Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb knew he would probably have to go low in the final round of the Senior PGA Professional Championship, presented by Cadillac, Sunday at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla. to have any shot to be among the top 35 finishers earning a trip to next spring’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
McNabb, winner of last month’s Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at Huntsville Golf Club, was sitting at 2-over 217 through three rounds in a tie for 59th place, four shots beyond the projected cut line to make it into the top 35.
After an early bogey, McNabb did exactly what he needed to do, erupting for eight birdies in his final 16 holes on his way to a sizzling 7-under 65, the best round of the day, as he surged up the leaderboard all the way into a tie for 14th place with a 5-under 282 total.
Turned out McNabb was easily inside the top 35 and can book reservations for Memorial Day weekend in Benton Harbor, Mich., where the Senior PGA Championship, a major on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, will be staged at Harbor Shores Golf Club.
It will be the 55-year-old McNabb’s second straight trip to the Senior PGA Championship. After opening with a 4-over 74 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. last spring, McNabb added an 80 and failed to make the cut, which fell at 7-over 147.
The only other Philadelphia Section PGA representative to survive two cuts and tee it up in Sunday’s final round, 61-year-old Brian Kelly of Bucknell Golf Club, closed with a solid 1-under 71 on the Wanamaker Course and finished among the group tied for 53rd place with a 2-over 219 total.
Paul Claxton, a PGA Life Member from Claxton, Ga., made a par on the Wanamaker Course’s finishing hole to put his name on the Leo Fraser Trophy with a playoff win over Mike Mielke, a self-employed instructor in Atlantis, Fla.
The 53-year-old Claxton, a standout at Georgia in the early 1990s, had a steady final round with 16 pars and two birdies for a 2-under 70 that left him with a 13-under 274 total. Mielke took a one-shot to the 18th tee in regulation, but drove it into a bunker, which led to a finishing bogey. The 59-year-old Mielke closed with a 1-under 71 to join Claxton at 13-under.
Both players reached the putting surface at the 18th hole in two shots and both were 30 feet away on the two-tiered green. Both players putted to six feet, although Claxton said his putt was the easier one, going uphill. Claxton went first and buried his par putt and Mielke couldn’t answer, missing his bid for par.
Claxton accepted a position as an instructor at the Richmond Hill Golf Club in Richmond Hill, Ga. last year and, like so many people in the golf industry, found himself busy in the game’s pandemic-fueled boom.
“I haven’t played a lot this year, we’ve been so busy at work,” Claxton told the PGA of America website. “I came here with no expectations. I was just happy to have a week off from work and things just fell into place.
“I played well, hit a lot of good shots and had a great day putting (Saturday). Today, I just held on.”
Claxton fired a 5-under 67 in Saturday’s third round to move within two shots of the lead held by Rob Labritz, the director of golf at GlenArbor Golf Club in Bedford Hills, N.Y.
Mielke had a one-shot lead on the back nine, but Claxton grabbed the lead when he made his second birdie of the round at the 15th hole while Mielke made a bogey at 14. Mielke quickly bounced back by matching Claxton’s birdie at the 15th hole and then adding a birdie at 16 to restore his one-shot advantage. Mielke’s bogey at the last enabled Claxton to catch him.
Claxton earned the top prize of $26,000 out of a total purse of $318,000.
Mike Small, the 55-year-old head coach at perennial Big Ten power Illinois, closed with a 1-under 71 to fall just short of the playoff in third place with a 12-under 275 total.
Bob Sowards, the 61-year-old director of instruction at the Kinsale Golf & Tennis Club in Dublin, Ohio, and 54-year-old Alan Morin, the reigning South Florida PGA Player of the Year in both the regular and senior divisions who works out of The Club at Ibis in West Palm Beach, Fla., shared fourth place, each landing on 11-under 276.
Nobody was hotter on the weekend than Sowards as he followed up a 5-under 67 in Saturday’s third round with a sparkling 6-under 66 in Sunday’s final round. Morin, who had the lead after 36 holes, posted his second straight 1-under 71 in Sunday’s final round to join Sowards at 11-under.
Labritz, a senior “rookie” who turned 50 in May, struggled in the final round with a 3-over 75, but still finished alone in sixth place with a 10-under 277 total.
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