Day 1 did not go well for two of the locals at the PGA Championship.

 

Mark Sheftic, teaching pro at Merion GC, shot a 10-over 82 in the first round, leaving him tied for 155^th, last in the field.  His card is here.

 

Rich Steinmetz, head pro at Spring Ford CC, shot 3-over 75, tied for 118^th.  His card is here.

 

Stu Ingraham, teaching pro at M Golf Range, was 1-over par through eight holes when play was suspended for the day.  His card is here.

Three of the top sticks from the ranks of the Philadelphia PGA Section are in the field of this week’s final major of the year, the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

 

They are: Rich Steinmetz, 38, head from at Spring Ford CC in Gilbertsville; Mark Sheftic, 35, teaching pro at Merion GC in Ardmore; and Stu Ingraham, 50, teaching pro at M Golf Range & Learning Center in Harrisburg.

 

All three are good enough and sufficiently experienced that it’s not out of the question that any or all could survive the cut, even if the odds are against it.  Twenty club pros are in the field.

 

For Ingraham, a former PGA Tour player, this is his sixth trip to the PGA Championship; he made the cut in his last two appearances, in 1993 and 1996.  For Steinmetz and Sheftic, this is their second trip to the PGA.

 

Here’s a story on Steinmetz; here’s one on all three.

I reached a watershed moment in my golfing career over the weekend.

 

No, I did not make a hole-in-one.  No, I did not win the club championship.  No, I did not break 70 or even 80.  I added a second hybrid to my bag.

 

I realize, of course, that officially makes me an Old Fart.

 

It’s one thing to carry a single hybrid; that’s not necessarily un-manly; but two hybrids is definitely Old Fart territory. 

 

When hybrids first appeared on the scene a few years ago, most better golfers eyed them with curiosity, ambivalence, suspicion, even scorn.  Over time, many golfers opened their minds and their wallets and eventually took the hybrid plunge.

 

This was back when even weekend hacks generally still carried 3-irons and even 2-irons.  (Years ago, for a brief time, I even carried a Ping Eye-2 1-iron; among golfers, nothing says badass like a 1-iron. It’s been so long ago I forget whether I wrapped that 1-iron around a tree or threw it in a lake.)

 

I finally bought my first hybrid three or four years ago, after plenty of golfers already swore by them and equipment companies were even coming out with entire sets of hybrid irons.  My first hybrid was 19-degrees, killing two birds, or clubs, with one stone.  I got rid of my 4-wood and my 3-iron.

 

Although I’ve tried a couple different brands of hybrids since then, I have continued to be a 19-degree man, allowing me to remain loyal to and confident in my 4-iron. 

 

At least until about a week or so ago, when I noticed that two or three 4-iron shots were as, well, not as crisp and solid as they might have been.  In point of fact, the ball flew off the club like a sickly pigeon.  Didn’t sound good, feel good or look good.   

 

I swallowed my pride and drove to my neighborhood big box golf chain store.  Soon enough, I was running my fingers across the smooth, metallic underbelly of a 21-degree hybrid.

 

"Can I help you?" asked a nosey clerk, who had clearly snuck up on me.

 

"No," I  said, dropping the hybrid like a 12-year-old caught looking at Playboy.

 

When the nosey clerk was gone, I fondled the 21-degree more.  Not only did it have more loft, the shaft was shorter.   I knew that meant more control.  I could no more walk out of that store without that 21-degree hybrid than an addict could walk away from the front door of a crack house.

 

I played my first couple of rounds with "21" over the weekend.  I love it.  I hit it like a 4-iron, then I choked it down an inch and hit it like a 5-iron and, I kid you not, choked it down even more and hit it like a 6-iron.

 

But that was too much, too far, too quick.  I refuse to be one of those stooped-over old geezer farts you see pulling a pull cart, dragging a bag with putter, SW, PW, 9, 8, 7 and nine variations of hybrids and woods.  I will not be that guy.

 

At least not for now, not until a 23-degree hybrid catches my eye.

 

 

When Pike Creek GC in Wilmington closed last week after 35 years, I posted a news story but I didn't properly mourn the death in the family of golf.

 

I hadn't played Pike Creek in years, since it was Three Little Bakers.  I remember as a pleasant surprise of a golf course – an unassuming, delicious little gem.  As I noted in this positive review in the Inquirer, there was a time when the course did 40,000 rounds a year.  Not bad.  Unfortunately, those days were long gone.

 

If you want to know what killed Pike Creek, and what will kill other courses if they don't take care of business, check out this finger-pointing eulogy from Brad Myers in the Wilmington News-Journal.

Bill Sautter is the lone local survivor at the U.S. Senior Open.

 

Sautter, 54, teaching pro at Philadelphia Cricket Club, shot a second-round of 7-over 77, for a 150 total and made the cut on the number, 10-over.  His card and stats are here.

 

Amateurs Chris Lange (75-78, card) Buddy Marucci (76-82, card) and Mark Battista (91-81, card) missed the cut.

Of the four locals in the U.S. Senior Open, only one, amateur Mark Battista, shot himself out of the weekend during Thursday’s first round at Sahalee CC in Seattle.

 

Battista, 50, a former Moorestown, N.J. resident who now lives in Rancho Mirage, Calif., shot 21-over 91, leaving him tied for 154^th, last in the field.  Here is Battista’s card and stats.

 

The best round by a local was the 3-over 73 by Bill Sautter, teaching pro at Philadelphia Cricket Club, who is tied for for 29th.  His card and stats are here.

 

Amateurs Chris Lange, 55, from Bryn Mawr, and Buddy Marucci, 58, from Villanova, shot 5-over 75 and 6-over 76, respectively, leaving them tied for 55^th and 68th.  Here is Lange’s card and stats; here is Marucci’s.

There are three locals to keep an eye on in this week’s U.S. Senior Open, four if you count a former Moorestown, N.J., resident who still returns to the area several times a year to compete in tournaments.

 

Best known among the locals is amateur Buddy Marucci, 58, from Villanova, who captained the U.S. Walker Cup team to victories in 2007 and in 2009 at Merion GC, his home course.  A two-time Walker Cup player himself (1995 & ’97), Marucci is also the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur champion and runner-up to Tiger Woods in the 1995 U.S. Amateur.

 

This is Marucci’s third U.S. Senior Open; he missed the cut in his two previous efforts, in 2006 and 2009.

 

Chris Lange, 55, a real estate agent from Bryn Mawr, is a three-time Philadelphia Amateur champion, two-time Philadelphia Mid-Am champion and winner of the 2004 Philadelphia Open.

 

A member of Overbrook GC and Pine Valley, Lange is playing in his fourth U.S. Senior Open.  He missed the cut in his three previous appearances, in 2005, 2007 and 2009.

 

One local club pro made it into the field: Bill Sautter, 54, teaching pro at Philadelphia Cricket Club, who is playing in his second U.S. Senior Open.  He missed the cut in 2009.

 

Sautter didn’t start playing golf until he was 30, long after he was a two-time All-America in soccer at Temple and after he retired from a career in professional soccer.

 

Also in the field is amateur Mark Battista, 50, a Moorestown resident for eight years before moving to Rancho Mirage, Calif., in 2006.  A member of the Philadelphia Publinks, he returns to the area several times a year for PPGA events.