When that 12-foot putt for par fell in early May at the Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M., the one that made Braden Shattuck just the second Philadelphia Section PGA pro to capture the title in the PGA Professional Championship, you had to figure he had the inside track to repeat as the Rolex Haverford Trust Player of the Year in the Section.
It became official on the last Saturday in October when it was announced at the Philadelphia Section PGA Fall Membership Meeting at Philmont Country Club that Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club, had indeed been named the Rolex Haverford Trust Player of the Year for the second year in a row.
Shattuck wasn’t the only repeat winner when the Philadelphia Section handed out its season-long awards for 2023.
Joanna Coe, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club, repeated as the Section’s Women’s Player of the Year, and Rich Steinmetz, the veteran head pro at Spring Ford Country Club was honored as the Rolex Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year for the second year in a row.
Shattuck had tuned up for his trip to the PGA Professional Championship – I still like the event’s old-school moniker, the National Club Pro – by capturing the first big event on the Philadelphia Section’s calendar, the Tournament Players Division Championship, which utilized the modified Stableford scoring system, at Regents’ Glen Country Club.
Less than two weeks later, Shattuck’s par save on the 18th hole at Twin Warriors, with The Golf Channel’s cameras rolling, gave him a final round of 2-under 70 and a 9-under 279 total.
The only other Philadelphia Section pro to ever win the National Club Pro was Ed Dougherty. Like Chester native Dougherty, Shattuck, a Sun Valley graduate, is a Delco guy.
The victory also earned Shattuck a spot on the Corebridge Financial PGA Team, the top 20 finishers in the PGA Professional Championship that represented club pros around the country in the PGA Championship a few weeks later at Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course in Pittsford, N.Y.
Shattuck failed to make the cut at Oak Hill in his major championship debut, but Michael Block, a California club pro who finished a shot behind Shattuck in a tie for second place at Twin Warriors, struck a blow for club pros everywhere when he finished in a tie for 15th place in the PGA Championship.
So yeah, club pros can play a little and, for the second year in a row, Shattuck was the best player in a very competitive Philadelphia Section.
Shattuck claimed a victory in the Philadelphia Open, a major championship on the Golf Association of Philadelphia circuit that annually brings together the region’s most competitive field, by firing a sparkling 6-under 66 in the second round at Lookaway Golf Club.
Shattuck was the runnerup to his former Bidermann Golf Club colleague Zac Oakley, in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at the Country Club of Scranton and Elmhurst Country Club in early September.
Shattuck capped his season in October by capturing the title in the Lehigh Valley Open, the Golf Association of the Lehigh Valley’s marquee event which had been rescheduled from July, at Berkleigh Golf Club.
Pretty sure the winner of the PGA Professional Championship gets a couple of sponsor’s exemptions into some PGA Tour events early on the 2024 season, so don’t be surprised if Shattuck pops up in a field in the big leagues.
Shattuck will get a chance to defend his title in the PGA Professional Championship in April at Fields Ranch at PGA Frisco at the PGA of America’s new headquarters in Texas. A top-20 finish at Fields Ranch would earn Shattuck a return trip to the PGA Championship, which will be held at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. in May.
Shattuck piled up 5,628 points to easily capture the season-long race for Rolex Haverford Trust Player of the Year honors.
Mike Little of Clubhouse 54 was the runnerup in the race with 4,553.26 points.
It appeared Little had won the title in the Silvercrest Cup, which, in two short years, has quickly become one of the most coveted titles on the Philadelphia Section calendar. But several hours after hoisting the trophy at Applebrook Golf Club in September, Little realized he had signed an incorrect scorecard and disqualified himself.
Little bounced back from that disappointment to capture two October events on the schedule, the Philadelphia Players Championship, a tournament he helped develop during his time as the head pro at Lookaway, and the Philadelphia PGA Match Play Championship at Aronimink Golf Club.
The Match Play Championship was played throughout the season, culminating with the semifinals and the final at Aronimink. Little edged Shattuck, 1-up, in the semifinals before claiming the title with a 2 and 1 victory over Wilmington Country Club’s Ryan Rucinski in the final.
I didn’t do as good a job posting on a lot of Philadelphia Section events this year, particularly some of the big tournaments in October when I traditionally put the spotlight on the high school scene. This post gives me the added benefit of picking up on some of those events, particularly Little’s rebound from his Silvercrest DQ.
Coe represented the Philadelphia Section in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. with a busload of Merion members heading up to central New Jersey to support their head of instruction.
Coe, a Jersey girl from Mays Landing playing in her home state, failed to survive the 36-hole cut in her fifth appearance in the major championship on the LPGA Tour, but she was solid, adding a 74 in the second round to her opening-round 77.
Coe will make her sixth appearance in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2024 at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash. after finishing in a tie for fifth place in the LPGA Professional National Championship in June at the Kingsmill Resort’s River Course in Williamsburg, Va.
Coe finished in third place in the Women’s Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Chester Valley Golf Club in August, the title going to Aronimink’s Tessa Teachman.
Coe teed it up in all of the regular Philadelphia Section tournaments alongside the guys and was a consistent performer, highlighted by a second-place finish in the Jock Jolly & Son Championship at White Manor Country Club.
