Mike Townsend (pictured), PGA Head Professional from Kiawah Island Club’s Cassique course, bested a field of 144 PGA club professionals from throughout North Carolina and South Carolina to win the 2015 Carolinas PGA (CPGA) Section Championship, held July 28-30 at Grande Dunes Resort Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Townsend’s 54-hole score of 12-under-par 204 was four shots clear of Charles Frost of Kiawah Island Club’s River course, and six shots ahead of third-place finishers Derek Easter of Chicora Golf & Country Club and Jerry Haas, coach of Wake Forest University’s men’s golf team, former PGA Tour player and brother of PGA Tour star Jay Haas.
Townsend, Frost, Easter and Haas were among the CPGA Section Championship’s top nine finishers whose scores earned them coveted spots in the 2016 PGA Professional National Championship (PNC) next June at Turning Stone Resort in Verona, New York.
All PGA PNC qualifiers will join a 2016 field of 312 PGA professionals from throughout the country competing for one of 20 spots in the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. The PGA Championship is one of professional golf’s four major events, featuring a prize purse of more than $10 million.
Townsend’s win also earned him a $9,500 share of the $72,000 total prize purse, and his choice of entry in either the 2016 Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C. or Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C.
Ryan Tyndall (-2), PGA Head Professional at The Reserve Golf Club in Pawleys Island and former first assistant at Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club and Pine Lakes Country Club, was the top local area finisher and earned the first alternate spot on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff. The CPGA Section Championship’s first alternate is the second national alternate for the 2016 PGA PNC at Turning Stone.
Sunny, warm and dry conditions greeted the field for each of the CPGA Section Championship’s three days of competition. Officials and competitors alike lauded the superior conditioning and tournament setup of the Roger Rulewich design at Grande Dunes Resort Club – another notch in the belt of a staff led by PGA professional Matt Daly, whose course and team also co-hosted the 2014 PGA PNC along with The Dunes Golf & Beach Club.
