A lot of news out of the Philadelphia Section PGA to catch up with …
Dave McNabb, the head pro at Applebrook Golf Club, might be 56 years old, but he remains one of the Philadelphia Section PGA’s best players of any age.
McNabb got a chance to tee it up in one PGA Tour Champions major championship over the Memorial Day weekend and is preparing to compete in another later this month.
McNabb, the reigning two-time Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year in the Philadelphia Section, had earned his place in the field for last weekend’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at the Harbor Shores Resort in Benton Harbor, Mich. by finishing in 14th place in last fall’s Senior PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
And there he was on the leaderboard in the early going at Harbor Shores as he offset bogeys at the first and eighth holes with birdies at three, four, five, seven and nine and was 3-under par when he made the turn for the back nine. McNabb struggled a little on his way to the clubhouse, making a triple bogey at the 13th hole and bogeys at 15, 16 and 18 and finished with a 3-over 74.
McNabb couldn’t get it going in Friday’s second round as he added an 81 to his solid opening round and missed the cut with a 13-over 155 total. The cut fell at 4-over 146.
The low club pro was Tracy Phillips, the 59-year-old head of instruction at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Broken Arrow, Okla. whose final round of 1-over 72 was his worst round of the week as he finished in a tie for 17th place with a 5-under 279 total. Seven of the 39 club pros in the field made the cut.
A little more than a week before McNabb teed it up in the Senior PGA Championship, he secured himself a starting time for the U.S. Senior Open, which gets under way June 23 at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course in Bethlehem, by carding a 1-under 70 in a qualifier administered by the Golf Association of Philadelphia May 19 at Doylestown Country Club.
Medalist honors went to former PGA Tour performer Matt Gogel of Mission Hills, Kan. who went shopping for a qualifier, saw “classic William Flynn design” and signed up.
The 51-year-old Gogel, a part-time PGA Tour Champions player, found Doylestown to his liking as he recorded a solid 2-under 69 over the 6,514-yard, par-71 layout.
McNabb got the putter going, particularly during a stretch on the back nine when he rolled in a 20-footer for par on the 367-yard, par-4 12th hole, a 30-footer for birdie at the 193-yard, par-3 13th and a six-footer for birdie at the 499-yard, par-5 14th.
McNabb had started off the 10th tee and was able to get it in under par by sinking a pair of eight-foot par putts on his last two holes, the 298-yard, par-4 eighth and the 531-yard, par-5 ninth.
That last putt was followed by a bear hug for McNabb’s longtime caddy, Donny Wessner, who, I’m pretty sure, is the caddiemaster at Applebrook. Team McNabb will be together again in front of some of the home folk at Saucon Valley’s Old Course, which is hosting the U.S. Senior Open for a third time, but its first since 2000.
“He’s been my guy for years,” McNabb told the GAP website in reference to his longtime looper, who clearly had a pretty green-reading day at Doylestown. “He’s as big a part of this as I am. That is going to be our ninth major championship together. I’m looking forward to it.
“I’ve never played the Old Course. Obviously, Saucon Valley is a great spot. I’ve got a couple Applebrook members who I’m sure I could coerce into taking me up there. It being close to home, it will be nice to have my family there. It will be a special event.”
McNabb played in the 2017 U.S. Senior Open at Salem Country
Club in Salem, Mass. His appearance at Harbor Shores last week was his second straight in the Senior PGA Championship.
Had a chance to chat up Mimi Griffin, the executive director of the U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley, in April for an article in Tri-State Golfer, which should be showing up in pro shops in the next week or so. Griffin and her company, MSG Promotions, Inc., have been promoting the U.S. Open for the USGA since 1995.
Griffin has some really neat stuff planned at Saucon Valley for the U.S. Senior Open. It sounds like there’s a chance you’ll have more fun at a golf tournament than you ever possibly imagined if you take a run up the Northeast Extension to Bethlehem.
Also punching his ticket to the U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley in the qualifier at Doylestown was Charlie Bolling, winner of the 1978 BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Philmont Country Club’s North Course back in his days as a member at Gulph Mills Golf Club.
The 64-year-old Bolling, an instructor at Glen Cove Golf Course in Glen Cove, N.Y., matched par with a 71 at Doylestown.
Surviving a 4-for-1 playoff for the final berth to the U.S. Senior Open out of Doylestown was Michael Muehr of McLean, Va. If you were hanging out at the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Stonewall, you might recall that Muehr was a co-medalist in qualifying for match play. Looks like he has since turned pro.
A day earlier, another Philadelphia Section PGA pro, Mike Molino of the Country Club of Scranton, punched his ticket to Saucon Valley as he made a birdie on the third hole of a 3-for-1 playoff for the final berth in a qualifier at Indiana Country Club in western Pennsylvania. Molino registered a solid 3-under 68 to get into the playoff.
