The top players in the Georgia PGA Section competed for spots in the 2014 PGA Professional National Championship recently at Champions Retreat outside Augusta, with six qualifying positions available from the event.
By the time the 36-hole tournament ended, only one player was under par and a lot of Georgia PGA members headed home with the realization that a spot in the national club professional championship was within their reach.
Champions Retreat, a 27-hole facility with three nines, one each designed by Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer, was set up to give the field a taste of what they can expect to face in the PGA PNC next year. The course played long and difficult, with Canongate-on-White Oak instructor Todd Ormsby the lone player to break par, finishing at 1-under 143 for 36 holes.
Ormsby opened with a 2-under 70 and maintained his lead throughout the final round, with a pair of late bogeys reducing his winning margin to two strokes.
While Ormsby scored a relatively comfortable victory, there was nothing remotely comfortable about the experience for a large group players vying for the other five berths from the tournament.
Bill Murchison, an assistant at Towne Lake Hills, was the only player to shoot under par in the final round, closing with a 70 to take 2nd at 145. Charlie King, the head pro at the Griffin City Golf Course, was 3rd at 146, and was the only player other than Ormsby to qualify for the PNC among the top nine finishers after the opening round.
King’s second round 75 was the second lowest score the final day among the top 10 after the first round. The combination of the length of the course (it played to well over 7,100 yards) and the challenge of the greens complexes resulted in only a handful of players managing to match par each day.
With all of the first round leaders other than Ormsby shooting 75 or higher the second day, the battle for the remaining qualifying positions was thrown wide open, and four players with experience at the national level seized their opportunity.
Murchison, the lone Georgia PGA member to qualify for the 2012 PGA Championship, made it into the PNC for the third straight year thanks to a final round 70 that included just one bogey on his scorecard.
King, who qualified for the PNC in his first try at the age of 57, had the lead the second day until Ormsby eagled the par-5 8th.King held on for 3rd place at 2-over 146.
Greg Lee, an assistant at Chicopee Woods, had four birdies the final day, including two in a row at 14 and 15 for a 72 and a 147 total for 36 holes. Tommy Brannen, the head professional at Augusta CC, earned his spot with birdies at 14 and 16 for a 73 that moved into a tie for 5th at 148.
Also tying for 5th was Sonny Skinner of River Pointe in Albany, one of two players who had already qualified for next year’s PNC. Skinner played his last 14 holes the second day in 2-under, parring 10 in a row to finish off a 72.
A three-way playoff was required to determine the final qualifier, with Tim Weinhart getting the spot with a par on the second extra hole. Weinhart, who had to battle back after a triple bogey on the third hole, played his last 14 holes in 2-under to shoot 74 for a 149 total.
Dano Korytoski, an assistant at Orchard Hills, will be the first alternate after scores of 73-76—149. Korytoski birdied the par-5 18th in regulation to earn his spot in the playoff, but made par and bogey on the hole in the playoff.
Augusta National assistant Jason Ballard was the third member of the playoff, shooting 77 the second day after an opening 72. Ballard, who was the first alternate for the PNC from the Georgia PGA last year, was inside the qualifying number for most of the final round, but shot 41 on his final nine and also bogeyed the second playoff hole.
The 2014 PGA PNC will be played in Myrtle Beach, with 2013 Georgia PGA Player of the Year Craig Stevens also qualifying for that event. Stevens, an instructor at Brookstone G&CC, tied for 11th at Champions Retreat with a 151, but held on to the top spot on the points list to finish ahead of Weinhart and Skinner to earn Player of the Year for the second straight year and the fourth time overall.
Ormsby is an infrequent tournament competitor, with the Georgia PGA PNC his first appearance in a Section event this year that was not an 18-holer. He played in the one day event at Chicopee Woods, as well as the Section’s qualifiers for the state’s two Web.com
Tour tournaments, winning the Stadion Classic at UGA qualifier and making the cut.
“I teach a lot, I’ve got three kids and I’m getting married in three weeks,” Ormsby said after his victory. “That takes a lot of time. I don’t get away much.”
Ormsby, who is marrying former LPGA Tour player Angela Jerman, has plenty of time to get his schedule clear for the 2014 PNC, which will be played in late June. This was just Ormsby’s third attempt at qualifying for the PNC, and he narrowly missed three years ago.
He said the dual concerns of playing to win the event but also keeping in mind the qualifying situation made for some conflicting thoughts.
“You can see the numbers up there and you want to try and stay within the qualifying number instead of playing your game.”
Ormsby was also trying to win the tournament, but two bogeys on his first six holes briefly cost him the lead. That changed on the par-5 eighth on the Player-designed Creek nine, which he reached with a 3-iron to 15 feet and holed the putt.
“That was huge,” Ormsby said. “It was rough up to that point.”
Ormsby added a birdie three holes later on the second hole of the Nicklaus-designed Bluff nine (tournament 11), and was comfortably in front over the closing holes until two late bogeys.
The eagle at the 8th put him back in the mindset of trying to win the tournament, and he knew if he played steady the rest of the way it would be tough for his challengers to catch him.
“There were not going to be a lot of birdies. That wasn’t going to happen out here.”
Ormsby was looking to increase his lead late in the round, but bogeys at 15 and 16 closed the gap. He responded with a 4-iron to 12 feet on the long, par-3 17th, and even though he missed the birdie putt, his lead was safe going to the par-5 18th.
The victory earned Ormsby the winner’s check of $4,000.
Of the eight players who will represent the Georgia PGA in next year’s PNC, Ormsby and King will be the only two first time competitors.
King, a long time member in the Section, became eligible to play in the PNC when he got his Class A status last year.
“I never had the opportunity,” he said. “I’m looking forward to playing in it for the first time. This means a lot, and after I play in one, I’ll realize how big a deal this is.”
King will be one of four players over the age of 50 among the Georgia PGA’s eight representatives in the 2014 PNC.
“I’m in the senior division, I don’t play courses this long,” King said. Even though the courses he plays as a senior may not be as long, the level of competition is high with players like Stevens, Skinner, Brannen, Stephen Keppler and James Mason among the state’s senior contingent.
“The competition is so good. It helps when you have guys who are strong players. The Georgia Section is one of the strongest in the country with the number of good players that we have.”
King is in his 10th year as the head pro at Griffin GC, a municipally-owned facility in a town that suffered the closing if its country club this year, although there is a chance Griffin CC will re-open under new ownership.