Bluffton’s Belfair pulls off PGA Pro Championship, with New Yorkers fighting for trophy

Birdies and bogeys in bunches spelled the difference in a razor-sharp race for the 52nd PGA Professional Championship that ended Wednesday at Belfair in Bluffton.

New York club professional Alex Beach rode a string of three consecutive birdies, paired with three straight bogeys by longtime rival Danny Balin of New York, to win the national championship of PGA club pros by two strokes.

Beach carded five birdies and two bogeys for a 3-under 69 in the money round that started out in a dead heat.

The assistant pro at the Westchester Country Club in Harrison, New York finished at 10-under 277 to Balin’s 8-under. Australia native Stuart Deane of Arlington, Texas, finished third at 4-under.

The nationally-televised, $650,000 tournament is the largest all-professional national championship in the game. It opened Sunday with a 312-player field of club professionals representing 45 states, and ended after four beautiful days of breezy, sunny Lowcountry weather.

Beach birdied holes 6, 7 and 8. When Balin bogeyed No. 9 Belfair’s West Course, Beach had a one-stroke lead at the turn.

Balin then bogeyed holes 10 and 11 to make it three in a row, and he never led again. He bounced back with birdies on holes 12 and 14, but Beach shot 1-under over the back nine to claim the Walter Hagen Cup.

Hosting the tournament, even with the help of 650 volunteers, was a giant undertaking for Belfair, a quiet, private residential community.

It has long been known for quality golf, boasting two Tom Fazio-designed golf courses and a 29-acre Golf Learning Center. Belfair completed a major East Course renovation as part of its long-term plan that will reinvest more than $20 million into the club and community over the next 10 years. The West Course is slated for similar improvements in 2020.

Belfair, managed by Troon Privé, won’t be taking much of a rest as it is preparing for one of the 30 tournaments it has each year, the spring member-member, which attracts 224 players. It gets underway May 3 and is the club’s largest, regularly-scheduled tournament. Later in May, Belfair will co-host the Annual Wounded Heroes Golf Classic.

It is only the third South Carolina course to host the PGA Professional Championship, which has a potential worldwide television audience of 110 million.

Beach, an ambidextrous 29-year-old, will have his name inscribed on the base of the PGA’s Walter Hagen Cup. Beach receives a replica of the crystal Walter Hagen Cup, which is 14½ inches high, 12 inches wide, and weighs 17½ pounds.

The champion also receives exemptions for the 2019 PGA Championship, 2019 PGA Cup, and six PGA Tour events over a 12-month period. The low 20 scorers in the championship earn a berth in the 2019 PGA Championship, May 16-19, at Bethpage Black in New York.

The championship has been conducted in 16 states in the previous 51 years: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin.

The list of champions over the past 51 years includes Sam Snead, Bob Rosburg, Ed Dougherty, Bruce Fleisher; Larry Gilbert; Rex Baxter Jr., Don Massengale, Laurie Hammer, Larry Webb, Bob Boyd, Brett Upper, Bruce Zabriski, Mike Small and Matt Dobyns.

In 1997, the 30th PGA Professional Championship was the first to be televised live by the Golf Channel to millions of viewers across the U.S., Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Malaysia, the Middle East, Scandinavia and Singapore. This year’s tournament had a potential audience of 110 million in 11 hours of air time.

This story was originally published May 1, 2019 at 6:16 PM.