Oakley was good from start to finish on his way to Rolex Haverford Trust Player of the Year honors

    Even when Zac Oakley, the talented in instructor at Bidermann Golf Club, wasn’t winning Philadelphia Section PGA events in 2021, he was in contention.

   That’s why when the numbers were added up at the end of the season, Oakley had added his name on the Philadelphia Section’s two most prestigious season-long honors, the Rolex Haverford Trust Player of the Year and the F. Edward DeBaufre Scoring Average awards.

   The awards were officially announced at the Philadelphia Section PGA’s Fall Membership Meeting Oct. 21 at Green Valley Country Club. But Oakley had made it quite apparent long before that that he was the best player in the Philadelphia Section and in a year when the competition in the Section was as strong as ever.

   Heck, Oakley didn’t have to look any further than the pro shop at Bidermann to see the runnerup for Player of the Year, fellow Bidermann instructor Braden Shattuck.

   Oakley played in 14 tournaments on the Philadelphia Section’s schedule in 2021 and won three times, capped by his 4 and 2 victory over Berkshire Country Club assistant pro Andrew Turner in last month’s Philadelphia Match Play Championship at the Steel Club.

   Oakley survived a playoff with Spring Ford Country Club head pro Rich Steinmetz and Brian Bergstol, the director of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, to win the Doylestown Open in July. His third victory came in June when he was the co-champion along with Shattuck and Bergstol in the rain-shortened Conestoga Classic at Conestoga Country Club.

   But Oakley was a constant presence near the top of the leaderboard, particularly in some of the Section’s biggest events.

   He was the runnerup to Sunnybrook Golf Club’s assistant pro Brett Walker in the 100^th Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Aronmink Golf Club and Applebrook Golf Club.

   Oakley had actually overtaken Walker for the lead with three holes to play in the final round at Aronimink when the remnants of Hurricane Ida arrived in Delaware County and wiped out the round, the leaderboard reverting back to how it stood after 36 holes.

   Less than a week later, on the day after Labor Day, there was Oakley in a playoff with Walker and Parks Price, an instructor at the Country Club of York for the biggest prize offered in any Section tournament in the country, the $100,000 jackpot that goes to the winner of the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic at Sunnybrook.

   Price buried a 25-footer for birdie on the first hole of the playoff to claim the $100 grand.

   Oakley was one of five players tied for second place behind Overbrook Golf Club assistant pro Trevor Bensel in the Philadelphia Players Championship in September at Lookaway Golf Club.

   In August, Oakley and Bergstol lost in a playoff to Bucknell Golf Club veteran Brian Kelly, the Philadelphia Section’s Super Senior Player of the Year, in the Pro-Am for Wishes at Penn Oaks Golf Club.

   Oakley finished in a tie for second place behind Shattuck in one of the early official points events, the Burlington Classic at Burlington Country Club.

   It all added up to 5,409.58 points, easily giving Oakley Player of the Year honors. Shattuck with three wins in 15 starts was the runnerup with 3,819.52 points.

   Overbrook’s Bensel, with three wins in 20 starts, was third with 3,573.43 points. Walker teed it up only eight times, but won once, and it was a big one in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship, as he finished in fourth place in the points standings with 3,331.56 points.

   Bensel’s colleague in the Overbrook pro shop, assistant pro Ashley Grier, the 2020 Women’s PGA Player of the Year, finished fifth in the points standings as she won twice in 18 starts and finished with 3,133.95 points.

   Oakley’s excellence was also reflected in the race for the DeBaufre Trophy, which recognizes the player with the best scoring average. Oakley’s scoring average of 68.93 in 14 tournaments was the lowest in the history of the award.

   Oakley joined his father Peter in etching his name on the DeBaufre Trophy. Peter Oakley, a veteran club pro in Delaware who was a dominant player in the Philadelphia Section in the 1980s, had the low scoring average in 1980, ’84, ’85 and ’99.

   Walker was the runnerup with an outstanding 69.30 average in 10 rounds. Bergstol was third in the DeBaufre race with an average of 70.27.

   Those top three players in the DeBaufre Trophy scoring race on the Philadelphia Section circuit finished among the top 13 in the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship, which wrapped up Sunday at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

   Bergstol was the runnerup, finishing seven shots behind the winner, Jin Chung of Lawrenceville, Ga. Zac Oakley finished among the trio tied for 10^th place while Walker ended up in the group tied for 13^th.

