Bensel a shot out of the lead as PGA Professional Championship tees off at Omni Barton Creek

    Trevor Bensel, who plays out of the Sandy Run Country Club pro shop, toured the Coore Crenshaw Course at the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas in 5-under-par 65 Sunday to land among a group of six players tied for second place in the opening round of the PGA Professional Championship.

   I’m not totally positive some of the pros representing the Philadelphia Section PGA at Omni Barton Creek didn’t move on to another pro shop since they qualified for the PGA Professional Championship in last summer’s 100^th Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship.

   Winning any tournament you’re playing in is always the goal, but the PGA Professional Championship offers a top-20 finisher in the field of more than 300 club pros from all over the country a spot in next month’s PGA Championship, one of professional golf’s four major championships which will be played at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.

   Bensel was in with a shot at a PGA Championship ticket a year ago as he entered the final round of the PGA Professional Championship – I still prefer the National Club Pro, its old-school moniker – a year ago at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. in a tie for 28^th place.

   Bensel struggled in the final round and finished in a tie for 55^th place, but there are two cuts in the PGA Professional Championship and he survived both of them and gave himself a shot.

   It looks like the par-71 Fazio Foothills Course might have played the tougher of the two Omni Barton Creek courses being utilized for the PGA Professional Championship in Sunday’s opening round.

   The overall leader, Tyler Collet, an assistant pro at the Johns Island Club in Vero Beach, Fla., did fire a 6-under 65 on the Fazio Foothills Course.

   Collet got off to a fast start as, starting off the 10^th tee, he made birdie at the 10^th hole and eagle 2 at the par-4 12^th. Birdies at the 14^th and 15^th holes got him to 5-under for the round before he dropped a shot with the only blemish on his card, a bogey at 16. Birdies at the first and seventh holes on the outgoing nine on the Fazio Foothills Course got Collet to the house at 6-under.

   Bensel started on the back nine at the par-70 Coore Crenshaw Course as well and offset two bogeys with seven birdies, including three straight birdies to close out his round at the seventh, eighth and ninth holes.

   Of the five players who joined Bensel in the tie for second place at 5-under, only Austin Hurt, the head pro at Wing Point Golf & Country Club in Seattle, played at the Fazio Foothills Course, carding a 66.

   The four other players sitting just a shot off the lead at 5-under, like Bensel, played the Coore Crenshaw Course and posted a 65, including Brandon Bingaman, who plays out of the pro shop at Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas, Casey Pyne, an assistant pro at The Stanwich Club in Greenwich, Conn., Jared Jones, the head of instruction at the River Oaks Country Club in Houston, and Aaron Black, the general manager at Springfield Golf Club in Fort Mill, S.C.

   Looks like play was halted with Zac Oakley, the Philadelphia Section PGA’s Rolex Haverford Trust Player of the Year in 2021, still on the Fazio Foothills Course with a hole to play. Oakley, an instructor in the Bidermann Golf Club pro shop, was among a group tied for 31^st place at 2-under.

   Oakley, who won three times on the Philadelphia PGA circuit last year, started on the back nine at the Fazio Foothills Course and got off to a birdie-birdie start with birdies at the 10^th and 11^th holes. After making a bogey at the 14^th hole, Oakley got it to 3-under with birdies at 15 and 17. He rattled off eight straight pars before falling back to 2-under with a bogey at the eighth hole.

   Philadelphia Country Club head pro Scott Reilly got it around the Coore Crenshaw Course with a 1-over 71 that left him among a group tied for 109^th place.

   Bensel’s colleague in the Overbrook pro shop, Ashley Grier, winner of the Women’s PGA Professional of the Year award in 2020, and Billy Stewart, in instructor at Union League Liberty Hill, each posted a 2-over 72 on the Coore Crenshaw Course.

   A year ago, Sunnybrook Golf Club assistant pro Brett Walker finished in a tie for eighth place at the PGA Golf Club and punched his ticket to the PGA Championship at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island on the South Carolina coast.

   Walker, winner of the 100^th Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Aronimink Golf Club and Applebrook Golf Club, got off to a slow start Sunday with a 4-over 75 at the Fazio Foothills Course. Walker was joined at 4-over by Saucon Valley Country Club assistant pro Mike Furey, who also carded a 75 at the Fazio Foothills Course.

   Rusty Harbold, who plays out of the Philadelphia Cricket Club pro shop, and Hugo Mazzalupi, owner and pro at Patriots Glen National Golf Club, both landed on 5-over, Harbold with a 76 at the Fazio Foothills Course and Mazzalupi with a 75 at the Coore Crenshaw Course. Mazzalupi survived two cuts and played four rounds in the PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club a year ago.

   Terry Hertzog, an instructor at Merion Golf Club, was at 6-over after opening with a 76 at the Coore Crenshaw Course.

   Parks Price, an instructor at the Country Club of York, was a 7-over after registering a 78 at the Fazio Foothills Course. Price hit the $100,000 jackpot that goes to the winner of the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic when he defeated Walker and Oakley in a playoff at Sunnybrook a week after the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship last summer.