Sunnybrook Golf Club assistant pro Brett Walker moved inside the top 20 at the halfway point of the PGA Professional Championship with a 2-under-par 70 at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Monday.
Walker headed a group of five players representing the Philadelphia Section PGA to make the 36-hole cut in an event that started with 312 club pros from all around the country.
After opening with a 1-over-par 72 over the 6,860-yard, par-71 Ryder Course in Sunday’s first round, Walker put together a solid round over the 7,088-yard, par-72 Wanamaker Course that played tougher in the first two days of the championship to join the group tied for 14th place at 1-under 142.
The top 20 is more significant than in most tournaments because the top-20 finishers in the PGA Professional Championship – I prefer its old-school moniker, the National Club Pro – earn a ticket to next month’s PGA Championship, one of men’s golf four professional majors, at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island on the South Carolina coast.
Walker has some familiarity with PGA Golf Club as he fired a scintillating 8-under 63 on the Ryder Course in February and defeated Omar Uresti, a PGA Life Member and former PGA performer from Austin, Texas who owns the lead after two rounds of the PGA Professional Championship, in a playoff to capture a win in the PGA Stroke Play Championship.
After making pars on his first six holes Monday at the Wanamaker Course, Walker birdied the seventh hole, bogeyed the eighth, birdied the ninth and bogeyed the 10th hole and stood at even-par for the round. But he went back-to-back with birdies at the 12th and 13th holes and parred in from there to get it in at 2-under.
Uresti, who won the PGA Professional Championship in 2017 at the Sunriver Resort in Oregon and the Senior PGA Professional Championship last fall at the PGA Golf Club, added a 4-under 68 at the Wanamker Course to his opening-round 67 at the Ryder Course and leads the field by a shot at 8-under 135.
The final two rounds will be played at the Wanamaker Course and there will be another cut after Tuesday’s third roujnd.
Trevor Bensel, the talented assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club, and Parks Price, out of the Country Club of York, landed among the group tied for 36th place after two rounds at 1-over 144.
Trevor Bensel added a solid 1-under at the Ryder Course to the opening round of 2-over 74 he carded Sunday. Price had matched par with a 72 at the Wanamaker Course Sunday and added a 1-over 72 at the Ryder Course in Monday’s second round to join Trevor Bensel at 1-over.
Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club, carded a 1-over 73 at the Wanamaker Course after opening with a 1-over 72 at the Ryder Course Sunday to join the group tied for 51st place at 2-over 145. Oakley will have some work to do to survive the 54-hole cut.
Hugo Mazzalupi, out of the Patriots Glen National Golf Club pro shop, made the 36-hole cut on the number as he matched par with a 72 at the Wanamaker Course after opening with a 3-over 74 at the Ryder Course for a 3-over 146 total.
Also making the cut on the number at 3-over was Tom Cooper, who earned his spot in the field 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. Cooper, who appears to have moved on from the Pine Valley Golf Club pro shop, added a 2-over 73 at the Ryder Course to his opening round of 1-over 73 at the Wanamaker Course.
Rich Steinmetz, the veteran head pro at Spring Ford Country Club, and another Overbrook assistant pro, Ashley Grier, the 2020 Women’s PGA Player of the Year, were both in the group that finished two shots off the cut line at 5-over 148.
After opening with a solid 1-under 70 at the Ryder Course, Steinmetz backed off with a 6-over 78 at the Wanamaker Course.
Grier added a 1-over 72 at the Ryder Course to the 4-over 76 she posted at the Wanamaker Course in Sunday’s opening round. Two years ago, the last time the PGA Professional Championship was contested at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C., Grier and Baltimore Country Club instructor and Jersey Shore native Joanna Coe made history as they were the first two women to survive both cuts and play four rounds in the event.
Coe, the winner of the inaugural Women’s PGA Player of the Year in 2019, also missed the cut at the PGA Golf Club as she added a solid 2-over 73 at the Ryder Course to the opening-round 79 she signed for at the Wanamaker Course for a 9-over 152 total.
John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club of Woodloch Springs, had matched Steinmetz’s 1-under 70 in Sunday’s opening round at the Ryder Course, but fell back with a 79 Monday at the Wanamaker Course to miss the cut by three shots at 6-over 149. Pillar is the reigning two-time winner of the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship.
Andrew Turner, playing out of the French Creek Golf Club pro shop, struggled to a 6-over 78 at the Wanamaker Course after opening with a 1-over 72 at the Ryder Course for a 7-over 150 total.
Three Philly Section representatives, including reigning Section Player of the Year Mike Little, the head pro at Lookaway Golf Club, and Alex Knoll, an instructor at Glen Brook Golf Club who finished off a second straight Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship win last September at Bent Creek, landed in the group at 8-over 151.
Little added a 4-over 76 at the Wanamaker Course to the opening-round 75 he carded Sunday at the Ryder Course. Knoll had opened with a 2-over 73 at the Ryder Course Sunday, but could only manage a 6-over 78 at the Wanamaker Course Monday.
Also in the group at 151 was Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club who has advanced to the PGA Championship out of the National Club Pro three times in his career. Sheftic bounced back from an opening-round 78 at the Ryder Course with a solid 1-over 73 at the Wanamaker Course in Monday’s second round.
Sheftic’s fellow Merion instructor, Terry Hertzog, added a 10-over 82 at the Wanamaker Course to the opening-round he posted at the Ryder Course for a 164 total.
Tony Perla, the former head pro at LedgeRock Golf Club who is an instructor at Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Township, N.J., carded a 2-over 73 at the Ryder Course Monday, but it wasn’t enough to enable him to recover from an opening-round 79 at the Wanamaker Course Sunday as he missed the cut with his 152 total.
Frank Bensel Jr., an assistant pro at Century Country Club in Purchase, N.Y., had grabbed the lead with his sparkling 4-under 67 in the opening round Sunday. Frank Bensel Jr., the runnerup in this championship in 2019 at Belfair and a three-time winner of the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship, added a 1-under 71 at the Wanamker Course Monday and was alone in second place, a shot behind Uresti at 7-under 136.
Ben Cook, an instructor at Yankee Springs in Wayland, Mich. and the reigning winner of the Michigan PGA Professional Championship, matched Uresti’s 4-under 68 at the Wanamaker Course in Monday’s second round after opening with a 2-under 69 at the Ryder Course and was alone in third place, a shot behind Frank Bensel Jr. at 6-under 137.
The PGA Professional Championship is supported by Cadillac, Club Car and Rolex.
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