Greenville, Del. – The Philadelphia PGA held their annual Connelly Cup – Head Professional Championship at Fieldstone Golf Club on Monday, May 2. This annual tournament is named in honor of Jack Connelly a past President of both the Philadelphia PGA and the PGA of America. This year’s event brought together more than 50 of the Section’s Head Professionals and despite a chilly and overcast start, the tournament finished under blue skies.

Today’s tournament was played as a shotgun allowing all players to start their rounds at the same time. As the tournament concluded and players started to turn in their cards, two players were able to separate themselves from the field. Stu Ingraham (M Golf Range) and Dave McNabb (Applebrook Golf Club) each posted a tournament best 4-under-par (67) meaning the 2016 edition of the Connelly Cup would be decided with a playoff.

Ingraham reach 4-under-par by playing a bogey-free round while adding three birdies on the front nine and adding a fourth on the par-3 16^th. McNabb was able to get to 4-under-par by carding five birdies against only one bogey. McNabb got off to torrid start with birdies on his first three holes.

Needing to break the tie both Ingraham and McNabb headed back out to the 18^th tee box for the start of the sudden death playoff. Both Ingraham and McNabb posted a par on the first playoff hole forcing the tournament into a second sudden death hole. After hitting his approach shot only a few feet from the pin McNabb was able to make his birdie putt securing his first tournament win of the 2016 season.

“This is a place where I feel very comfortable and I definitely have some good memories here after last year’s Championship,” commented 2016 Connelly Cup champion McNabb. “I started off with three straight birdies and that definitely got me into a groove. I made some great putts and couldn’t have asked for a better pairing for today’s round.”

All was not lost for Ingraham as he was able to capture the tournament’s Senior division title.

Finishing just one shot off the lead in solo third place was George Forster (Radnor Valley Country Club). Starting on the sixth hole, Forster carded two quick birdies on holes seven and eight. Forster also added birdies on the second and seventeenth holes. Unfortunately for Forster a bogey on the par-4 fourteenth kept him out of the playoff.

Special congratulations to Hugh Matthis (Tavistock Country Club) on recording his first career hole-in-one. Matthis accomplished the feat on the difficult par-3 13^th hole by hitting a 6-iron on the 190 yards long hole.

The Section would like to thank all of our tournament sponsors, Bushnell, Pukka and section Representative Jim Ravina, Country Club Editions and Kurt Shenk as well as new Philadelphia PGA sponsor Weatherbug. The next tournament on the Philadelphia PGA calendar is the Delaware Valley Open (DVO) on Monday, May 9 at Concord Country Club. BlueGolf News