Just three weeks after a poor finish cost him a spot in the PGA Senior Professional National Championship, Phil Taylor rebounded with a strong showing and a victory in the Georgia PGA’s qualifier for the national club professional championship.
Taylor, the Director of Golf at Ansley Golf Club, survived a stern test from the Legends course at Chateau Elan, with no one in the field of approximately 80 players able to match par over 36 holes. Taylor won with a 2-over 146 total, one shot ahead of Brian Puterbaugh, the Director of Instruction at the Hooch.
Taylor took home $4800 for his victory, with Puterbaugh earning $3400.
Sonny Skinner, Kyle Owen and Gary Miller tied for 3rd at 148, with Skinner’s 1-under par 71 the only score of par or better the final day. Four players tied for the sixth and final qualifying spot for the 2015 PGA Professional National Championship, with Clark Spratlin winning the playoff with a birdie on the first extra hole. Danny Elkins birdied the second playoff hole to earn first alternate status.
The top six finishers from the Section’s qualifier will join Hank Smith next June at the Philadelphia Cricket Club for the 2015 PGA PNC. Smith, the head pro at the Frederica Club on St. Simons Island, won the recent Georgia PGA Championship at Sea Island GC to earn his spot in next year’s PNC.
Taylor, Owen, Miller and Spratlin were all in the field for the 2012 PNC in northern California, with Skinner also qualifying but not competing, as he elected to play in a Champions Tour event that week.
Also qualifying for the 2012 PNC were Tim Weinhart and Craig Stevens, who have been fixtures in the PGA PNC field for the past 15 years. Both players shot 151 at the Legends to miss the playoff by two strokes.
Weinhart has competed in each of the past 15 national club professional championships, with Stevens qualifying almost every year during that span and a total of 17 times.
Taylor was a regular in the PNC in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, but went a long time between appearances before qualifying for the 2012 PNC. Taylor, who has also played in the Senior PNC in recent years, will be one of the four Georgians competing in the PNC who will be at least 50, as Spratlin turns 50 early in 2015.
Two bad holes late in the final round in the Senior PNC qualifier three weeks earlier kept Taylor out of that event, and he said that was especially tough to take, “considering it was at my place. It’s great to rebound that quickly, especially since we were playing to get into the national championship.”
The Senior PNC was played at Settindown Creek, one of Ansley’s two courses, and like the Legends, is a layout that rewards pars, particularly when the greens are rolling as quickly as they did in the PNC.
“The greens were perfect,” Taylor said of the Legends. “But if you were on the wrong side of the hole, you had to be really, really careful or you were going to have a six or seven-footer coming back.”
After three birdies on his first nine holes in the opening round, Taylor had only one more over his last 27 holes. But he piled up the pars to post scores of 71-75—146, closing out the second round with pars on his last six holes.
“I was just trying to do whatever I could to make pars. “
Taylor said he typically gages what he thinks the qualifying number is going to be, and laughed, “whatever the number winds up at, I shoot one shot higher.”
This time, he focused more on his score on each hole, and managed to avoid the bad hole or two that cost him in the Senior PNC qualifier.
It was Taylor’s third win in a Georgia PGA Section event. He won the 1994 Griffin Classic and the 2002 Atlanta Open at Golf Club of Georgia.
Puterbaugh earned his spot in next year’s PNC with some late heroics. A double bogey at the 13th dropped him to 4-over for the day and 6-over for the tournament, but he birdied three of his last four holes, more than making up for a bogey at the 17th.
After the double bogey, Puterbaugh said he knew he needed to “put the pedal to the metal, and that’s usually when I play my best.”
Puterbaugh said he is accustomed to being in that situation “because unfortunately, I’m usually behind a few strokes,” but this time he made up enough ground to qualify for nationals for just the second time.
After losing in a playoff in 2005, Puterbaugh qualified for the 2008 PNC at Reynolds Plantation, but did not play as well as he hoped. He is looking forward to his second appearance at nationals, but still has memories of another close call more than a decade ago.
Puterbaugh won the 1999 Georgia PGA PNC qualifier at Cuscowilla, shooting 134 over 36 holes to finish three ahead of his closest pursuer. At that time however, there was a Regional qualifier in between the Section qualifier and nationals. Puterbaugh recalls leading after the first round at PGA GC in Port St. Lucie, Fla., but after four days with lots of birdies (18) but even more bogeys (he finished 6-over), he failed to make it to the finals, and needed another eight years to make his first appearance at nationals.