McNabb had tuned up for the U.S. Senior Open qualifier by finishing in sixth place in the Senior division and in a tie for 14th overall with a 3-over 74 in the Delaware Valley Open, held May 9 at another Flynn classic, Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Delaware County.
The victory in the Rolex/Haverford Trust Company points tournament on the Philadelphia Section circuit went to Terry Hertzog, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club, as he prevailed on the third hole of a playoff with Alex Knoll, an instructor at Glen Brook Golf Club.
Hertzog, another of the Philadelphia Section’s deep stable of senior standouts, birdied the third hole of the playoff to claim the victory after he made four birdies to offset a lone bogey in a 3-under 68 over the tough Rolling Green layout, site of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.
It was also the first in a series of qualifiers for the Silvercrest Cup, a new series for the Philadelphia Section pros that will culminate with a lucrative season-ending event at Gulph Mills Golf Club with a total purse of $30,000. The Silvercrest Asset Management Group is an investment adviser providing asset management and family office services to high net-worth individuals and select institutional investors.
There are bonus payouts for wins in one of the qualifiers and Hertzog picked up an additional $3,000 from the Silvercrest Cup bonus pool for his Delaware Valley Open win.
It appears Braden Shattuck, who starred scholastically at Sun Valley, has moved from Bidermann Golf Club to the pro shop at Rolling Green and Shattuck finished in third place on his new home course with a 2-under 69.
Shattuck was the runnerup to his then fellow Bidermann instructor Zac Oakley in the Rolex/Haverford Trust Company points race in 2021.
Another of the Philadelphia Section’s top senior players, Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club, took fourth place with a 1-under 70. Quinn matched McNabb’s feat a year ago as he represented the Philadelphia Section in both the Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club and in the U.S. Senior Open at Omaha Country Club in Omaha, Neb.
Joanna Coe, who has joined Hertzog as an instructor at Merion this year, matched par with a 71 to finish fifth overall and first in the Women’s division.
Coe, a Mays Landing, N.J. native, was the top woman player in the Middle Atlantic Section while working as an instructor at Baltimore Country Club. She was the winner of the inaugural Women’s PGA Professional Player of the Year Award in 2019.
Hertzog also topped the Senior division with his 68 with Quinn earning runnerup honors with his 70.
Hugo Mazzalupi, who has moved to the pro shop at Linfield National Golf Club after selling Patriots Glen National Golf Club, and Bill Walker of Riverton Country Club shared third place in the Senior division, each matching par with a 71.
John DiMarco of The Legacy Club at Woodcrest finished atop the Super Senior division with a 2-over 73. Greg Farrow, the veteran head pro at Deerfield Country Club, was the runnerup with a 5-over 76.
Knoll captured top honors in the concurrent Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization (PAO) event at Rolling Green with his 68. Trevor Bensel of Sandy Run Country Club and Rusty Harbold of Philadelphia Cricket Club shared runnerup honors, each posting a 2-over 73.
The Delaware Valley Open was supported by Jack Jolly and Son, Jani-King, Kevin McClellan Golf Sales, Mizuno, Ohana Farm, LLC and the PGA Tour.
The second Silvercrest Cup qualifying event, the TaylorMade Classic, scheduled to be held May 16 at Cedarbrook Country Club, was washed out by some drenching thunderstorms.
The TaylorMade Classic, sponsored by TaylorMade, was also supported by Jani-King, Kevin McClellan Golf Sales, Ohana Farm, LLC, the Silvercrest Asset Management Group, Fore2Feet, Import Powder and the PGA Tour.
Tuesday, Mazzalupi had the hot hand as he made eight birdies on his way to a 5-under 66 at North Hills Country Club as he claimed a victory in the Connelly Cup Head Professional Championship.
Mazzalupi made three straight birdies to jump-start his round at the second, third and fourth holes and the birdies kept coming at six, eight, 10, 12 and 15. The eight birdies offset bogeys at the seventh, 14th and 17th holes.
McNabb, coming off his trip to Harbor Shores for the Senior PGA Championship, earned runnerup honors with a 3-under 68.
Andrew Barbin, the head pro at the Chesapeake Bay Golf Club at Rising Sun, finished in third place with a 1-over 72.
Rich Steinmetz of Spring Ford Country Club, John Cooper of Green Valley Country Club and George Forster of Radnor Valley Country Club shared fourth place, each landing on 2-over 73.
The event, limited to the Philadelphia Section’s head professionals, is named for Jack Connelly, a past president of the PGA of America and the Philadelphia Section PGA. Connelly was on hand to present the trophy to Mazzalupi.
The Senior division leaderboard nearly matched the overall outcome with Mazzalupi leading the way, McNabb finishing second and Steinmetz, Cooper and Forster sharing third place.
The Connelly Cup head Professional Championship was supported by Earth Networks, Bushnell Golf and the PGA Tour.
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