Steinmetz won the title in the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at LedgeRock Golf Club in June for the second year in a row on his way to a second straight Rolex Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year honor.
Steinmetz also won the other big Section event limited to senior players, the Skee Riegel Senior Open at Blue Bell Country Club.
Steinmetz remains competitive with the younger guys as well as he finished in a tie for third place in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at the Country Club of Scranton and Elmhurst. That means he will also be part of the Philadelphia Section contingent teeing it up in the PGA Professional Championship in April at Fields Ranch at Frisco PGA.
Steinmetz’s victory in the Philadelphia Senior PGA Professional Championship at LedgeRock earned him a spot in the field for the Senior PGA Professional Championship, played in late October at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Steinmetz and Applebrook Golf Club head pro Dave McNabb finished in a tie for 20th place at the PGA Golf Club and will represent the Philadelphia Section as part of the Corebridge Financial PGA Team in next May’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores Golf Club in Benton Harbor, Mich.
As I mentioned a year ago when Shattuck and Steinmetz received Rolex Haverford Trust Player of the Year and Rolex Robert “Skee” Riegel Senior Player of the Year honors, respectively, they represent a couple of different times in my 38-year journalistic journey, most of those years spent in the sports department.
I was covering high school golf at The Mercury in Pottstown when Steinmetz was a standout at Perkiomen Valley in the 1980s and I was high school golf guy at the Delaware County Daily Times when Shattuck finished in a tie for 14th place in the PIAA Championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in 2011 when Shattuck was a senior at Sun Valley.
It’s nice to see a couple of local guys still making headlines on the golf course in this area all these years later.
The Super Senior Player of the Year in the Section was PGA Life Member Brian Kelly, who retired after many years as the head pro at Bucknell Golf Club.
Kelly’s ninth-place finish in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship would normally have made him eligible for a trip to the National Club Pro, but PGA Life Members are no longer eligible to tee it up in the PGA Professional Championship.
Sandy Run Country Club assistant pro Trevor Bensel received the F. Edward DeBaufre Trophy for Scoring Average for the 2023 season.
Bensel’s consistency makes him an almost constant presence on Philadelphia Section leaderboards. Bensel did claim a victory in the 47th Pro-Am for Wishes at Penn Oaks Golf Club in August. Bensel also finished in a tie for third place in the Philadelphia Open at Lookaway.
Bensel flashed his considerable talent when he grabbed the lead with an opening round of 6-under 66 in last month’s National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course. He struggled a little in the middle two rounds, but closed with a 3-under 69 to finish in seventh place with a 4-under 284 total.
The Comeback Player of the Year in the Philadelphia Section was Laurel Creek Golf Club’s Dave Quinn, who has been part of a large stable to talented senior players in the Section.
The Ike Turner Most Improved Player award went to Brad Sanders of Sunnybrook Golf Club.
The Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization (PAO) Player of the Year was Anthony Sebastianelli, a colleague of Shattuck’s in the Rolling Green pro shop. Sebastianelli was a standout scholastically at Abington Heights and collegiately at Central Connecticut State.
Sebastianelli came up just short in the Burlington Classic Pro-Am in June when he lost on the fourth hole of a playoff for the title to Gulph Mills Golf Club assistant pro Louis Kelly.
Brian Bergstol, the head of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, was the Central Counties Chapter Player of the Year.
Bergstol has been one of the Philadelphia Section’s top players for a while and he hit the jackpot when he captured the Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic on the day after Memorial Day at Sunnybrook, claiming the winner’s check of $150,000, the richest prize for any PGA Section event in the country.
After earning runnerup honors two years in a row in the NCR Assistant PGA Professional Championship, Bergstol settled for a tie for 26th place in last month’s edition at the PGA Golf Club.
The main order of business at the Section’s Fall Membership meeting was the announcement that Chip Richter of the Country Club of Harrisburg is the Philadelphia Section’s 45th president.
Patrick Shine of Doylestown Country Club becomes honorary president after his two-year term as the Section’s president expired.
The Section also announced its 2023 class of Playing Legends, which includes Ted McKenzie, who, after a long stint as the had pro at Waynesborough Country Club, became the first head pro at Stonewall, and the late Jerry Pisano, who worked in pro shops at Overbrook Golf Club, Locust Valley Golf Club, Radnor Valley Country Club and Edgmont Country Club.
I can vouch for the fact that McKenzie is a beloved figure at Stonewall. There are dozens of Stonewall partners who swear by the teachings of McKenzie, who, it seems, focused more on your game than your swing, maximizing your talent rather than trying to make you something you could never be as a golfer.
Oh yeah, and the guy could really play back in the day.
The Section’s Player of the Year and winner of the F. Edward DeBaufre Trophy for Scoring Average in 1975, McKenzie also won the Philadelphia Open in 1971, the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship in 1979 and played in two U.S. Opens.
I always remember Pisano as the head pro at Radnor Valley, but he was a dominant player in the Philadelphia Section in the late 1950s and early ’60s.
Pisano claimed Philadelphia Open titles in 1957, 1962, and 1965, won the Pennsylvania Open in 1964, played in the PGA Championship in 1961, 1962 and 1963 and in the U.S. Open in 1962 and 1963.
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