Picking up right where he left off in a 2020 season in which he was the Philadelphia Section PGA’s Player of the Year, Lookaway Golf Club head pro Mike Little captured the first Rolex points event of the 2021 season Monday, piling up 22 Stableford points to win the Tournament Players Division Championship at Little Mill Country Club in Marlton, N.J.
Little really got it going on the back nine at Little Mill, picking up three of the four birdies he had in the round without a bogey, his incoming 3-under 33 allowing him to overtake a typically talented field of Philadelphia Section pros.
It was a nice tuneup for Little, who will be part of a dozen or so members of the Philly Section contingent headed to the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. for next week’s PGA Professional Championship, which tees off Sunday. Little punched his ticket to the PGA Professional Championship when he finished in a tie for fifth in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship last September at the Country Club of York and Bent Creek Country Club.
The top 20 finishers in the PGA Professional Championship will earn a berth in the PGA Championship, which tees off in May at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island on the South Carolina coastline.
“Winning today gives me a great boost of confidence leading into the 53rd PGA Professional Championship,” Little told the Philadelphia Section PGA website.
Parks Price of the Country Club of York was the runnerup to Little with 21 Stableford points. Under the modified Stabledford scoring system, players lose a point for a bogey or worse, get a point for a par, three points for a birdie, six points for an eagle and nine points for a double eagle.
Alex Knoll, an instructor at Glen Brook Golf Club, the ageless Stu Ingraham, an instructor at the MGolf Range & Learning Center, and Jordan Shuey, out of the West Shore Country Club pro shop, shared third place, each finishing with 20 points.
Knoll will head for the PGA Golf Club as the two-time reigning Philadelpha PGA Professional Championship winner as he repeated at the Country Club of York and Bent Creek. The Philly Section pros who had earned a trip to the PGA Professional Championship last year were denied that opportunity because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Knoll did represent the Philly Section PGA in the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco based on his standing on a ranking of club pros around the country. He missed the cut.
Merion Golf Club head of instruction Mark Sheftic and Overbrook Golf Club assistant pro Ashley Grier, the 2020 Omega Women’s PGA Player of the Year Award winner, shared sixth place, each compiling 18 points.
Sheftic will also represent the Philly Section in the PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club next week. Sheftic has advanced out of the National Club Pro – that its old-school moniker – three times to play in the PGA Championship.
Grier will represent the Philly Section in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major championship on the LPGA Tour, in June at the Atlanta Athletic Club by virtue of her third-place finish in the PGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship in February at the PGA Golf Club.
Rounding out the top 10 in the Tournament Players Division Championship at Little Mill were four players – three of them members of the Philly Section’s deep pool of talented senior players – tied for eighth place, each ending up with 16 points.
The three senior players were Brian Kelly of Bucknell Golf Club, Greg Farrow, the veteran head pro at Deerwood Country Club, and Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club. Rounding out the foursome tied for eighth place was Brian Bergstol, the talented assistant pro at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort.
Ingram topped the Senior Division leaderboard with his 20 points with Kelly, Farrow and Quinn sharing second place with their 16 points apiece. Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb and Hugo Mazzalupi, out of the Patriots Glen National Golf Club pro shop, finished in a tie for fifth place, piling up 14 points apiece.
Quinn, McNabb and Dave Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, will represent the Philly Section in next month’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, a major on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. All three finished among the top 35 in last fall’s Senior PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamker Course to earn their spot in the field at Southern Hills.
Saw a tweet from the Philadelphia Section PGA this week that indicated that 2020’s season-long award winners, Little, McNabb, the Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year, and Farrow, the Super Senior Player of the Year, picked up their awards at Little Mill Monday. I rounded up the 2020 seasons that earned them those awards in a Dec. 4, 2020 post.
A couple of eagles were good for Skins in the Tournament Players Division Championship at Little Mill as the Country Club of York’s Price made eagle on the 13th hole and Dustin Willis, out of the Honey Run Golf Club pro shop, made eagle at the seventh hole.
Jeff Kiddie, the head pro at Aronimink Golf Club, picked up a pair of Skins among the senior competitors with his birdies at the third and 11th holes. Mark Anderson of St. Davids Golf Club picked up a Skin with his birdie at the second hole, Bill Walker of Riverton Country Club got a Skin with his birdie at the 16th hole and Philadelphia PGA entry Jeb Boyle earned a Skin with his birdie at Little Mill’s closing hole.
A couple of closest-to-the-pin prizes went to Jeff Herb of Waynesborough Country Club who hit it four feet, two inches from the hole at the 17th hole and the Country Club of York’s Price left his tee shot at the ninth hole five feet, two inches from the stick.
The Tournament Players Division Championship was supported by Kevin McClellan Golf Sales, Scott and Karen Hutchinson, Precision Pro Golf and Rolex.
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