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FRISCO, Texas — Wyoming membership professional Ben Polland atoned from a crushing loss in 2015 with regular golf in a troublesome Texas wind, closing with a 4-over 76 for a three-shot victory Wednesday within the PGA Skilled Championship.
Polland and 19 different membership professionals advance to the PGA Championship on Might 16-19 at Valhalla Golf Membership in Louisville, Kentucky.
Amongst them will likely be Tracy Phillips, the longtime Oklahoma skilled who will make his PGA Championship debut in two weeks at age 61.
Wyatt Worthington II of Ohio will likely be enjoying the PGA Championship for the third straight yr by making it tougher than it wanted to be. He went from the 36-hole result in rounds of 78-80 and claimed the twentieth spot by making a 4-foot bogey putt on the par-5 18th at Fields Ranch.
Polland, the director of golf at Capturing Star of Jackson Gap, thought he had the PGA Skilled Championship received in his debut in 2015. He took a two-shot result in the ultimate gap and made a double bogey, whereas Matt Dobyns made birdie for a three-shot swing to win.
“With what occurred my first time, I at all times knew if I stored attempting laborious, working laborious, I might have an opportunity,” Polland mentioned. “I am unable to imagine it is finished.”
He had an early wobble with a double bogey on the par-4 fifth gap. However then, everybody was struggling in a powerful area on the West course.
Jeremy Wells of Crystal Lake Golf Membership in Estero, Florida, was the one participant to interrupt par. His 70 moved him from a tie for forty fifth to a tie for eighth, incomes a spot on the PGA Championship for the second straight yr.
As standard, a lot of the drama was on the backside within the battle for the ultimate spots.
Braden Shattuck, the defending champion from exterior Philadelphia, had not made a birdie the complete spherical and bogeys on the sixteenth and seventeenth gap put him into a big tie for twentieth. He reached the inexperienced in two on the downwind closing gap, and his two-putt birdie gave him a 78. The birdie additionally knocked out 5 gamers from a playoff that might have determined the twentieth spot.
Worthington prolonged the drama. He wanted solely a bogey on the 18th gap to safe a spot at Valhalla and hit iron off the tee to play it protected. However in a peculiar determination, he went for the inexperienced and got here up brief right into a hazard. He took a penalty drop, hit wedge for his fourth shot some 30 ft lengthy and rolled the par putt 4 ft by.
Worthington made the bogey putt for an 80, pulled his cap over his eyes and breathed a heavy sigh after a tough last 36 holes.
It was the second straight yr the PGA Skilled Championship didn’t require a playoff to find out the sphere of 20 membership execs who earn spots at Valhalla.
Phillips is director of instruction at Cedar Ridge in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which has hosted LPGA Tour and LIV Golf occasions. Golf Digest rated him the No. 1 junior in 1979, and he went on to play at Oklahoma State. However after attempting to play abroad, he switched to educating and went 20 years with out enjoying till his need returned.
He performed with Ernie Els within the Senior PGA Championship two years in the past and known as {that a} dream come true.
“Now I get to play with the youthful guys and hit much more woods into greens than I did this week,” Phillips mentioned. “Simply to have the ability to do that is unbelievable.”
The PGA Championship may have 21 membership execs. Michael Block of California tied for thirty ninth at Fields Ranch. He already was exempt for the PGA Championship from ending within the high 15 final yr at Oak Hill.
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