Keeling edges Bergstol in playoff to claim title in inaugural Silvercrest Cup at Gulph Mills

    If you’re going to put a new event on the local golf calendar, you might as well bring together some Philadelphia Section PGA pros and give them a pretty lucrative purse to shoot for, invite some of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s top amateur players to the party and stage it on one of the many classic venues that are all over the region, say a testy Donald Ross design tucked right in the middle of the western end of the Main Line.

   Welcome to the Silvercrest Cup, which debuted with some fanfare last Monday at Gulph Mills Golf Club. First of all, give credit to the people at the Silvercrest Asset Management Group, an investment adviser providing asset management and family office services to high net-worth individuals and select institutional investors.

   All of which means the people at Silvercrest have some money and they weren’t afraid to put up a nice chunk of change to make a splash on a local golf scene that has some great events with decades of tradition. Doesn’t mean there isn’t room for one more.

   They got themselves a little drama in the inaugural event when Andrew Keeling, an amateur from Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, edged Brian Bergstol, an instructor at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, in a playoff after both toured the old-school design at Gulph Mills in 3-under-par 68.

   The Silvercrest Cup people asked GAP to invite the top eight players on its William Hyndman III Player of the Year points list and if Keeling doesn’t immediately ring a bell, the guy can play. He has contended in the last two Patterson Cups, finishing in a tie for fourth in this year’s final major championship on the GAP calendar, which was held on another Donald Ross gem at St. Davids Golf Club, just a few miles away from Gulph Mills.

   Keeling seems to save some of his best golf for the classic layouts in the region and even though this was his first look at Gulph Mills, he played like he felt right at home.

   After making a birdie at the second hole, Keeling stumbled with a double bogey at three. He proceeded to rip off birdies at the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth holes to make the turn at 3-under. After a bogey at the 10^th hole, Keeling made a birdie at 11 and then an eagle at the par-5 12^th and suddenly was 5-under. A double bogey at the 14^th hole was followed by a bogey at 15, but Keeling got it to the house at 3-under with a birdie at the risk-reward par-5 finishing hole at Gulph Mills.

   Bergstol has been one of the most talented players in the Philadelphia Section for a while now and he cemented that status with a victory in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship a few weeks earlier at DuPont Country Club.

   Bergstol’s round was considerably less hectic than Keeling’s was as he got it to 3-under with birdies at the first, fourth, 11^th and 15^th holes around a lone bogey at seven.

   The two players returned to the tee at that gettable par-5 18^th hole for the playoff. Keeling reached the green in two and two-putted from 25 feet away for a birdie that meant the Silvercrest Cup would spend its first year of existence in the trophy room at Kennett Square.

   “It was an up-and-down round today,” Keeling told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “It was my first time playing Gulph Mills, but I was fortunate to make several birdies to stay in contention.”

   Bergstol got a nice consolation prize, that being the $15,000 check that went to the low professional out of a total purse of $30,000.

   The Silvercrest Cup made it a season-long thing on the Philadelphia Section schedule as four tournaments were designated as qualifiers for the event. There were bonus pools of $5,000 in each of those events which were distributed to the winner and runnerup on top of what the event was paying out.

   Silvercrest Asset Management Group also handed out a pair of $10,000 checks last Monday to PGA REACH Philadelphia, the charitable arm of the Philadelphia Section PGA, and to the J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship Trust, an initiative that is near and dear to the people at GAP.

   Spring Ford Country Club head pro Rich Steinmetz, winner of the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at Medford Village Country Club in June as a senior “rookie,” Bidermann Golf Club instructor Zac Oakley, the Philadelphia Section’s reigning Rolex Haverford Trust Player of the Year, and Overbrook Golf Club head pro Eric Kennedy finished in a tie for third place, each ending up a shot behind the two playoff participants with a 2-under 69.

   Four more players -- Berkshire Country Club’s Andrew Turner, Aronimink Golf Club’s Christian Hoecker, Sunnybrook Golf Club’s Robert Fenton, and Michael Young Jr. of Brookside Country Club in Macungie -- finished in a tie for sixth place, each carding a 1-under 70.

   Rolling Green Golf Club instructor Braden Shattuck, Cedarbrook Country Club’s Andrew Cornish and Burlington Country Club’s Alex Willey rounded out the top 10 as each matched par with a 71 to finish in a tie for 10^th place.

   Shattuck, a Delco guy who played his high school golf at Sun Valley, was coming off his third win of the 2022 season on the Philadelphia Section circuit in the Jack Jolly & Son Championship a week before the Silvercrest Cup at Moselem Springs Golf Club in Fleetwood, Berks County.

   I never got around to wrapping up the Jack Jolly, but Shattuck carded a sparkling 4-under 66 to take the title. He reported at the time that he pulled out of Stage II of Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School after suffering some back issues following his runnerup finish behind Bergstol in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at DuPont.

   Shattuck, however, said he felt fine after his solid showing at Moselem Springs.

   Steinmetz and Kennedy topped the Senior division leaderboard at Gulph Mills with their 2-under 69s.

   John Pillar, the director of golf at the Country Club at Woodloch Springs, Terry Hertzog and Green Valley Country Club head pro John Cooper were tied for third place, as each posted a 2-over 73.

   Steinmetz and Hertzog will be among the contingent representing the Philadelphia Section in the Senior PGA Professional Championship later this month at Twin Warriors Golf Club and Santa Ana Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M.

   Joanna Coe, in her first year as an instructor at Merion Golf Club, took the women’s division as the only woman in the field. Coe, winner of the Women’s Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship in July at Whitford Country Club, carded a 6-over 77 at Gulph Mills.

   In June, Coe won the Conestoga Classic at Conestoga Country Club in Lancaster in a playoff with Shattuck and Kennedy for her first victory on the Philadelphia Section circuit. The Conestoga Classic was one of the four Silvercrest Cup qualifiers and Coe collected $3,000 from the Silvercrest bonus pool for her win.

   Another highlight of the day at Gulph Mills was a hole-in-one for Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Lookaway Golf Club whose 54-degree wedge at the 120-yard fourth hole found the bottom of the cup. Sheftic registered a 4-over 75 to finish among the group tied for 31^st place.