PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida – It took Chad Proehl of Urbandale, Iowa, longer to warm up Friday morning than to win his first PGA Winter Championship at PGA Golf Club.
Proehl won the resumed playoff in the 50-to-64 Division of the Quarter Century Championship with a birdie on the first playoff hole, the par-4 10th on the Wanamaker Course, (and third overall). The playoff started Thursday night with seven players who finished at 5-under 139 but ended due to darkness after two holes with five players advancing.
Putting last after hitting an 8-iron to 6 feet, Proehl drained the birdie. “I won’t kid you, I was smiling pretty good when that ball went in,” said Proehl, the 56-year-old PGA Head Teaching Instructor at Sugar Creek Golf Course who also owns a winter home at PGA Golf Club.
“I came to the course expecting to play five or six holes today. I wasn’t thinking about one-and-done. I knew everybody was thinking the same way I was. It feels great to win my first PGA Winter Championship.”
The other players to make it to Friday’s playoff after finishing at 5-under 139: Jim Smoot (70) of Huntington, N.Y.; Bill Breen (70) of Nashville, Tenn.; Mike Small (73) of Champaign, Ill.; and Mark Anderson (74) of St. Simons Island, Ga.
On Thursday, Mike San Filippo of Hobe Sound, Fla., parred the first extra hole to beat Darrell Kestner of Glen Cove, N.Y., in the 65-and-older Division. Filippo rallied from three shots back with five holes left, thanks to birdies on the last two holes of the Ryder Course, including a holed bunker shot at No. 17.
Jim Sheerin of Rye, N.H., won the Half Century Championship with a 1-under 70 to edge two-time defending champion Roy Vucinich (71) of Moon Township, Pa., by a shot on the Ryder Course. Sheerin, a PGA Master Professional who retired from Abenaqui Country Club, made two birdies against a lone bogey to finish at even-par 142.
The PGA Winter Championships are presented by GolfPass and On Location. The PGA Senior Stroke Play Championship starts Sunday at PGA Golf Club.
— By Craig Dolch, Special to the PGA of America
