Bergstol a runnerup for the second year in a row in NCR Assistant PGA Professional Championship

   This one will sting a little more, but for the second straight year Brian Bergstol came away with a runnerup finish in the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship.

   It wasn’t exactly a Chamber of Commerce day in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Sunday with rain and a chilly wind making conditions tough, but Bergstol, the head of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, caught 54-hole leader Domenico Geminiani, a young assistant at Old Corkscrew Golf Course in Estero on South Florida’s West Coast, when Bergstol birdied the 12^th hole while Geminiani made a fourth consecutive bogey.

   But Bergstol made a couple of mistakes on the next two holes that led to bogeys on the par-5 13^th hole and at the par-4 14^th hole and Geminiani, to his credit, knocked it close and made birdie at 14. Suddenly, Geminiani, who turned pro a decade ago at 16, had a three-shot lead with five holes to go.

   Geminiani made another birdie at the 17^th hole before finishing with a bogey at 18, but his final round of 1-over-par 73 over the PGA Golf Club’s par-72 Wanamaker Course gave him a 72-hole total of 6-under 282 and a three-shot margin of victory over Bergstol and Riley Wheeldon of the Desert Fox Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

   The 46^th NCR Assistant PGA Professional Championship was supported by Srixon, Cleveland Golf, XXIO and Asics.

   Geminiani earned the top prize of $12,000 out of a total purse of $50,000. Bergstol pocketed a check for $8,450 for his share of second place. A year ago, Bergstol finished seven shots behind the winner, Jin Chung of Chateau Elan Golf Club in Braselton, Ga. He had a much better chance this time around, but Bergstol was able to put a solid week of golf at the PGA Golf Club in perspective.

   “I’ll take that finish every time,” Bersgstol told the PGA of America website’s Craig Dolch. “At the end of the day, it’s a job and I’m here to make money. But this is the second year in a row where I had to make a run in the middle of the round. I’m going to have to learn how to start faster.”

   Dolch’s report on the NCR Assistant PGA Professional Championship briefly wraps up Geminiani’s journey from his birth in Martinique to St. Lucia, where he lived with his mother, to Bradenton, Fla., where he lived with his father. He joined the staff at Old Corkscrew this year. Talented golfers, it seems, come from anywhere.

   Bergstol’s slow start to Sunday’s final round included bogeys at the second and fourth holes. But birdies at the fifth and 12^th holes suddenly pulled him even with Geminiani.

   Geminiani looked like he was going to run away with it when he came out of the gate with birdies at the first and sixth holes. But he came back to Bergstol and the rest of the field with consecutive bogeys at the ninth, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th holes.

   Bergstol three-putted the 13^th hole for a bogey after trying to do too much with his second shot when his drive found a fairway bunker. The bogey at the 14^th hole was the result of an errant drive.

   Bergstol put a little bit of heat back on Geminiani with a birdie at the 16^th hole, but a bogey at the finishing hole left him with a final round of 2-over 74 and a 3-under 285 total.

   The late summer into the fall is when there is some pretty decent money out there for a talented club pro like Bergstol and he made the most of those opportunities this year.

   Bergstol won the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at DuPont Country Club and Concord Country Club in late August, pocketing the top prize of $9,000. He shared second place with Bidermann Golf Club instructor Zac Oakley in the qualifier for this week’s NCR Assistant PGA Professional Championship at Heidelberg Country Club.

   Bergstol lost in a playoff to amateur Andrew Keeling of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, but was the low pro and took the top prize of $15,000 in the inaugural playing of the lucrative Silvercrest Cup at Gulph Mills Golf Club in late September.

   Wheeldon surged into contention with birdies at the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth holes. Back-to-back bogeys at the 10^th and 11^th holes halted his momentum, but a birdie at 13 enabled him to match the low round of the day with a 3-under 69 as he caught Bergstol for a share of second place at 3-under.

   It was a pretty good week for the Philadelphia Section PGA in Port St. Lucie as Oakley was also in the mix all week, finishing in a tie for fourth place, and Trevor Bensel, an assistant pro at Sandy Run Country Club who defeated Bergstol and Oakley by two shots to win the title in the Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship at Heidelberg, gave the Philly Section a third top-20 finisher by landing among the group tied for 20^th place.

   Oakley began the day five shots behind Geminiani and matched par in the final round with a 72 as he ended up a shot behind his Philadelphia Section rival Bergtsol and Wheeldon in a tie for fourth place with Andy Svoboda of Engineers Country Club in Roslyn Harbor, N.Y. on Long Island, each landing on 2-under 286.

   Oakley was 2-under for his round after making birdies at the first, seventh and ninth holes around a bogey at five on the Wanamaker Course’s outgoing nine. Bogeys at the 12^th and 18^th holes on his way to the clubhouse dropped Oakley back to even for the day.

   Svoboda, who has played on the PGA Tour and owns three career wins on the Korn Ferry Tour, closed with a 1-over 73 to join Oakley at 2-under.

   Bensel, recently named the Player of the Year by the Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization (PAO), closed with a 4-over 76 to finish in the trio tied for 20^th place with a 6-over 294 total.

   Oakley finished in third place and Bensel was right behind him in a tie for fourth in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at DuPont and Concord. Bergstol, Oakley and Bensel will head the Philadelphia Section contingent in next spring’s PGA Professional Championship – once known as the National Club Pro – at Twin Warriors Golf Club and Santa Ana Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M.

   Before this year, Bensel and Ashley Grier, honored by the PGA of America as the Women’s PGA Professional Player of the Year in 2020, were colleagues in the Overbrook Golf Club pro shop for several years.

   Grier, who moved on to the Yinglings Golf Center in Hagerstown, Md., had a strong showing in the NCR Assistant PGA Professional Championship, matching par in Sunday’s tough conditions with a 72 to finish in a tie for 29^th place with a 10-over 298 total.

   Steve Sanderson, out of the Pine Valley Golf Club pro shop, and Jeff Fick of Moselem Springs Golf Club rounded out the Philadelphia Section’s contingent at the PGA Golf Club as each posted a 78 in Sunday’s final round, Sanderson finishing in the group tied for 52^nd place with a 304 total and Fick ending up among the group tied for 61^st place with a 306 total.