Another wrapup of some Philadelphia Section PGA action from June. I should be able to post this just as the next event on the schedule, the William Hyndman III Memorial Classic tees off at Huntingdon Valley Country Club Tuesday. June was a hectic month of golf in the region with the Curtis Cup at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course and the U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course, in addition to the usual big events in the month every year, the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship, the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Boys’ Championship and the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Junior Championships for boys and girls.
Braden Shattuck had a big year on the Philadelphia Section PGA circuit in 2021, finishing as the runnerup to fellow Bidermann Golf Club instructor Zac Oakley in the Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year standings.
One of the highlights of that bustout campaign was Shattuck’s victory in the Burlington Classic Pro-Am. These days, the 27-year-old Shattuck is hanging his shingle outside the pro shop at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Delaware County, not far from where he was a scholastic standout at Sun Valley.
Not much has changed with his golf game, though, as Shattuck repeated as the winner of the 36th Burlington Classic Pro-Am, which wrapped up June 6th at Burlington Country Club in Westampton, N.J., largely on the strength of a spectacular 9-under-par 61 in the opening round June 5th.
Two weeks later, Shattuck nearly won again, settling for a share of second place in the Conestoga Classic when Joanna Coe, one of the top woman club pros in the country who has joined the pro shop at Merion Golf Club as an instructor, defeated him and Overbrook Golf Club head pro Eric Kennedy in a playoff June 20th at Conestoga Country Club in Lancaster.
Shattuck kicked off his big month with that sizzling opening round at Burlington. It started quietly enough with pars on the first five holes. Shattuck proceeded to rip off nine birdies on Burlington’s final 13 holes. He made back-to-back birdies at the eighth and ninth holes, went back-to-back again at 11 and 12 and made three straight at 14, 15 and 16 before one last birdie at Burlington’s finishing hole.
Shattuck’s closest pursuers were Parks Price, an instructor at the Country Club of York, and Chad Krueger of Kings Creek Country Club, both of whom trailed Shattuck by four shots after each signed for a 5-under 65.
Shattuck kept turning up the heat when he opened his second round with three straight birdies at the first, second and third holes before finally cooling off a little. He made back-to-back bogeys at the ninth and 10th holes, got those two shots back with birdies at 14 and 16, then closed with bogeys at 16 and 18.
It added up to an even-par 70 in the second round for a 9-under 131 total that was one shot better than Tony Perla, the head of instruction at Forsgate Country Club. Forsgate is in the Metropolitan Section, but Perla began his career as a club pro as an assistant at a couple of different spots in the Philadelphia Section and his dad, the late Tony Perla, was a popular guy and a talented player in the Philadelphia Section for many years, so he has plenty of old friends to catch up with at Burlington.
Perla shook up the leaderboard in the second round when his 6-iron shot at the 190-yard, par-3 12th hole found the bottom of the cup for a hole-in-one. The ace enabled Perla to post a second straight 4-under 66 that left him alone in second place with an 8-under 132 total.
Shattuck, however, again put his name on the Mike Mack Cup, named for the long-time Burlington head pro who, along with several of Burlington’s members, founded the Burlington Classic Pro-Am in 1986.
“I played well yesterday,” Shattuck told the Philadelphia Section website concerning his scintillating 61 in the opening round. “Today, I started strong with three birdies in a row, which gave me a little cushion going into the back nine.”
Price, winner of the $100,000 jackpot in last summer’s Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic at Sunnybrook Golf Club, and Terry Hertzog, one of the Philadelphia Section’s many talented senior standouts, finished three shots behind Perla in a tie for third place, each landing on 5-under 135.
Price added an even-par 70 to his opening-round 65 while Hertzog added a 1-under 69 to his opening-round 66.
Trevor Bensel, the talented assistant pro at Sandy Run Country Club, and Deerfield Golf Club’s Mike Tobiason, shared fifth place, each ending up two shots behind Price and Hertzog at 3-under 137. Bensel matched par in the second round with a 70 after opening with a 3-under 67 while Tobiason added a 1-over 71 to his opening-round 66.
Krueger cooled off from his opening-round 65 with a 73 in the second round as he finished alone in seventh place with a 2-under 138 total.
Hertzog’s 5-under 135 total gave him a four-shot margin of victory in the Senior division.
