In the 2000s, 2007 PGA Professional Champion Chip Sullivan has the best
Being among the ‘Team of 20,’ is an accomplishment in itself for PGA Professionals, meaning they qualified for the PGA Championship by finishing among the top 20 in the PGA Professional Championship.
At Kiawah Island, it’s shaping up to be a particularly special weekend for Ben Cook and Brad Marek.
Cook, a professional from Caledonia, Michigan, and Marek, from Corica Park, California, were the only two PGA Professionals to make the 36-hole cut at Kiawah.
While they’ll be battling it out this weekend to see who will be awarded as the low-PGA Professional, they also have the chance to finish inside the top 30 – something a PGA Professional hasn’t done since Bob Boyd finished T30 in 1994.
Cook made the cut on the number at 5-over par on Friday. Halfway through his round on Saturday, cook was 3 under and had jumped 29 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for 34th.
Marek, meanwhile, was at 2 over through 36 holes and tied for 32nd before his third round was set to begin at 11:30 a.m.
Since 1980, only four PGA Professionals have finished inside the top 30 at the PGA Championship, with Boyd doing twice. Here they are, in chronological order:
- 1986, Lonnie Nielsen, T11 (best finish by a PGA Professional)
- 1988, Jay Overton, T17
- 1990, Bob Boyd, T19
- 1992, Tom Wargo, T28
- 1994, Bob Boyd, T30
finish by a PGA Professional in the PGA Championship with his T31 in 2004.
