Shawnee Resort & Golf Club’s Brian
Bergstol, one of the Philadelphia Section PGA’s top assistant pros, and
Philadelphia Country Club head pro Scott Reilly are also part of that group at
2-over 72.
Rounding out the group at 2-over were five talented
amateurs, including Whitemarsh Valley Country Club’s Will Davenport, who
captured the GAP Middle-Amateur Championship at Rolling Green Golf Club this
spring, Green Valley Country Club’s Ben Feld, the golf coach at Drexel, DuPont
Country Club’s Matthew Finger, Mercer Oaks Golf Course’s Danny Harcourt and Fox
Hill Country Club’s Marino Medico.
Radley Run Country Club assistant pro Brett Melton, who was
part of the playoff a year ago along with Stewart and Osberg, headed a group of
10 players tied for 18th at 3-over 73. Stewart was part of a 16-player
logjam tied for 28th at 4-over 74.
The field was cut to the low 60 players and ties after the
opening round and it took a 76 to return to return for Thursday’s final round.
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