For the first time in the 105-year history of the PGA Championship, three assistant pros from the same golf club played their way into the tournament.
That club is John’s Island.
The three assistant pros are Tyler Collet, Brett Walker and Ben Cook, all of whom finished in the top 10 of the 312-player qualifying event held April 25-28 at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie.
The John’s Island trio earned three of the 20 berths reserved for PGA of America club pros in the 2021 PGA Championship, which will be played next weekend on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
“This is special,” John’s Island Golf Director Steve Hudson said. “It’s not just that we’ve got three of 20, or even three of 312. It’s three of 28,000 PGA club pros. And to have all three finish among the top eight? That’s unbelievable.
“Our members are very excited and very proud.”
John’s Island members are so enthused, in fact, that more than 350 of them have contributed to a newly created fund that will cover the costs of the pros’ housing, meals and caddies for the tournament.
Former Sports Illustrated editor and publisher Mark Mulvoy, a John’s Island member and accomplished amateur golfer, launched the fundraising effort last week via email and was overwhelmed by the response.
“I wrote to the membership, and we exceeded our goal on the first day,” Mulvoy said. “We’ve since almost tripled it.”
The money raised wasn’t merely for the three pros competing in the PGA Championship, Mulvoy said, but for any John’s Island assistant who competes in future state and national events and needs help with expenses.
“We have enough to take care of our assistant golf pros for many years,” Mulvoy said, adding that the members gave $20,000 to Collet, Walker and Cook for this trip.
Mulvoy is planning to invite members to join via Zoom an interview with the three pros on the eve of the tournament and provide daily reports on how they played in each round.
He said he’s also sent an email alerting Jim Nantz – who will be anchoring CBS Sports’ coverage of the PGA Championship – of the history made by the John’s Island’s assistant pros.
“Let’s see if he’ll give us some play,” Mulvoy said.
Hudson said several club members are making the trip to South Carolina, and that he plans to be there Tuesday through Thursday to support his assistants.
“Having three of our guys in the field of a major championship certainly puts our club, and especially our golf program, in a very positive light,” Hudson said. “It helps elevate us as a club from a recruitment standpoint as we develop and grow our staff.”
All three pros work at the John’s Island West Course.
Cook claimed his spot by finishing third in last month’s 72-hole PGA Club Pro Championship, while Collet and Walker finished in a tie for 8th place.
Cook, who played in the 2019 and 2020 PGA Championships, was in second place at the start of the final round but stumbled out of the gate with a double bogey on the first hole and bogeys on the second and fourth. He quickly regrouped, however, and finished with birdies on Nos. 15, 16 and 17.
Walker started the final round 2-over par and believed he needed to shoot a 2-under 70 to get into a playoff for one of the 20 available slots in the PGA Championship.
After cruising through the front nine with a 2-under 34, he made nervy putts to save par on Nos. 14, 15 and 18 to get to even par for the tournament – and it proved to be good enough to punch his ticket to Kiawah Island.
Collet, coming off a February appearance in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open, was at even-par after three rounds, but he went to the 18th hole of the final round needing a birdie to stay even and get into the PGA Championship field, or at least a playoff.
He hit a perfect drive and an 8-iron shot that stopped five feet from the hole, then sank the putt that put him in a tie with Walker.
“All of us had a pretty good season and went into the tournament playing well,” Collet said, “so, yeah, I really thought we could do it.”
The qualifying tournament was televised by the Golf Channel, and Hudson, watching on the computer in his office, joined dozens of members in the audience.
He said he knew his assistants were playing well, so much so that, “Going in, I thought any one of them could win the event.” But it wasn’t until all three were well-positioned after the first two rounds that he began thinking they’d all get in.
“These guys are working club pros,” Hudson said. “Tyler and Brett worked 40-plus hours a week all season, and Ben worked 20 to 30 hours a week. So, finding time to play and practice while handling an overload of duties these past weeks hasn’t been easy.
“But because they have a strong desire to play – and because we have a team that supports each other – we’re able to give them some flexibility,” he added. “Obviously, they’ve made the most of it.”
And made history in the process.
