Catching up on a trio of important events on the Philadelphia Section PGA calendar …
It was technically still spring when Braden Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club, captured the title in the Conestoga Classic with a sizzling 6-under-par 64 at Conestoga Country Club in Lancaster County June 17th.
That put an exclamation point on a spring that Shattuck, a Sun Valley graduate, won’t soon forget.
It was Shattuck’s second Philadelphia Section PGA victory of the season, the other coming in the Delaware Valley Open at Bellewood Country Club, literally right on the heels of Shattuck earning the low club-pro honors by making the cut and playing the weekend in the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
The Delaware Valley Open and the Conestoga Classic were two of the three Silvercrest Cup qualifiers contested to this point and earned Shattuck the $2,500 that comes out of the bonus pool for the Silvercrest Cup qualifiers.
The Conestoga Classic was also a Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year points event, as was the Delaware Valley Open. There’s a long way to go, but the two wins put Shattuck in position to earn the Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year honors in the Philadelphia Section for the third year in a row.
Shattuck’s spring fling began when he punched his ticket to Valhalla as part of the Colebridge Financial Team by finishing in a tie for 16th place in the PGA Professional Championship at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco at the PGA of America’s new headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
Then came the week at Valhalla. He had arrived at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y. a year ago on the heels of winning the PGA Professional Championship at Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M.
Shattuck failed to make the cut in his PGA Tour and major championship debut, but you have to think his experience at Oak Hill paid dividends this spring at Valhalla.
Shattuck grinded out rounds of 71 and 70 to make the cut at Valhalla, one of just two Colebridge Financial Team members to advance to the weekend, added a 3-under 68 in the third round and closed with a 3-over 74 that gave him low club pro honors with a 1-under 283 total.
Shattuck had seven birdies against a lone bogey in the Conestoga Classic victory. A birdie at the finishing hole gave him a one-shot edge on Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club who posted a 5-under 65.
Oakley also earned a trip to Valhalla as part of the Colebridge Financial Team as he joined Shattuck in the group tied for 16th place at PGA Frisco. Oakley failed to make the cut in his second PGA Championship appearance in three years. Oakley and Shattuck were colleagues in the Bidermann pro shop before Shattuck moved on to Rolling Green.
“I played well today,” Shattuck told the Philadelphia Section PGA website in the aftermath of his Conestoga Classic victory. “I hit my driver pretty well and gave myself a lot of good chances for birdie. It’s pretty cool to win another Silvercrest Cup bonus, too.”
Oh yeah, a couple of weeks before the Conestoga Classic, Shattuck tied the knot with his new bride Violetta. So yeah, a very, very good spring for Shattuck.
Shattuck lost in a playoff for the $100,000 jackpot that goes to the winner of the Haverford Philadelphia Golf Classic at Sunnybrook Golf Club the day after Memorial Day, so not everything went his way. But he still played well enough to get into the playoff.
Brian Bergstol, the talented instructor at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, and Parks Price of Hanover Country Club shared third place in the Conestoga Classic, each finishing a shot behind Oakley with a 4-under 66.
Six players finished in a tie for fifth place, each landing on 3-under 67, including Shattuck’s colleague in the Rolling Green pro shop, Anthony Sebastianelli, Andrew Cornish of Cedarbrook Country Club, Trevor Bensel of Sandy Run Country Club, Michael Little of Clubhouse 54, Matt Finger of DuPont Country Club and Brendon Post, the men’s golf coach at the University of Delaware.
Post’s 67 gave him the top spot in the Senior division with Dave Quinn of Laurel Creek Country Club finishing a shot behind him second place with a 2-under 68. George Forster, a PGA Life Member and the former longtime head pro at Radnor Valley Country Club, was another shot behind Quinn in third place with a 1-under 69.
Bill Sautter from the Philadelphia Cricket Club pro shop finished first in the Super Senior division with a 2-under 68. Wayne Phillips, a PGA Life Member, was the runnerup with a 1-over 71.
The Conestoga Classic also featured concurrent Central Counties Chapter and Philadelphia Assistants’ Organization (PAO) events.
Bergstol and Price, with their 4-under 66s, shared first place in the Central Counties Chapter competition and Oakley’s 5-under 65 gave him the PAO victory.
Dom DiJulia of the DiJulia School of Golf recorded his first career hole-in-one when his 6-iron shot at the 178-yard 15th hole at Conestoga found the bottom of the cup.
The Conestoga Classic was supported by Silvercrest Asset Management Group, Jani-King, Ohana Farm LLC, KM Golf Sales and the PGA Tour.
Silvercrest, an investment adviser providing asset management and family office services to high net-worth individuals and select institutional investors, sponsors the Silvercrest Cup, which will be contested Sept. 16 at the Union League’s Liberty Hill Course with a total purse of $30,000 up for grabs.
The last of the four qualifiers for the Silvercrest Cup will be the Doylestown Open July 26 at Doylestown Country Club. As with the other Silvercrest Cup qualifiers, there will be a bonus pool of $$4,000 distributed to the top finishers.
Two days after the Conestoga Classic, Cedarbrook’s Cornish successfully defended his title by capturing the Hutch Invitational at Berkshire Country Club in Reading with a 3-under 68.
