Brian Kelly of the Bucknell Golf Club made a couple of late
birdies to earn a spot in next spring’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship as a
final round of 4-under-par 68 left him in a group tied for 22nd
place in the 31st Senior PGA Professional Championship, which
wrapped up Sunday at the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa’s Fazio Foothills
Course in Austin, Texas.
A year ago, Kelly was an alternate after losing out in a
playoff for one of the final tickets to the Senior PGA Championship, but he
ended up getting the opportunity to represent the Philadelphia Section PGA at
Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course in Pittsford, N.Y.
But the 59-year-old Kelly can book his trip for next May to the
Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Mich. after finishing four rounds
at Omni Barton Creek at 5-under 281. The Senior PGA Championship is a PGA Tour
Champions major.
Kelly started on the back nine of the par-72 Foothills
Course and made bogey at the 10th hole. But he rattled off three
straight birdies at the 12th, 13th and 14th
holes and added another at the first hole to get it to 4-under for the
tournament. He stalled with a bogey at the second hole, but back-to-back
birdies at the fifth and sixth holes got him to 5-under and safely among the
top 35 finishers who qualified for the Senior PGA Championship.
Three of the six Philadelphia Section pros who teed it up in
Sunday’s final round finished one frustrating shot out of the playoff for the
final two Senior PGA Championship berths. The playoff participants finished at
3-under 283.
Terry Hertzog of the Country Club of York and Dave Quinn of
Laurel Creek Country Club each posted a 1-over 73 to end up at 2-under 284. Stu
Ingraham, an instructor at the M Golf Range & Learning Center in Newtown
Square, rallied with a final round of 2-under 70, but he too could only get it
back to 2-under for the tournament.
The 54-year-old Hertzog and the 53-year-old Quinn had
entered the final round just inside the top 35 while the 59-year-old Ingraham,
playing in his 38th PGA of America championship, had fallen into a
tie for 49th place with a 4-over 76 in Saturday’s third round.
Bob Lennon, a 59-year-old pro at Wilmington Country Club,
matched par in the final round with a 72 to end up among the group tied for 59th
place at 1-over 287. Radnor Valley Country Club head pro George Forster closed
with a 3-over 75 to finish among the group tied for 63rd place at
3-over 289.
The 63-year-old Forster prevailed on the seventh hole of a
playoff to claim the biggest prize offered at any Section tournament in the
country, the $100,000 first-place check that goes to the winner of the
Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic at Sunnybrook Golf Club the day after Labor
Day.
Scott Hebert, a pro at the Traverse City & Country Club
in Michigan, wiped out a five-shot deficit with 11 holes to play with a birdie
binge that gave him the $21,500 top prize out of a total purse of $300,000. The
Senior PGA Professional Championship is presented by Cadillac and supported by
The Golf Channel and John Deere.
The 50-year-old Hebert, winner of the 2008 PGA Professional
Championship, joined Steve Schneiter and Bob Sowards as the only players to win
both the regular and senior national Club Pro titles.
Hebert trailed playing partner Frank Bensel Jr., an
assistant pro at Century Country Club in Purchase, N.Y., by five shots with 11
holes to play.
But Bensel, a three-time winner of the Assistant PGA
Professional Championship, came back to the pack and Hebert, who had surged
into contention with a brilliant 9-under 63 in Saturday’s third round, made six
birdies in his final 11 holes to get past Bensel and hold off Wake Forest head
golf coach Jerry Haas, brother of Jay Haas and uncle to current PGA Tour
standout Bill Haas.
Hebert’s stunning burst enabled him to fire a 5-under 67
that gave him a 16-under 270 total and a deceiving four-shot margin of victory.
His 14-under 130 total over the weekend was seven shots better than anyone else
posted.
The 56-year-old Haas matched Hebert’s 5-under 67 in the
final round and finished in a three-way tie for second with Bensel and Jeff
Hart, a Life Member of the PGA of America from Solana Beach, Calif., at
12-under 274.
The 51-year-old Bensel, who took a one-shot lead over Hebert
into the final round, matched par with a 72 to join the trio at 12-under. The
59-year-old Hart closed with a 3-under 69.
Omar Uresti, a former PGA Tour player who was playing a home
game in Austin, finished alone in fifth place at 11-under 275. The 51-year-old
Uresti, who beat Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb in a playoff to win
the 2017 PGA Professional Championship at the Sunriver Resort in Oregon, closed
with a 1-under 71. Uresti played in the final group with Hebert and Bensel.
“The way the day started, it didn’t look like it was going
to go this way,” Hebert told the PGA of America website after hoisting the Leo
Fraser Trophy. “As good as I finished my round (Saturday), I started out poorly
today. But I got a little momentum going on the back nine.
“Frank was great to play with, he was playing well. Two
great guys, Omar and Frank. We’re just out here knocking it around, having fun,
playing some golf.”
Charlie Bolling, the 1978 Philadelphia Amateur champion when
he was playing out of Gulph Mills Golf Club, finished in a tie for 16th
place at 6-under 280. The 61-year-old Bolling, who works out of the pro shop at
the Bethpage State Park Golf Course on Long Island, closed with a 4-under 68.
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