Owen, an assistant at Dunwoody CC, also advanced thanks to a birdie run the final day, but his started earlier and extended longer than Puterbaugh’s clutch finish. Owen shot 2-over 74 the first day with a triple bogey on the 13th, and back-to-back double bogeys at holes 4 and 5 the next day had him 5-over on the round after five holes.
But thanks to six birdies over a 9-hole stretch starting at the seventh, Owen shot a second straight 74 tie for 3rd at 148. He closed out his round with a bogey, but as bogeys go, it was a pretty good one.
Owen drove into trouble on the 18th and was not in good position just short of the par 4 in two. He was unable to carry the greenside bunker with his third shot, but blasted out to five feet and holed the putt to avoid what would have been a 5-for-2 playoff.
“I need to play more golf,” Owen said after his close call. “These were my first two rounds in September.”
After a mostly solid first day other than the triple bogey, Owen’s second round scorecard had six birdies, six bogeys, and six holes with over par scores, including the back-to-back doubles.
Owen made his first PNC appearance in 2012 at the demanding Bayonet course in Seaside, Calif. He said it was “an awesome event. It was a great accomplishment to get there, and if this one is remotely as good, I’ll be ecstatic. “
Going to the final round, Owen was in position to take a shot at a top 20 finish and a spot in the PGA Championship later in 2012 at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, but a poor start the final day led to a bad round and ended his week on a disappointing note.
Owen has plenty of time between now and next June to get his game ready for nationals, and despite the erratic nature of his play at the Legends, Owen said he “hit enough good shots to feel good about my game.”
Miller, who shared the first day lead at 1-under 71 with Taylor and Savannah’s James Walden, took an early double bogey in his second round, but quickly settled down. The three first round co-leaders were still tied for the lead with three holes to play, but Walden made double bogey on the short, par-4 16th and Miller followed with a double at the 17th.
A par at the 18th gave Miller a 77 and tie for 3rd at 148, but Walden bogeyed the 17th and missed a birdie opportunity at 18that would have enabled him to avoid a 4-way playoff for the final qualifying spot.
Miller also made his PNC debut in 2012 in California, and described it as “an unbelievable experience. They make you feel like a tour player.”
Unfortunately for Miller, he was not 100 percent physically that week, and struggled somewhat with his game. He is looking forward to another opportunity to compete at the national level.
After a number of years at Port Armor and Reynolds Plantation on Lake Oconee, Miller recently moved to the Oaks as the head pro of one of metro Atlanta’s most popular daily fee facilities.
Spratlin, the Director of Golf at Currahee Club in Toccoa, earned his spot in the PGA PNC with a birdie putt of some 40 feet on the first playoff hole. Spratlin shot 75-74—149 and will make his ninth career appearance in the PNC, coming close on a few occasions of making it into the PGA Championship.
Pars on eight of his last nine holes got Spratlin into the playoff, and he captured the last spot with a long birdie putt on the first hole at the Legends. Spratlin said he’s “excited” to return to the PNC, and will become the latest top Georgia PGA player to turn 50, adding to a list that includes Skinner, Stevens, Taylor, Stephen Keppler, James Mason and Elkins.
Elkins, the head pro at Georgia Golf Center, was 7-over after seven holes the first day, but rallied for a 4-over 76 and closed with a 73 to tie for sixth and get the first alternate position, which has gotten several Georgia PGA members into the PNC in recent years.
Walden, who shot 71-78, got the second alternate spot, with Standard Club instructor Craig Forney the 3rd alternate. Forney shot 72-77, with a double bogey at the par-5 ninth and a triple bogey at the 13th in the final round. He birdied 16 and 18 to close out his round, but also bogeyed the 17th.
Jordan Arnold of Achasta GC and Scott Allen of Pointe South in Augusta both missed the playoff by a shot at 150, Arnold parred the last seven holes of his final round for a 73. Allen was 1-over after 27 holes and in contention for medalist honors, but shot 41 on the back including a double bogey at the par-3 15th, a replica of No. 12 at Augusta National.
The tournament was presented by Club Car, Mercedes Benz and Omega, and supported by Titleist, Footjoy, Nike Golf, TaylorMade adidas Ashworth and the PGA Tour.