Most PGA of America Members remember their first PGA Professional Championship experience vividly. Maybe it’s because so many others don’t get that opportunity.
“I remember how hard I worked to qualify for my first one,” says Alex Beach, the 2019 Champion who is the Director of Sales at Tremont Sporting Company, based in West Palm Beach, Florida. “It’s definitely the one tournament a year I take seriously. I’m comfortable and I know what to expect. Being comfortable in that kind of environment is challenging.”
Talk about being in a comfort zone: In his eight previous PGA Professional Championships, the left-handed Beach has qualified for six PGA Championships.
Just getting a tee time in the PGA Professional Championship is golf-clap worthy. Do the math: With more than 30,000 PGA of America Members, the field represents barely 1 percent of the Association.
“Playing at the highest level with the peers I work with means a lot,” says Nick Latimore, a PGA Assistant Professional at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, less than 30 miles from PGA Golf Club. “I expect to play well and have a chance to qualify for the PGA (Championship). I’m used to playing off Bermuda and these conditions, and I think the conditions are going to matter.”
While Sowards’ main objective is to become the seventh player to win multiple PGA Professional Championships – Small, Dobyns, Omar Uresti, Tim Thelen, Larry Gilbert and Roger Watson are the others – Sowards has secondary goals.
“My biggest motivation is to make one more PGA Cup Team before I’m done,” says the 56-year-old Sowards. “I also want to qualify for my 12th PGA, which would tie me for the all-time lead with Steve Schneiter.”
Few players in the field have more experience at PGA Golf Club than Sowards. He has won more PGA Tournament Series Events and PGA Winter Championships than he can remember. He also won the 2018 Senior PGA Professional Championship at PGA Golf Club.
“I have played these courses in every condition, and I don’t think there’s a putt on the greens that I haven’t had before,” explains Sowards, who was T22 last year after undergoing knee-replacement surgery and his doctor advising him not to play. “I’m very comfortable and confident on those courses.”
As usual, the field is loaded with former champions, but Dylan Newman and Domenico Geminiani hope to join that exclusive group. This pair has dominated the PGA Tournament Series recently and each won the PGA Stroke Play Championship the last two years.
“There’s something about this place, the great courses, the energy, the people, that brings out the best in my game,” says Geminiani, a PGA Assistant Professional at Old Corkscrew near Naples, Florida.
But local success doesn’t always translate into the PGA Professional Championship, Newman learned.
“I was licking my chops coming here in ’21,” says Newman, a PGA of America Assistant Professional at Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, New York. “I definitely assumed too much, ended up missing the cut, which definitely hurt. I learned it’s not a factor if I know the course; it’s if my game is good and my head is in the right place.”
Polland is more concerned about his game being in the right place. To that end, he will use one of his PGA TOUR exemptions from last year’s win to play in the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic the week before.
“You get once chance to defend your title,” Polland said, “and you might as well make the best of it.”
