Met Area Pros Competing at PGA Championship
Alex Beach
UPDATE (May 20, 2021) -- Alex Beach led the Met Area's five professionals on day one of the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island with a 3-over 75. The Westchester Country Club professional's round was the tied for the third lowest among the 20 club professionals in the field.
Related: PGA Championship Home
Rob Labritz of GlenArbor and former Deepdale professional and Met Open champion Ben Polland both carded 4-over 76s, standing as two of four club professionals posting that number. Labritz round was highlighted by a lengthy birdie putt on the par-3 15th, while he also added a birdie on the par-5 seventh.
Danny Balin of Fresh Meadow posted 7-over 79, while Pete Ballo of Silvermine and Frank Bensel of Century rounded out Met Area representatives with scores of 80 and 86 on the challenging Ocean Course.
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (May 19, 2021) -- The 2021 PGA Championship begins Thursday with over 156 professionals competing on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island. Viewers can expect to see a lot of representation from the Met Area as five local professionals qualified and will tee it up in South Carolina. Frank Bensel, Alex Beach, Danny Balin, Rob Labritz and Peter Ballo all finished inside the top 20 at the PGA Professional Championship in Port St. Lucie, Fla., last month to qualify for the PGA Championship.
Related: PGA Championship Home
Century Country Club's Bensel finished solo second at 8-under at the PGA Professional Championship, three strokes behind winner Omar Uresti. The finish is the best in his career in 17 starts. While Bensel native led at the conclusion of the first round on the Ryder Course, he had to overcome a shaky start on the Wanamaker Course in round two by finishing with three late birdies.
The 53-year-old Bensel acknowledged the challenge in the second-round. “It was a struggle at times, but I played decent and I did what I had to do to shoot a good score," Bensel told Golf Week. "Omar and I have been competing for a long time as club professionals, and that allows you to keep your game sharp."
The last time Bensel played in the PGA Championship was 2012, which also took place at Kiawah Island. Bensel has said that Kiawah is the "hardest golf course in the country" and remembered his 2012 trip there fondly, telling the PGA, "One of the fun memories was being in the locker room with all of the touring pros. I remember having a locker near Phil Mickelson and talking with him about putters so that was pretty neat."
Beach of Westchester Country Club finished in a two-way tie at 1-under par, finishing 6th at Port St. Lucie. The 2019 PGA Professional Championship winner is making his third PGA Championship appearance. In the final round of this year's PGA Professional Championship, Beach shot 2-under 70 to jump 22 spots up the leaderboard and secure his spot in the field this week.
Fresh Meadow Country Club's Balin finished just behind Beach at even-par. Balin also needed a strong final round to finish in the top 20 and came up clutch by shooting 2-under 70 and jumping an enormous 26 spots up the leaderboard to finish in a tie for 8th place. The former Met Open champion is making his 8th PGA Championship start and has now finished inside the top 20 in all 7 of his PGA Professional Championship appearances.
Labritz also finished even-par to advance to Kiawah Island. Labritz is no stranger to the PGA championship as this will be the 7th appearance in the competition for the GlenArbor Director of Golf. Back in 2019 at Bethpage Black, Labritz earned Low Club Professional honors for the second time in his career. He is also a three time New York State Open Champion, so Rob Labritz is definitely a name to keep on your radar at Kiawah.
Another even-par finisher at the PGA Professional Championship was Silvermine Golf Club's Ballo. The 29-year-old Stamford, Conn., resident battled back after an opening round 78. Ballo followed that by carding rounds of 67-72-70 to comfortably make a top 20 finish and earn his first start in a major championship.
Ben Polland is another familiar name that advanced to Kiawah Island. The former Deepdale professional and Met Open champion, now working out of Shooting Star in Wyoming, finished in solo fifth at 3-under.
| Starting Times | Thursday | Friday |
| Danny Balin | 12:25 p.m.* | 7:00 a.m. |
| Peter Ballo | 2:31 p.m. | 9:06 a.m.* |
| Alex Beach | 12:41 p.m. | 7:16 a.m.* |
| Frank Bensel | 12:30 p.m. | 7:05 a.m.* |
| Rob Labritz | 7:16 a.m.* | 12:41 p.m. |
| Ben Polland | 7:05 a.m.* | 12:30 p.m. |
| * denotes 10th tee start |