Two of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers come out of the Rolling Green pro shop

    A couple of items popped up on the Philadelphia Section PGA’s Twitter feed last week that were worth following up on …

   My Golf Digest subscription provides me with plenty of golf news in my e-mail in-box, more than any person could possibly read. But with the heads-up from the Philly Section, I checked out Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers and it’s pretty amazing how many Philadelphia area young pros show up on the biennial list.

   In the Golf Digest introduction to the list, the publication says when it started it in 2008 only 20 instructors in their 20s or 30s appeared on it. This year’s list includes 178 teachers from all around the country. It is a list that bodes well for the future of the game.

   The Philadelphia Section has a ton of really good players, which is what makes it interesting to follow on this blog. But there are plenty of good instructors in this area. John Dunigan, a Golf Digest Top 50 Teacher who is hanging his shingle at Applebrook Golf Club these days, has a stable of really good young players, but I’ve had people I’ve looped for at Stonewall from his previous stop at White Manor Country Club who swear by the guy.

   Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club, is working with some talented youngsters in the area and it seems like the membership at Merion likes him. The winner of the Philly Section’s PGA Teacher & Coach of the Year in 2020 was the innovative mind of Andy Miller at LedgeRock Golf Club. The Lou Guzzi Golf Academy that the veteran instructor runs out of Talamore Country Club has a big following in this area.

   And when Havertown’s J.P. Hoban captured the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior-Junior Championship at the West Chester Golf & Country Club last summer, he was quick to credit the M Golf Range in Newtown Square and its veteran instructor, Stu Ingraham, with aiding in his development as a player.

   If you talk to the kids and their parents as much as I do, you hear it all the time. Behind every good junior player is a PGA professional who has helped him or her become better players.

   So, it’s not surprising that so many of the instructors from this area appear in the Northeast section of Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers list.

   And two of them, 35-year-old Scott Chisholm and 33-year-old Brian Creghan, come out of the pro shop at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Delaware County. Chisholm, the head pro at Rolling Green, appears on the list for the second straight time.

   Also appearing on the list are 36-year-old Steven Chalmers of Saucon Valley Country Club, 31-year-old Earl Cooper of the Union League Golf Club at Torresdale, 32-year-old Nick Iacono of Chester Valley Golf Club, 37-year-old Mark Walder of DiJulia Golf in New Hope and 34-year-old Michael Wheeler of the Rossi’s Golf Center in Lionville.

   I’m not far from the Rossi’s Golf Center, but I hadn’t really noticed the range off Route 113 just west of Route 100 until the last couple of years. Sounds like Wheeler is doing some nice work there.

   A little outside of the Philly Section, but 31-year-old Michael Labella, who works out of the Nemacolin Resort in western Pennsylvania, also appears on the list.

   I became a big fan of Joanna Coe when I got a chance to loop for the Mays Landing, N.J. native in a Pro-Partner at Stonewall, pretty sure it was 2017. The 31-year-old assistant head of instruction at Baltimore Country Club appears in the Mid-Atlantic section on Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers list.

   Coe, an NCAA Division II champion at Rollins, received the inaugural Omega Women’s PGA Professional Player of the Year award at October’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. Following Coe in winning that award for 2020 is Overbrook Golf Club assistant pro Ashley Grier.

   There were quite a few women on Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers list, which is nice to see. Maybe a few potential women golfers might be less hesitant to take up the game if they can get some instruction from a woman pro.

   I’ve watched the women’s game really take off in the last 20 years and it’s just a matter of time before all those high school and college standouts start to encourage their girlfriends to get out and start hitting it around.

   The other item that popped up on the Philly Section Twitter feed last week concerned some of the Section’s senior players who were teeing it up in the PGA Winter Championship’s Senior Stroke Play A Championship at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., which wrapped up Jan. 12.

   Led by the reigning two-time Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship winner John Pillar, the director of golf at  the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, three Philly Section pros finished in the top 20 in the overall Groups 1 and 2 (ages 50 to 59) scoring.

   Pillar opened with a 2-over 74 at the Wanamaker Course, which looks like it was playing tougher than the par-71 Ryder Course. Pillar then blitzed the Ryder Course with a sparkling 6-under 65. He closed with a 1-over 73 at the Wanamaker Course to join four other players in a tie for eighth place in the overall scoring at 3-under 212.

   Playing out of the pro shop at Patriots Glen National Golf Club, Hugo Mazzalupi finished a shot behind Pillar in a group tied for 13^th place at 2-under 213. Mazzalupi matched par in the opening round with a 72 at the Wanamaker Course and fired a 5-under 66 in the second round at the Ryder Course before finishing up with a 3-over 75 back at Wanamaker.

   At 5-under 138 through two rounds, Mazzalupi was only three shots out of the lead in a tie for third place heading into the  final round.

   Dave McNabb, the head pro at Applebrook, finished a shot behind Mazzalupi in the group tied for 20^th place at 1-under 214. After matching par with a 72 in the opening round at the Wanamaker Course, McNabb registered a solid 4-under 67 at the Ryder Course as he joined Pillar in a large group tied for sixth place at 4-under 139 heading into the final round.

   McNabb closed with a 3-over 75 back at Wanamaker.

   No big surprise that the winner was Omar Uresti, the former PGA Tour performer from Austin, Texas who blew past his pal Bob Sowards, an instructor at the Kinsale Golf & Fitness Center in Dublin, Ohio, with a final-round 66 for an 11-under 204 total.

   Sowards took a two-shot lead into the final round after adding a 3-under 68 at the Ryder Course to his opening round of 5-under 67 at the Wanamaker Course. He matched par in the final round with a 72 back at Wanamaker to finish three shots behind Uresti in second place at 8-under 207.

   In the Group 1 (ages 50-54) scoring, Pillar finished in a tie for seventh place, Mazzalupi landed in a tie for 10^th and McNabb ended up in a tie for 15^th.

   McNabb and Pillar punched their tickets to next May’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship with solid showings in October’s Senior PGA Professional Championship, which was also held at the PGA Golf Club.

   McNabb finished in a tie for 16^th place and Pillar in a tie for 24^th in the Senior Club Pro and will represent the Philadelphia Section in the Senior PGA Championship, a major on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, at Southern Hills Country Club, a classic layout in Tulsa, Okla. that has hosted the U.S. Open three times and the PGA Championship four times.

   Mazzalupi also teed it up in the Senior Club Pro, but missed the cut.

   The winner of the Senior PGA Professional Championship in October at the PGA Golf Club? Uresti, of course, by six shots.