JASON CARBONE WINS SECTION TITLE; FOUR OTHERS ALSO QUALIFY FOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Jason Carbone had no game plan.
The head professional at Canterbury Golf Club had no make-or-break number that he felt he needed to shoot.
He formulated no special hole-by-hole strategy that he felt he had to employ and certainly no thoughts of how he was going to play the 12th hole when he was standing on the third tee.
“Honestly, all I tried to do was stick with my routine,” he said. “No game plan. I just wanted to stick with my routine. I had a certain tempo I was trying to keep that would keep me in each shot and not let me get ahead of myself. The only plan I had was to keep trying to get it under (par).”
It all worked.
On a day when sub-par scores were harder to come by than a winning Mega Millions lottery ticket, Carbone shot a final-round 74 and won the 73rd Professional Championship at testy Tippecanoe Golf Club by one stroke over Jim Troy, a two-time defending champion. Troy, a coaching and teaching professional at the Golf Dome, finished at 74-71-71-216.
Shawnee Country Club head professional Steve Mulcahy (75-71-72-218) was third. PGA Life Member and former Ohio Open champ Dennis Miller (72-73-73) was fourth and two former champions – Beechmont Country Club head professional Jaysen Hansen (71-74-74-219) and Pepper Pike Club head professional Rob Moss (71-75-74-220) was fifth.
By virtue of their finish, Carbone, Troy, Mulcahy, Hansen and Moss qualify for the 56th PGA Professional Championship next spring at Fields Ranch at PGA Frisco in Frisco, Texas.
As a PGA Life Member Miller is not eligible for the national Club Pro event.
So, how testy was the 96-year-old, Donald Ross design?
Only four players in the final field of 28 – Troy, Mulcahy, Youngstown Country Club assistant professional Jon Jones and Nick Paez were able to equal or break par.
Paez, owner and director of instruction at GolfTec, had the day’s best round and equaled the best round of the tournament with a 3-under 69. Jones and Mulcahy each shot 72.
“This place can do it to you,” Carbone said. “It is tight.”
Four alternates were to be chosen but a playoff was suspended when a rainstorm, accompanied by lightning, swept through the area. It was determined that Paez is the third alternate and Brookside Country Club head professional Cory Kumpf was the fourth.
Carbone said his only goal this week was to get to Frisco and that was mission accomplished for the fifth time in his career.
“That’s my goal every year,” he said. “It is such a cool event. I’ve made it four times (previous) but was only able to play in three because of Covid in 2020.”
The victory was Carbone’s first since joining the NOPGA in March of 2022 when he took the job at Canterbury.
You can’t win if you don’t play and Carbone’s playing schedule has been curtailed. He did not pick up a club in June and played just one competitive round in July.
“We have been very busy,” he said.
Ah, the life of many club professionals.
Carbone’s day was pretty stress-free until the final two holes. Only Mulcahy – early in the round – and Troy – on the back nine – were able to apply any pressure and Carbone survived despite making bogey on 17 and 18.
“I really didn’t think I missed a shot on either of those holes,” he said. “Mentally it was good. Physically I felt good. I might have got out of rhythm a little bit, started rushing, maybe because of the storm.”
Carbone began the day on top of the leaderboard and after a brief hiccup on the second hole he reeled off five pars and an eagle over his next six holes.
The 485-yard, par-5 seventh was a popular target for the entire field. It yielded four eagles, 46 birdies and 78 pars while playing to a stroke average of 4.81, the lowest of Tippecanoe’s four par-5s.
A solid drive and 4-iron from 211 yards got him to within four feet.
“Those were two of my best shots of the day,” he said. “The seventh starts a stretch in which you can get a lot of short clubs in your hand — seven, eight, 10, 11 and 12 — all let get into short clubs.
He bogeyed the ninth but then made four straight routine pars, followed by a birdie on the 547-yard 14th with another solid drive and an even more solid hybrid to six feet.
By then, Mulcahy had slipped back after a marvelous front nine which he turned in 4-under 32 with two birdies and the required eagle on seven. However, bogeys at 12 and 14 caused a derailment.
About the time Mulcahy was faltering, Troy was heating up. The 4-time NOPGA Player-of-the-Year birdied 10, 12 and the par-3 16th with a clutch 10-footer. A bogey on 17 cost him but he went down fighting by making about a 30-footer for birdie on 18.
PHOTO GALLERY: 2023 NOPGA Professional Championship RD3 >
FINAL RESULTS: Northern Ohio PGA
2023 NOPGA Professional Championship
Tippecanoe Country Club, Canfield, Ohio
Mon-Wed, August 21-23, 2023
Blue Golf Hole-by-Hole Leaderboard >
1 Jason Carbone* Canterbury Golf Club 71-70-74–215 -1 $5,000.00
2 Jim Troy* The Golf Dome 74-71-71–216 E $2,500.00
T3 Steve Mulcahy* Shawnee Country Club 75-71-72–218 +2 $1,800.00
T3 Dennis Miller PGA Of America Life Member 72-73-73–218 +2 $1,800.00
5 Jaysen Hansen* Beechmont Country Club 71-74-74–219 +3 $1,300.00
6 Rob Moss* Pepper Pike Club 71-75-74–220 +4 $1,100.00
T7 Nick Paez GolfTEC – Cleveland West 73-79-69–221 +5 $916.67
T7 Anthony Panepento Canterbury Golf Club 75-70-76–221 +5 $916.67
T7 Jordan Schroeder Findlay Country Club 74-69-78–221 +5 $916.67
T10 Jon Jones Youngstown Country Club 72-78-72–222 +6 $775.00
*-PGA Professional Championship Qualifying Players
Did Not Qualify:
T10 Cory Kumpf Brookside Country Club 73-74-75–222 +6 $775.00
T12 Mark Sierak Optimus Golf 73-74-76–223 +7 $650.00
T12 Garrett Korte Northern Ohio PGA 75-73-75–223 +7 $650.00
T12 Mark Scott Jr. Westwood Country Club 77-70-76–223 +7 $650.00
T15 Nick Gustin Erie Shores Golf Course 73-75-76–224 +8 $525.00
T15 Kevin Quinn The Country Club 73-72-79–224 +8 $525.00
T17 Tom Waitrovich PGA Of America Life Member 75-74-76–225 +9 $462.50
T17 Drew Pierson The Clubhouse 75-72-78–225 +9 $462.50
19 Randy Dietz Windmill Golf Center 70-76-80–226 +10 $425.00
T20 Gary Rusnak 1899 Golf, CLE East 77-76-75–228 +12 $387.50
T20 Collin McEndree Club Walden 73-79-76–228 +12 $387.50
T22 Steve Bordner The Country Club 78-73-78–229 +13 $337.50
T22 Tom Atchison PGA Of America Life Member 77-75-77–229 +13 $337.50
24 Brett Coluccio Area 419 Golf 79-72-79–230 +14 $300.00
25 David Morgan Westfield Group Country Club 75-76-80–231 +15 $275.00
26 Jordan Paolini Shaker Heights Country Club 74-75-84–233 +17 $250.00
27 Sean Patrick Tippecanoe Country Club 76-77-82–235 +19 $250.00
28 Gary Trivisonno PGA Of America Life Member 74-79-84–237 +21 $250.00