The Hutch has limited field of just 28 players invited to tee it up by Scott and Karen Hutchinson, longtime supporters of the Philadelphia Section PGA and PGA of America REACH Foundation Philadelphia, the Section’s charitable arm. In addition to presenting the Hutch Invitational, the Hutchinsons are also major supporters of the Tournament Players Championship at Lookaway Golf Club.
When Cornish won the Hutch Invitational a year ago, it was his first victory in a Philadelphia Section tournament.
Cornish opened his round at Berkshire with a birdie at first hole. After giving that shot back with a bogey at the second hole, Cornish made back-to-back birdies at four and five followed by a bogey at six. Birdies at the 12th and 13th holes got Cornish to 3-under for his round.
He gave a shot back with a bogey at the 17th hole, but bounced right back with a birdie at Berkshire’s finishing hole to end up at 3-under.
Sandy Run’s Bensel finished a shot behind Cornish in second place with a 2-under 68.
Two players out of the pro shop at host Berkshire, Ben Bewley and Tom Michaels, shared third place with Mike Meisenzahl of Tavistock Country Club, each matching par with a 71.
The two home pros went 1-2, respectively, in the pro-am as Michaels teamed with Brandon Lynch to claim the top spot with a 10-under 61, one shot better than Bewley and Jacques Jacobson, who posted a 9-under 62.
The Hutch Invitational was also supported by Holderness & Bourne.
Last week saw the return to the Philadelphia Section PGA winner’s circle of Brett Walker, back in the Section at Chester Valley Golf Club.
Walker captured the title in the William Hyndman III Memorial Classic with a 4-under 66 July 1st at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, the William Flynn gem that was the home course of the tournament’s namesake, a legendary amateur player on both the local and national scenes.
It was Walker’s first Philadelphia Section victory since he captured the title in the rain-shortened 100th Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship in the summer of 2021 at Aronimink Golf Club. Walker was working out of the Sunnybrook Golf Club pro shop when he won the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship.
Walker made a birdie out of the gate at the first hole, but gave the shot back with a bogey at six. But he really got it going on the incoming nine at Huntingdon Valley, rattling off four straight birdies at the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th holes to get it to 4-under.
Walker finished two shots clear of Sandy Run’s Bensel, who was the runnerup with a 2-under 68.
“My round started pretty well,” Walker told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “I birdied No. 1 to get off to a nice start. I turned at even-par and then my putter got hot and I made four birdies in a row and then cruised in. The course played fair, but tough.
“I’m pumped to be back in the Philadelphia Section and honored to have won this event.”
The William Hyndman III Memorial Classic was a Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year points tournament.
Danny Laws, playing out of Philadelphia Cricket Club at St. Martin’s, and Gulph Mills Golf Club’s Louis Kelly finished a shot behind Bensel in a tie for third place, each recording a 1-under 69.
Cedarbrook’s Cornish, coming off his victory in the Hutch Invitational, headed a group of five players who matched par with a 70 and finished in a tie for fifth place.
Joining Cornish at even-par were Mike Caldwell, Patrick Algeier of Aronimink, Rob Singer at Union League Liberty Hill, and Stephen Swartz of Carlisle Country Club.
Mike Molino of Elmhurst Country Club and Terry Hatch of Bent Creek Country Club shared the top spot in the Senior division, each signing for a 2-over 72.
Michael Versuk, a PGA Life Member, claimed top honors in the Super Senior division with a 4-over 74. The Cricket Club’s Sautter and Phillips, the PGA Life Member long associated with Lehigh Country Club, shared runnerup honors as each ended up a shot behind Versuk in a tie for second place with a 5-over 75.
Sandy Run’s Bensel won the concurrent PAO event with his 2-under 68 a shot better than the 1-under 69 turned in by Gulph Mills’ Kelly.
Brittany Waddell of Green Valley Country Club finished at the top of the leaderboard in the Women’s division with an 8-over 78. Waddell spent some time in the pro shop at Stonewall before moving on to Green Valley.
Kelly Sanderson of host club Huntingdon Valley finished two shots behind Waddell in second place with an 80.
Two-time reigning Philadelphia Section Women’s Player of the Year Joanna Coe, the head of instruction at Merion Golf Club, has been missing from the leaderboard in recent weeks, but the word I hear from some Merion insiders was that Coe was about to give birth to her first child at some point late in the spring or early this summer.
Coe had earned a spot in the field for last week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash. by finishing in a tie for fifth place in last summer’s LPGA Professional National Championship at the Kingsmill Resort’s River Course in Williamsburg, Va.
Pretty sure the spot Coe earned for this year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major championship on the LPGA Tour, will carry over to next year’s edition at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco in Texas.
Can’t let a William Hyndman III Memorial Classic pass without mentioning the tremendous player whose memory the tournament honors.
Bill Hyndman had an amateur career that stretched from the Philadelphia Amateur title he won in 1935 at age 19 to the second of the two U.S. Senior Amateur crowns he captured in 1983 at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind.
In between there were nine appearances in the Masters Tournament and the five times he represented the United States in the Walker Cup Match. True greatness.
The William Hyndman III Memorial Classic was supported by the Hyndman family, Callaway Golf, Jock Jolly & Son Inc., Jani-King, KM Golf Sales/Kevin McClellan, Ohana Farm LLC and the PGA Tour.
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