Champion can earn a spot in the 2024 PGA Professional Championship at PGA Frisco next April
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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – The 2023 National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship is set to begin Nov. 16-19 at PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
The 132-player field includes PGA of America Assistant Professionals (A-8 membership classification) or registered Assistant Professional Associates (B-8 classification) who earned berths through their local PGA Sections.
Players are competing for a $165,000 purse including the Champion’s share of $12,500. The four-day, 72-hole stroke play Championship will be cut to the low 70 players and ties after two rounds.
Alan Morin has played in six PGA Championships and three KitchenAid Senior PGA Championships. Morin, a PGA Assistant at The Club at Ibis in West Palm Beach, Florida, feels that this National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship is just as important as the other Member Championships he has played in.
“It’s our major,” said Morin. “It’s usually one of my goals at the beginning of the year. There are a lot of really good playing Assistants, and we all get an opportunity to qualify for it. And when we do make it, we have a nice opportunity to showcase our playing skills as PGA Professionals.”
Morin, one of six players in the field from the host South Florida PGA Section, returns to PGA Golf Club just three weeks after he finished T-20 at the Senior PGA Professional Championship, earning a spot on the Corebridge Financial PGA Team in the 2024 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship to be held May 23-26 at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
In addition to Morin, the field includes 10 other past Corebridge PGA Team members who have played in previous PGA Championships: Peter Ballo (Stamford, Connecticut), Alex Beach (Stamford, Connecticut), Frank Bensel (Jupiter, Florida), Andrew Filbert (Naples, Florida), Larkin Gross (Center Cross, Virginia), Colin Inglis (Creswell, Oregon), Eric Manning (Cortland, New York), Dylan Newman (New Rochelle, New York), Zac Oakley (King of Prussia, Pennsylvania) and Casey Pyne (Greenwich, Connecticut). Beach (2019) and Bensel (2010, 2011, 2013) are the only past National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Champions in the field.
Gross, the Assistant Golf Professional at Springfield Golf & Country Club in Virginia, was the PGA Professional Player of the Year in 2021. He returns for his fourth straight National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship following a T-6 finish last year.
“The Assistant Championship is one of those events you circle on your calendar at the beginning of the year, and it’s great to be able to compete in it again,” said Gross. “It’s always great to get a chance to play a great test of golf, and typically the Assistant Championship is one of the best.”
Others in the field include Sandra Changkija, from Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate in the North Florida PGA Section, and Ashley Grier, from Yinglings Golf Center in Hagerstown, Maryland. Changkija, the 2022 Women’s PGA Professional Player of the Year, returns to PGA Golf Club where she has won three consecutive Women’s PGA Stroke Play Championships (2021-23). Grier was a member of the victorious 2022 U.S. Women’s PGA Cup Team.
The Champion, provided they’re eligible, will earn a spot in the 2024 PGA Professional Championship at PGA Frisco’s Fields Ranch next April. The top four finishers and ties will earn exemptions into the 2024 National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship.
PGA Golf Club has hosted a variety of PGA of America events, including the 2021 PGA Professional Championship and 2003 PGA Cup, as well as numerous Senior PGA Professional Championships, National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championships, PGA WORKS Collegiate Championships, PGA Winter Championships and the PGA Tournament Series.
For more about the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship, visit here.
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Media Contact
Greg Dillard, PGA of America, 561-308-8013, gdillard@pgahq.com
Alan Cox, PGA of America, 972-214-8274, acox@pgahq.com
