Grier's third-place finish in PGA Women's Stroke Play Championship has major implications

    Overbrook Golf Club assistant pro Ashley Grier went to Port St. Lucie, Fla. to pick up her 2020 Omega Women’s PGA Player of the Year Award.

   While she was there, Grier made sure to punch her ticket to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major championship on the LPGA Tour that will tee off June 24 at the Atlanta Athletic Club, with a third-place finish in the PGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship, which wrapped up Tuesday at the PGA Golf Club.

   The top eight finishers in the PGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship earned a berth in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Pretty sure only the winner of this event normally gets a spot to the KPMG Women’s PGA with multiple spots up for grabs in the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional National Championship, but the LPGA T&CP event was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the PGA of America opened up more spots to women club pros in its Women’s Stroke Play Championship, which is part of the PGA Winter Championships, presented by GolfPlus and PrimeSport.

   Sandra Changkija, an instructor at Walt Disney World of Golf, breezed to the PGA Women’s Stroke Play crown as she closed with a 3-under 69 at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course for a 4-under 211 total. Changkija, a four-time Division II Player fo the Year while competing at Nova Southeastern in Davie, Fla. from 2008 to 2011, pulled away by making three birdies in a four-hole stretch in the middle of her final round.

   Pretty sure both the Wanamaker and Ryder courses were utilized, although I’m not sure what the course breakdowns were. The Ryder is a par-71 layout, which is why 215 is even-par for 54 holes.

   Changkija opened with a 71 on a Valentine’s Day Sunday and added another 71 in Monday’s second round. She was the only player to finish under par and earned the top prize of $2,250.

   Runnerup honors went to Samantha Morrell, who carded a 69 in the second round after opening with a 74 and trailed Changkija by just a shot heading into the final round. Morrell closed with a 73 to finish five shots behind Changkija at 1-over 216.

   Looks like Morrell, who starred collegiately at Old Dominion, is an assistant pro at Southampton Golf Club on Long Island in the summer and at TPC Trevisio Bay in Naples, Fla. in the winter. Morrell teed it up in last fall’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club, the Donald Ross masterpiece in Newtown Square.

   The KPMG Women’s PGA at Aronimink was originally scheduled to be played in June, but was postponed because of the pandemic and was played, with no fans, in October. It was a 2020 thing, but Aronimink sure looked good on TV.

   Grier added a 71 to her opening-round 72 and was also tied for second place, a shot behind Changkija, heading into the final round. Grier closed with a 74 to finish a shot behind Morrell in third place at 2-over 217, picking up a check for $1,350.

   Despite the pandemic, Grier really had a nice year in 2020. She finished in a tie for second place in the Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship in August at St. Davids Golf Club, which earned her a spot in the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship, which was held at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie in November.

   Grier was the only member of the Philadelphia Section PGA’s five-player contingent in the Assistant PGA Professional Championship to make the cut and finished in a tie for 34^th place. Grier won Player of the Year honors by taking the Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization’s points race.

   The 36-yuear-old Grier won the PGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship in 2018 and earned a trip to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes Golf Club in suburban Chicago.

   Alisa Rodriguez, an instructor at Balcones Country Club in Austin, Texas, was another shot behind Grier in fourth place at 3-over 218 – hopefully she stayed over for a couple of days before returning to ice-station Austin. Rodriguez, a collegiate standout at Texas-El Paso, added a 71 to her opening-round 73 before finishing up with a 74 to earn herself a spot in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship field in June.

   Heading a group of four players tied for fifth place at 4-over 219 – that foursome got the last four tickets to the Atlanta Athletic Club -- was Joanna Coe, a Mays Landing, N.J. native who is the assistant head of instruction at Baltimore Country Club. Coe, the 2008 Division II national champion at Rollins, was right there with Morrell and Grier in a tie for second, a shot behind Changkija, heading into the final round after adding a 72 to her opening-round 71.

   But Coe finished up with a 76 to join the group at 219.

   Coe was the first winner of the Women’s PGA Player of the Year Award, which she received at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronimink. Coe failed to make the cut at Aronimink with rounds of 79 and 80.

   When the PGA of America took over as the co-sponsor of what used to be the LPGA Championship, it gave club pros like Coe and Grier an avenue to play in a women’s major professional championship in much the same way that the top finishers in the PGA Professional Championship earn berths in the PGA Championship.

