Three of the Philadelphia Section PGA’s most talented young players, Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club, Trevor Bensel, an assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club, and Brett Walker, an assistant pro at Sunnybrook Golf Club, will head into Wednesday’s final round of the PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course with a shot to represent the Philly Section in next month’s PGA Championship at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island on the South Carolina coastline.
The top 20 finishers in the PGA Professional Championship – I like its old-school moniker, the National Club Pro – earn a ticket to the PGA Championship, one of the four major professional championships for the men.
Oakley has the best shot of earning a trip to the PGA as he carded a solid 2-under-par 70 over the 7,088-yard, par-72 Wanamaker layout Tuesday to land among the group tied for 20th place at even-par 215. Oakley has been steady all week at the PGA Golf Club, opening with a 1-over 72 at the Ryder Course and adding a 1-over 73 in the second round at the Wanamaker Course.
Bensel matched par with a 72 at the Wanamaker Course to land in the group tied for 28th place at 1-over 216. Bensel opened with a 2-over 74 at the Wanamaker Course, but crept up the leaderboard with a 1-under 70 at the Ryder Course in Monday’s second round.
Walker, winner of the PGA Stroke Play Championship at the PGA Golf Club in February, struggled a little in Tuesday’s third round with a 3-over 75 at the Wanamaker Course that left him in the group tied for 34th place at 2-over 217.
Walker had risen to a tie for 14th place at the halfway point as he added a 2-under 70 at the Wanamaker Course in Monday’s second round to his opening-round 72 at the Ryder Course.
The fifth Philly Section representative still alive in the PGA Professional Championship field, Hugh Mazzalupi, out of the Patriots Glen National Golf Club pro shop, signed for a 1-over 73 to survive the 54-hole cut with a 4-over 219 total that left him among the group tied for 46th place and will have a starting time for Wednesday’s final round.
Mazzalupi, one of the Philly Section’s talented senior players, had opened with a 3-over 74 at the Ryder Course before matching par at the Wanamaker Course with a 72 in Monday’s second round.
Tom Cooper, who earned his berth in the PGA Professional Championship with his runnerup finish in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship last September at the Country Club of York and Bent Creek Country Club in Lititz, is in with a really good shot to earn a starting time at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course next month.
It looks like Cooper has moved on from his position as an assistant pro at Pine Valley Golf Club. He posted a solid 4-under 68 at the Wanamaker Course in Tuesday’s third round to move into the group tied for 14th place at 1-under 214. Cooper had opened with a 1-over 73 at the Wanamaker Course before adding a 2-over 73 at the Ryder Course in Monday’s second round.
It doesn’t look like anybody is going to catch Omar Uresti, the 52-year-old PGA Life Member and former PGA Tour performer from Austin, Texas, for the title. Many of the angrier elements of golf Twitter don’t think Uresti belongs competing in club pro events, but if the PGA of America lets him in, he’s going to compete.
Uresti defeated the Philly Section’s Dave McNabb, the head pro at Applebrook Golf Club, in a playoff to win the 2017 PGA Professional Championship at the Sunriver Resort in Oregon. After firing a flawless seven-birdie, no-bogey 7-under 65 at the Wanamaker Course in Tuesday’s third round, Uresti will take a seven-shot lead into Wednesday’s final round.
Uresti made birdies at the first, third, sixth, seventh, 12th, 13th and 16th holes in his sparkling round that left him at 15-under 200 through 54 holes. Uresti captured the Senior PGA Professional Championship in October and lost in a playoff to Sunnybrook’s Walker in the PGA Stroke Play Championship in February, both at the PGA Golf Club.
Larkin Gross, a talented 23-year-old from Center Cross, Va., and Ben Cook, an instructor at Yankee Springs in Wayland, Mich., are Uresti’s closest pursuers as they were tied for second place at 8-under 207.
Gross had a wild round that featured 11 birdies, that’s 11, a double bogey and a bogey in a scintillating 8-under 64 at the Wanamaker Course that enabled him to make a major move up the leaderboard. Cook, the reigning Michigan PGA Professional Championship winner, carded a solid 2-under 70 at the Wanamaker Course to get it to 8-under for the tournament.
Another Michigander, Tim Pearce, an assistant pro at Birmingham Country Club in Birmingham, Mich., matched par with a 72 at the Wanamaker Course to move into fourth place at 5-under 210, three shots behind Gross and Cook.
The PGA Professional Championship is supported by Cadillac, Club Car and Rolex.
No comments:
Post a Comment