After waiting an extra year in between installments, area businesses have begun to see the return of their showcase events.
Now, it’s the Pennhills Club’s turn.
The club’s signature event, the annual Blaisdell Pro Am, returns after a pandemic-induced break in 2020. And, as per usual, six-dozen Class A pros will compete for the nation’s largest single-day purse of its kind.
“It’s our premier event. We prepare all year for it,” said Pennhills club professional John Rook. “This event is our showcase for Pennhills Club and for Bradford, for the area.”
The two-day contest will begin Monday when five-man teams, each composed of two professionals randomly paired with three amateurs, compete for prizes from a $20,000 purse. Six teams will be placed using gross scoring while six more and placed using net scoring.
Then, on Tuesday, 72 professionals will compete for a $100,000 purse, $50,000 of which will go to the tournament’s winner.
As Rook explained, only Class A professionals, the highest ranking for a club pro, are eligible to compete. Furthermore, the tournament is not open to certain tour players.
“It’s open to pros who are working at clubs all year, not those that are out on tour making money,” Rook said. “We don’t take vacations in the summer months, so this is my vacation. It’s something any pro in the area is working around on their calendar.”
Rook will compete both days, as each registered pro is required to do. Although this is Rook’s first year as Pennhills’ local pro, he has competed in the tournament before, and used to look forward to it each year.
“Guys in our position aren’t usually able to get out and travel to play, we’ve always got something going on in the summer months,” Rook said. “That purse makes them travel here.”
And it’s not just golfers from the Twin Tiers.
Out-of-state players will compete alongside local pros, including Dwayne Randall of Bartlett Country Club in Olean, who has won the event twice, most recently in 2019 when he shot a 6-under 64.
Bob Ford, former head club professional at Oakmont Country Club and Seminole Golf Club that Rook called the “poster child for golf professionals,” played in the last Blaisdell Pro Am.
“You get guys that play in the U.S. Open, guys that have played in the PGA Championship,” Rook said. “Guys that have played in major tournaments will come here to play. We get a good amount of golfers from Pittsburgh come up. It brings all these people to the area, which is really cool.”
The tournament, sponsored exclusively by Zippo Manufacturing Co., is named after George Blaisdell, the company’s founder. As Rook explained, Blaisdell’s grandson George Duke’s commitment to the tournament has powered its lucrative purse.
Monday’s Pro Am will begin shotgun style at 10 a.m., with scoring scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. before dinner and team awards are offered at 5:30.
Pro tee times begin at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, with the presentation of the winner scheduled for approximately 4 p.m.