Hugo Mazzalupi of Linfield National Golf Club and Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club shared second place among the seniors as each finished with a 1-under 139 total. Mazzalupi registered a 1-under 69 in the second round after matching par with a 70 in the opening round. Quinn had opened with a 2-under 68 before finishing up with a 1-over 71.
Spring Ford Country Club head pro Rich Steinmetz finished in fourth place with an even-par 140 total after adding a 72 to his solid opening round of 2-under 68. Steinmetz came back a little more than a week later to capture the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at Medford Village Country Club, an event I wrapped up in a separate post over the weekend.
PGA Life Member Michael Versuk topped the Super Senior division as he added a 73 to his opening-round 77 for a 10-over 150 total.
Corey Katzen claimed the Marotto Medal that goes to the low amateur as he opened with a solid 1-under 69 before struggling a little in the second round with a 78 that gave him a 7-over 147 total.
The Burlington Classic Pro-Am, a Philadelphia PGA Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year points tournament, was supported by Burlington Country Club, WSFS Bank, adidas and Jani-King.
Shattuck came back a couple of weeks later with a 2-under 68 that got him into a playoff in the Conestoga Classic with Coe and Kennedy.
Shattuck and Coe were each forced to make a tough par save on Conestoga’s ninth hole to stay alive in the playoff and Kennedy was eliminated. A par by Coe on the second playoff hole, the par-5 10th at Conestoga, gave Coe her first victory as a member of the Philadelphia Section.
The 32-year-old Coe, a Mays Landing, N.J. native, was a Division II national champion at Rollins College and played on the Symetra Tour before becoming a decorated club pro in the Middle Atlantic Section at Baltimore Country Club. Coe was the inaugural winner of the Women’s PGA Player of the Year Award in 2019. Coe was the Middle Atlantic Section’s Rolex Women’s Player of the Year in 2021 and I’m pretty sure it was not the first time she won that honor.
In 2019, Coe and Ashley Grier, the 2020 Women’s PGA Player of the Year while at Overbrook Golf Club, became the first two women to survive two cuts and play four rounds in the PGA Professional Championship at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C. Haven’t seen Grier’s name pop up much this year, so it’s possible she has moved on from Overbrook. We’ll see.
Coe has teed it up in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and in the LPGA Shop-Rite Classic at the Seaview Resort’s Bay Course across the bay from Atlantic City several times.
Coe was suffering from a thumb laceration at Conestoga, but made nine birdies during her 2-under 68 in regulation.
“I probably had one of the best putting rounds of my life today,” Coe told the Philadelphia Section website. “I hit it well, but had a few missed shots because of my thumb. But my putting saved me.”
Three of the Philadelphia Section’s deep stable of senior talent, Steinmetz, Mazzalupi and Eddie Perrino of the Country Club of York, were among five players who finished in a tie for fourth place at 1-under 69.
The Conestoga Classic came a week after Steinmetz claimed the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at Medford Village in his first appearance since gaining senior status over the winter.
Joining the senior trio in the group at 1-under were Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Lookaway Golf Club, and Rolling Green assistant pro Greg Rhoads.
Rhoads’ 69 gave him the top spot in the concurrent Philadelphia Assistants Organization (PAO) event at Conestoga.
Sharing second place among the assistant pros were Sandy Run’s Bensel, Glen Brook Golf Club’s Alex Knoll, a back-to-back winner of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship in 2019 and 2020, and David Hicks of Philadelphia Country Club.
Perrino, Mazzalupi and Steinmetz shared the top spot in the Senior division with their even-par rounds of 70.
Wayne Phillips of Lehigh Country Club earned top honors in the Super Senior division with a 3-over 73.
In addition to being a Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year points tournament, the Conestoga Classic was the second of four qualifiers for a new event on the Philadelphia Section calendar this year, the Silvercrest Cup, which will be played Sept. 26 at Gulph Mills Golf Club.
In addition to the Conestoga Classic purse money, Coe earned $3,000 from a Silvercrest Cup bonus pool with Shattuck and Kennedy also getting $2,000 payouts from the bonus pool for their runnerup finishes.
The Conestoga Classic was supported by Jani-King, Ohana Farm LLC, the Silvercrest Asset Management Group and the PGA Tour.
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