Walker will take three-shot lead into final round of Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship

 

   When Brett Walker returned to the Philadelphia Section PGA this summer, he immediately become one of the Section’s top players.

   Walker had won the 100^th Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in 2021, getting a little bit of an assist from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which wiped out the final round.

   Not sure where Walker went, but the life of a club pro often has he or she moving around, depending on the next opportunity.

   Then Walker was back this summer, working out of the pro shop at Chester Valley Golf Club and finding the winner’s circle in the William Hyndman III Memorial Classic at Huntingdon Valley Country Club.

   Wednesday at Rolling Green Golf Club, the William Flynn gem in Springfield, Delaware County, Walker will try to pick up a second victory in the Philadelphia Section’s most important event, the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship.

   Walker carded a solid 1-over-par 71 at his new home at Chester Valley, another of the typically underrated classic layouts in the Philadelphia area, and will take a three-shot lead over Braden Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green, into the final round of the 103^rd Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship.

   Walker had taken the lead with a sizzling 7-under 64 at Rolling Green, which played host to the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, in Monday’s opening round. His 71 at Chester Valley, home to a regular stop on the Senior Tour (now known as the PGA Tour Champions) in the 1980s and ’90s, gave Walker a 6-under 135 total.

   There was a cut to the top 60 and ties following Tuesday’s second round and the remaining players will all tee it up Wednesday at Rolling Green.

   The top finishers in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship earn a trip to the PGA Professional Championship next spring at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. The top 20 finishers in the PGA Professional Championship form the Colebridge Financial Team that represents club pros from all over the country in the PGA Championship, one of professional golf’s four major championships.

   The PGA Championship will be held next May at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.

   Shattuck has taken that road to the PGA Championship each of the last two springs. Two years ago, Shattuck, a Delco guy who starred scholastically at Sun Valley, became just the second player out of the Philadelphia Section to win the PGA Professional Championship when he drained a 12-foot putt for par on the 72^nd hole at Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M.

   Shattuck finished in a tie for 16^th place in this year’s PGA Professional Championship at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco at the PGA of America’s new headquarters in Texas to again punch his ticket to the PGA Championship.

   He was one of just two members of the Colebridge Financial Team to survive the 36-hole cut in the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. and finished as the low club pro.

   Shattuck, the reigning two-time Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year in the Philadelphia Section, was just two shots behind Walker after unfurling an opening round of 5-under 66 at his home course at Rolling Green. A solid 2-over 72 Tuesday at Chester Valley left him three shots behind Walker at 3-under 138 going into Wednesday’s second round.

   Shattuck has been the best player in the Philadelphia Section the last two years, but a victory in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship is missing from his resume.

   Walker has four of the Section’s very best players, including Shattuck, chasing him going into Wednesday’s final round.

   Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club and the defending champion in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship, and Brian Bergstol, an instructor at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, were a shot behind Shattuck in a tie for third place at 2-under 139.

   Trevor Bensel, the talented assistant pro at Sandy Run Country Club, was the only other player under par after two rounds as he was alone in fifth place at 1-under 140.

   Walker started slowly in Monday’s opening round with birdies at the fourth and seventh holes at Rolling Green. But he lit up the incoming nine at Rolling Green to the tune of a 5-under 30.

   Walker made back-to-back birdies at the 11^th and 12^th holes, made an eagle at the par-5 17^th and added another birdie at the last, the second of Rolling Green’s two par-5 holes in its unique finish.

   Walker started Tuesday’s second round at Chester Valley off the 10^th tee and struggled a little with bogeys at the 11^th and 15^th holes before righting the ship with a birdie at 17. He got it to 1-under for the round with back-to-back birdies at the second and third holes before making bogeys at four and seven to end up 1-over for the round.

   Shattuck, who owns wins in a pair of Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year points events this year, got off to a great start at Rolling Green with a typically efficient five-birdie, no-bogey 5-under round at Rolling Green.

   Starting off the 10^th tee, Shattuck birdied the 12^th hole and picked up back-to-back birdies at the closing par-5s at 17 and 18. He added birdies on the second hole and the tough par-5 ninth on the outgoing nine.

   After making bogeys at the fourth and sixth holes to open his second round at Chester Valley, Shattuck rattled off 12 straight pars to keep Walker within reach heading back to Rolling Green.

   Oakley joined Shattuck in the tie for 16^th place in the PGA Professional Championship at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco and earned a trip to the PGA Championship for the second time in three years. Oakley won the title in a Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship shortened to 36 holes by rain a year ago in the northeast corner of the Philadelphia Section at the Country Club of Scranton and Elmhurst Country Club.

   After matching par with a 70 in his opening round at Chester Valley, Oakley added a solid 2-under 69 in Tuesday’s second round at Rolling Green to get it to 2-under through two rounds.

   Bergstol had the best round of the day Tuesday at Rolling Green, a 3-under 68, after opening with a 1-over 71 at Chester Valley to join Oakley at 2-under.

   Bensel was only a shot behind Walker after opening with a sparkling 6-under 65 at Rolling Green, but struggled a little in a 5-over 75 at Chester Valley in Tuesday’s second round to land at 1-under.

   Dave Pagett, the head pro at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, added a 2-over 72 at Chester Valley in Tuesday’s second round to his opening round of 1-under 70 at Rolling Green and was two shots behind Bensel in sixth place at 1-over 142.

   Mike Meisenzahl, who plays out of the Tavistock Country Club pro shop, was another shot behind Pagett in seventh place with a 2-over 143 total. Meisenzahl was right there with Bensel, a shot behind Walker, after blitzing Rolling Green with an opening round of 6-under 65 before backing off with an 8-over 78 in Tuesday’s second round at Chester Valley.

   Veteran Terry Hatch, playing out of the Bent Creek Country Club pro shop, and Whitford Country Club’s Andrew Turner were in a tie for eighth place, each landing on 3-over 144.

   Hertzog registered a pair of 72s in the first two rounds, which was 1-over for his opening round at Rolling Green and 2-over for his second round Tuesday at Chester Valley. Turner opened with a 1-over 71 at Chester Valley before adding a 2-over 73 at Rolling Green in Tuesday’s second round.

   There was a five-way logjam at 4-over 145 that rounded out the top 10 through two rounds, a group that included Sam Ambrose, a colleague of Walker’s in the Chester Valley pro shop, Mike Caldwell of DuPont Country Club, Jeff Herb of Waynesborough Country Club, Mark Sheftic, the head of instruction at Sunnybrook Golf Club, and Rusty Harbold, who works out of the pro shop at Philadelphia Cricket Club.

   Ambrose bounced back from an opening round of 5-over 75 on his home course at Chester Valley with a 1-under 70 in Tuesday’s second round at Rolling Green.

   Caldwell and Sheftic had identical splits, each opening with a 2-over 72 at Chester Valley before adding a 2-over 73 in Tuesday’s second round at Rolling Green.

   Herb opened with a 3-over 73 at Chester Valley before adding a 1-over 72 in Tuesday’s second round at Rolling Green.

   Harbold matched par with an opening-round 71 at Rolling Green before adding a 4-over 74 in Tuesday’s second round at Chester Valley.