Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb has a little work to do if he wants to make a return trip to the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship next spring.
McNabb finished in a tie for 16th place in last year Senior PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club to earn a ticket to this year’s Senior PGA Championship, a major on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.
A 1-over-par 73 at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Saturday left McNabb in the group tied for 59th place after three rounds of this year’s Senior PGA Professional Championship with a 2-over 217 total. The top 35 finishers following Sunday’s final round will punch their ticket to next year’s Senior PGA Championship at the Harbor Shores Golf Club in Benton Harbor, Mich.
Through Saturday’s round, the top 35 cutoff was 2-under 213.
The 55-year-old McNabb was one of just two Philadelphia Section PGA pros who survived the 36-hole cut following Friday’s second round. The other was Bucknell Golf Club’s Brian Kelly, who also carded a 1-over 73 Saturday at the Wanamaker Club that left him in the group tied for 67th place at 3-over 218.
The 61-year-old Kelly did get himself a starting time for Sunday’s final round as his 218 total survived the 54-hole cut on the number.
McNabb earned his spot in the field at the PGA Golf Club by winning the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship last month at Huntsville Golf Club in Shavertown.
He opened the Senior PGA Professional Championship with a 1-under 71 at the par-72 Wanamaker layout before adding a 2-over 73 Friday at the par-71 Ryder Course for a 1-over 144 total through two rounds.
Starting his third round off the 10th tee, McNabb birdied the 13th hole and was 1-under for his round heading for the first tee and the Wanamaker Course’s outgoing nine. McNabb birdied the first hole to get it to 2-under, but bogeys at three, four and six dropped him back to 1-over for the round.
Kelly had opened with a 2-over 73 at the Ryder Course before matching par with a 72 at the Wanamaker Course in Friday’s second round. His 2-over 145 total was inside the cut line, which fell at 3-over 146.
Kelly’s steady round Saturday featured 15 pars. Starting off the first tee, Kelly made a bogey at the seventh hole, had a birdie at 10 and another bogey at 12.
Rob Labritz, the director of golf at GlenArbor Golf Club in Bedford Hills, N.Y., birdied the 18th hole Saturday to complete a sparkling 6-under 66 at the Wanamaker Course that gave him a 13-under 202 total and a one-shot lead going into the final round. The top senior club pros in the country will be battling it out Sunday for the Leo Fraser Trophy and a top prize of $26,000 out of a total purse of $318,000.
Labritz, a senior “rookie,” having turned 50 in May, had opened with a 3-under 69 at the Wanamaker Course before firing a 4-under 67 in some typically difficult Florida winds in Friday’s second round.
Mark Mielke, a self-employed teaching professional in Atlantis, Fla., was a shot behind Labritz at 12-under 203 after posting a solid 5-under 67 at the Wanamaker Course in Saturday’s third round. Mielke opened with a 4-under 68 at the Wanamaker Course before adding a 3-under 68 at the Ryder Course in Friday’s second round.
Mike Small, the head golf coach at perennial Big Ten power Illinois and a three-time winner of the PGA Professional Championship, was just two shots out of the lead in a tie for third place with Paul Claxton, a PGA Life Member from Claxton, Ga., at 11-under 204.
Small’s 4-under 68 at the Wanamaker Course Saturday was the third straight time he landed on that number as he opened with a 4-under round at Wanamaker and posted a 3-under 68 at the Ryder Course in Friday’s second round. Claxton fired a 5-under 67 at the Wanamaker Course in Saturday’s third round to get his share of third place. He had opened with a 3-under 68 at the Ryder Course before adding a 3-under 69 at Wanamaker in Friday’s second round.
Two other members of the Philadelphia Section PGA contingent, Terry Hertzog, an instructor at Merion Golf Club, and George Forster of Blue Bell missed the 36-hole by a shot. Hertzog opened with a solid 2-under 70 at the Wanamaker Course, but struggled to a 6-over 77 at the Ryder Course in Friday’s second round to land among the group tied for 106th place at 4-over 147.
Forster has been a fixture in the Senior PGA Professional Championship field since turning 50 15 years ago. Forster opened with a solid 1-over 72 at the Ryder Course, but couldn’t get it going on the Wanamaker Course in Friday’s second round, registering a 78 that left him at 4-over.
Eddie Perrino of the Eagle Rock Resort added a 4-over 75 at the Ryder Course in Friday’s second round to his opening-round 76 at the Wanamaker Course for an 8-over 151 total that missed the cut.
John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, opened with a 1-over 73 at the Wanamaker Course, but struggled to a 79 in Friday’s second round at the Ryder Course to finish with a 9-over 152 total.
Pillar, who advanced out of last year’s Senior PGA Professional Championship to the Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills, shared second place with Kelly in last month’s Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at Huntsville. Pillar was bidding for a third straight Philadelphia Senior PGA club pro crown at Huntsville.
As usual, there were a couple of familiar names in the score list at the Senior PGA Professional Championship.
Charlie Bolling, the 1978 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion representing Gulph Mills Golf Club, and Gene Fieger, who dominated the Philadelphia Section PGA circuit while he was an assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club in the mid-1990s, both landed in the group along with Hertzog and Forster at 4-over 147, a shot off the 36-hole cut line.
Bolling of Glen Cove, N.Y. opened with a 3-over 75 at the Wanamaker Course before rallying with a 1-over 72 in Friday’s second round at the Ryder Course. Fieger, the winner of the Senior PGA Professional Championship in 2014 who is an instructor at Club Pelican Bay in Naples, Fla., opened with a 1-over 73 at the Ryder Course before adding a 2-over 74 at the Wanamaker Course in Friday’s second round.
Pete Oakley, the veteran Delaware club pro who is based in Palm City, Fla., opened with a 3-over 74 at the Ryder Course before struggling to a 7-over 79 in Friday’s second round at the Wanamaker Course for a 10-over 153 total. The 72-year-old Oakley, a four-time Player of the Year on the Philadelphia Section PGA circuit, surprised the golf world – at least the golf world outside of the Philadelphia area – by winning The Senior Open Championship, a major on the senior professional circuit, in 2004 at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
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