   That was at least Coe’s third straight appearance in the KPMG Women’s PGA at Aronimink. And she’ll make it at least four straight in June at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

   Coe and Grier made some history in the PGA Professional Championship in the spring of 2019 at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C. They both survived the 36-hole and 54-hole cuts to become the first women to play all four rounds in the event once known as the National Club Pro. Coe finished in a tie for 51^st place and Grier ended up in a tie for 71^st place.

   Joining Coe in the quartet at 219 were Stephanie Connelly Eiswerth of Fleming Island, Fla., who will be making her third straight appearance in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Allie Knight of Knoxville, Tenn., a collegiate standout at Middle Tennessee State, and Moira Dunn-Bohls of Tulsa, Okla., a veteran LPGA Tour performer.

   Connelly Eiswerth put together a clutch final-round 69 to make it into the final eight, Knight closed with a 73 and Dunn-Bohls sandwiched a 71 in the second round with a pair of 74s.

   A week earlier, one of the Philadelphia Section PGA’s top young players, Brett Walker, an assistant pro at Sunnybrook Golf Club, claimed his first professional victory when he beat PGA Life Member Omar Uresti, a former PGA Tour performer, in a playoff, to capture the PGA Stroke Play Championship, also held at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie.

   The 29-year-old Walker trailed fellow Philadelphia Section assistant pro Trevor Bensel, Grier’s colleague in the Overbrook pro shop, by four shots heading into the final round. Bensel had added a 68 to his opening-round 66 for a 134 total after 36 holes. Walker had matched Bensel’s opening-round 66 before falling back with a 72 in the second round.

   Again, pretty sure they played both the Wanamker and Ryder courses, but I do know that Walker, playing on the Ryder Course in the final round, was 7-under through 10 holes and finished with a spectacular 8-under 63 for a 201 total.

   Uresti, named the 2020 Omega Senior PGA Professional of the Year, had opened with a pair of 68s and wasn’t bad himself in the final round with a 65 to catch Walker at 201 and force the playoff.

   The first hole of the playoff was the par-5 17^th hole and Walker bombed it just over the green in two from 250 yards away. He chipped it to four feet and converted the birdie try. Uresti had a tricky sidehill eight-footer for birdie to extend the playoff, but couldn’t get it to fall.

   Walker, who is an assistant pro at the John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Fla. in the winter, earned $5,400 for the victory. The PGA Stroke Play Championship is also  part of the PGA Winter Championships series. Walker finished third in the Philadelphia Section’s DeBaufre Scoring Average race in 2020 with a 70.71 average, a testament to his consistency.

   Bensel closed with his second straight 68 to finish a shot out of the playoff in a tie for third place with Rod Perry, the head pro at Crane Lakes Golf & Country Club in Port Orange, Fla., at 202. Perry, who always seems to contend in the PGA Professional Championship, winning it in 2013, sandwiched a second-round 70 with a pair of 66s.

   Bob Sowards, an instructor at the Kinsale Golf & Fitness Center, closed with a 67 to finish alone in fifth place, a shot behind Bensel and Perry at 203. Sowards is another guy who always seems to show up on the PGA Professional Championship leaderboard.

   Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club in Delaware, closed with a 66 to share 11^th place with another Philadelphia Section player, John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, at 207. Pillar, the reigning two-time winner of the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship, added a 72 to his opening-round 67 before closing with a 68.

   Oakley and Bensel finished second and third, respectively, behind the Philadelphia Section’s Omega Player of the Year Mike Little in the season-long Haverford Trust points race. Bensel defeated Oakley in the title match in the final points event of the season, the Philadelphia Match Play Championship at Waynesborough Country Club. It was a rematch of the 2019 final in which Oakley beat Bensel.

   Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb, the Philadelphia Section’s reigning Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year, finished in a group tied for 27^th place at 213 as he added a pair of 70s to his opening-round 73.

   Pillar, who defeated McNabb in a playoff to win the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at Concord Country Club in August, and McNabb will represent the Philadelphia Section in May’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, a PGA Tour Champions major that will be played at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.

   McNabb finished in a tie for 16^th place and Pillar in a tie for 24^th in the Senior PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club in October to earn a trip to Southern Hills. Uresti won that title by six shots. McNabb lost to Uresti in a playoff in the 2017 PGA Professional Championship at the Sunriver Resort in Oregon.

   There was another familiar name in that group tied for 27^th place that McNabb was in. Brett Melton, the 2017 Omega Philadelphia Section Player of the Year when he was an assistant pro at Radley Run Country Club, is listed as residing in Aiken, S.C.