   Oakey’s colleague in the Bidermann pro shop, Shattuck, finished in fourth place in the DeBaufre scoring average race with an average of 70.13 in 13 rounds. Bensel, with a 70.40 average in 15 rounds, finished in fifth place.

   Applebrook head pro Dave McNabb swept to both the Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year and the Senior Scoring Average awards. It was the second straight year McNabb captured the Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year award.

   McNabb had three wins in 12 senior tournaments, with two of those victories in the biggest events for the Philadelphia Section’s seniors, the Skee Riegel Senior Open at Radnor Valley Country Club in August and in the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at Huntsville Golf Club in September.

   The victory in the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship sent McNabb to last month’s Senior PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. A final round of 7-under 65 on the Wanamaker Course, the best round of the day, enabled McNabb to finish in a tie for 14^th place and earn him a trip to the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, a major on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, next May at the Harbor Shores Golf Club in Benton Harbor, Mich.

   McNabb had the best scoring average among the talented senior bunch in the Philadelphia Section with an average of 70.53 in 15 rounds.

   He finished with 3,022.75 points to lead the way in the race for the Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year award.

   His closest pursuer was Bucknell’s Kelly, who had two wins in 13 tournaments and piled up 2,685 points. Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club played in 13 tournaments and finished third in the Senior points race with a total of 1,573.75.

   Quinn, McNabb and John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, represented the Philadelphia Section in last spring’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. Quinn also represented the Philadelphia Section in another senior major as he earned a trip to the U.S. Senior Open, which was held at Omaha Country Club in Omaha, Neb.

   Hugo Mazzalupi, the owner of Patriots Glen National Golf Club, teed it up in 14 tournaments and won once to finish in fourth place in the Senior points race with 1,361.75 points. Eddie Perrino of the Eagle Rock Resort was in fifth place as he won once in 14 starts and had 1,330.75 points.

   Kelly had five wins in 10 tournaments to easily take the Super Senior Player of the Year award with 2,559.5 points.

   George Forster, whose long-time association with Radnor Valley Country Club appeared to end at some point in 2021, was the runnerup as the ageless Forster had a pair of wins in 10 tournaments and piled up 1,391 points.

   Don DeAngelis finished in third place in the Super Senior points race as he won once in seven starts and had 981.5 points.

   Most of the Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization (PAO) events are held concurrently with the Philadelphia Section events, so I’m not exactly sure how that overlap works all the time, but Shawnee’s Bergstol was the PAO Player of the Year with three wins in 10 tournaments and 1,345.83 points.

   Oakley was the runnerup with two wins in seven tournaments and 1,137.67 points. Obviously, with the showing by Bergstol, Oakley and Walker in last weekend’s NCR Assistant PGA Professional Championship, with the fact that Overbrook’s Grier is one of the top woman club pros in the country, with the emergence in 2021 of Shattuck, this group of Philadelphia Section assistant pros has to rank among the strongest of any Section in the PGA of America.

   The Overbrook pair of Bensel and Grier accounted for the next two spots on the PAO Player of the Year standings. Bensel finished in third place with one win in nine tournaments and 975.83 points. Grier, the PAO Player of the Year a year ago, ended up in fourth place with 916.67 points in seven tournaments.

   Grier also won the inaugural Philadelphia Women’s PGA Professional Championship in August at Kennett Square Golf & Country Club.

   Bidermann’s Shattuck finished in fifth place in the PAO points race as he claimed one win in nine tournaments and ended up with 878 points.

   Shattuck was an easy choice as the winner of the Ike Turner Most Improved Player award. I’ve mentioned a couple of times this year that I covered Shattuck when he was a scholastic standout at Sun Valley in my previous life at the Delaware County Daily Times and he has done nothing since then but get better.

   One of Shattuck’s biggest supporters when he first turned professional was Concord Country Club head pro Mike Moses and Moses was honored as the Section’s Comeback Player of the Year. I often interacted with Moses during my days at the Daily Times, particularly the years when he was doing double duty as the golf coach at Garnet Valley. Just the consummate club pro.

   Another highlight of the Fall Membership Meeting at Green Valley was the election of Patrick Shine of Commonwealth National Golf Club as the new president of the Philadelphia Section PGA.