It is unlikely Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb can catch his old buddy Omar Uresti to win the 32nd Senior PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., but McNabb is in pretty good shape to earn a nice consolation prize, a trip to next spring’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at the classic Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.
Three summers ago, McNabb lost in a playoff to Uresti in the PGA Professional Championship at the Sunriver Resort. There was a lot of grumbling among the club-pro set that Uresti, a former PGA Tour performer, had no business teeing it up in the biggest event of the year for club pros.
I’m not getting in the middle of that argument, but the 54-year-old McNabb’s runnerup finish earned him a trip to the PGA Championship, one of professional golf’s four major championships, at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.
Uresti took control of the Senior PGA Professional Championship, supported by The Golf Channel and John Deere, with a sizzling 6-under-par 66 at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course Saturday that gave him a 13-under 202 total through three rounds and a four-shot lead. All Uresti, a 52-year-old Life Member from Austin, Texas, did was make three eagles on the outgoing nine at the Wanamaker Course.
McNabb cooled off a little with a 1-over 73 in Saturday’s third round to land among the group tied for 11th place at 4-under 211.
Two of McNabb’s fellow Philadelphia Section PGA representatives, Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club and John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, are also in the hunt for a ticket to next spring’s Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
Quinn and Pillar both landed in the group tied for 29th place at 1-over 216. The top 35 finishers following Sunday’s final round advance to the Senior PGA Championship.
McNabb had a patient round Saturday, making pars on the first 11 holes at the Wanamaker Course. He followed up a bogey at the 12th hole with a birdie at 13, then followed up a bogey at 15 with a birdie at the 16th. A bogey at the finishing hole left him at 1-over for the round.
Quinn and Pillar, who defeated McNabb in a playoff to earn his second straight Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship in August at Concord Country Club, both had to return to the Ryder Course early Saturday morning to complete their second rounds.
The 54-year-old Quinn ended up carding a 3-over 74 for his second round at the Ryder Course before matching par with a 72 in the third round at the Wanamaker Course. The 53-year-old Pillar finished off a solid 1-under 70 tour of the Ryder Course early Saturday morning before bettering par with a 1-under 71 at the Wanamaker Course.
A fourth Philadelphia Section representative, 64-years-young Radnor Valley Country Club head pro George Forster, survived the 54-hole cut on the number as he carded a 1-over 73 at the Wanamker Course to join the group tied for 53rd place at 4-over 219.
Bob Sowards, the 52-year-old head of instruction at the Kinsale Golf & Fitness Center in Powell, Ohio, was Uresti’s closest pursuer in the title chase. Sowards fired a 3-under 69 to get it to 9-under 206, four shots behind Uresti in second place.
Another former PGA Tour performer, Paul Stankowski, a 50-year-old Life Member from Flower Branch, Texas, headed a group of three players tied for third place at 7-under 208. Stankowski signed for a 2-under 70 Saturday.
Stankowski was joined at 7-under by Scott Hebert, the head pro at Traverse City Golf & Country Club in Traverse City, Mich., and Frank Bensel, an assistant pro at Century Country Club in Purchase, N.Y.
Hebert matched Stankowski’s 2-under 70 to join him at 208. Bensel, who finished in a tie for second place in last year’s Senior PGA Professional Championship at the Omni Barton Creek Resort in Austin, Texas, registered a 1-over 73.
Gene Fieger, an instructor at Club Pelican Bay in Naples, Fla., had survived the 36-hole cut, but a 78 at the Wanamaker Course left him at 8-over 223 and outside the 54-hole cut.
The 60-year-old Fieger, the 2013 Senior PGA Professional Championship winner, dominated the Philadelphia Section in the 1990s as aqn assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club.
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