Happy Ending

Steve Schneiter of Utah, whose family has a long history in the PGA Championship, tamed the killer closing hole at Baltusrol on Sunday en route to finishing with the low score among the four PGA Professionals who made the cut. 

Marino Parascenzo, Special to PGA.com

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -- The PGA Professionals participating in the 87th PGA Championship over the past week will take any number of memories home with them from Baltusrol, but none sweeter that Steve Schneiter's remembrances of the par-5 18th. In fact, all he wanted was to grab up the 18th, all 554 yards of it, and take it home.

"I'd like to," Schneiter said, with a wry grin.

Schneiter, 41, of Schneiter's Pebblebrook Golf Links in Sandy, Utah, eagled the closing hole for the second time this week on Sunday to lock up low-score honors among the four club professionals who played all four rounds. He finished with an even-par 70 and a 6-over total of 286.

"Well, I finally hit a good drive," Schneiter said. "I had 187 or 189 [yards] to carry on to the front of the green, and I hit 6-iron and ended up being close, and made the putt."

In this case, "being close" meant 3 feet. In the first round, he hit driver and a 5-iron to 15 feet. He played it in two 5s in the middle rounds.

Schneiter took low-PGA Professional honors by three over Ron Philo Jr. of the Kittansett Club in Marion, Mass., who finished with 72-289 with his little sister, LPGA Tour star Laura Diaz, serving as his caddie all week.

Mike Small, the University of Illinois golf coach and reigning PGA Club Professional Champion, wrapped up with 73-295, and Darrell Kestner, the head professional at Deepdale Golf Club in Manhassett, N.Y., closed at 79-299.

The soft-spoken Schneiter tried to find words to describe what it was like to play in the PGA Championship, and he finally settled for, "It's pretty overwhelming. It's big -- it's big!"

Schneiter made a strong comeback from a shaky start. He bogeyed the first two holes, and after a birdie at the par-4 No. 3, he double-bogeyed the par-4 No. 5. He followed with bogey-birdie at the next two holes to make the turn in 3-over 37.

He was solid coming in -- a birdie at the 13th, then the eagle at the 18th. And was it a race with his fellow club professionals?

"I really had no idea what the other guys were doing," he said. "I figured eveything would take care of itself if I just played my game."

Schneiter joins his family in the annals of the PGA Championship. His grandfather, George Sr., reached the semifinals of the 1944 PGA Championship (it was a match-play tournament then) where he lost, 1-up, to Bob Hamilton, the eventual winner. Schneiter was the tournament manager of what was then the Tournament Players Association, forerunner of today's PGA Tour. His father, George Jr., also a PGA member, is the owner of Pebblebrook.

Small's day was one of the most unusual of the championship -- one bogey, one double-bogey, and 16 pars. "So really, the way I hit it this week, it's positive," Small said. "It's positive I made the cut, it's positive I finished because I didn't hit it that good. To gut it out and shoot 73 today ? it's a positive experience."

Philo summed up his entire PGA Championship with a grin: "Well, I finally parred No. 3." That third hole, a brute of a par 4 at 503 yards, ruined him. He bogeyed it in the first two rounds, and double-bogeyed it in the third. Then he found the answer.

"I hit it in the fairway, I hit it on the green, I two-putted," Philo said.

For his part, Kestner just shrugged. The heat had been brutal.

"I'm not making excuses, but it was hard -- hard to keep concentration and hard to keep your swing under control," said Kestner, at age 52 the oldest PGA Professional in the field.

"I'm totally exhausted," he said. "I don't know how these PGA Tour guys do it. How in the world do they play a couple practice rounds, four rounds in a tournament?"

Still, there was the satisfaction. "Just making the cut in both PGAs -- the Senior [PGA Championship earlier this summer] and this one."

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