Claxton Wins National Senior Club Pro Championship; Chiles Ties for 16th

October 25, 2021 | 7 min.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Mark Mielke started the final round of the Senior PGA Professional (National Club Pro) Championship on Sunday with a one-shot lead over Paul Claxton. There was never more than one shot separating the two of them at any time during the round; so it seemed fitting that they ended up in a playoff for the title. 

In the end, Claxton won because he was able to make a pair of pars at the daunting, 440-yard, par-4 18th hole on the PGA Golf Club's Wanamaker Course. 

The first of those pars enabled Claxton to pull even with Mielke, who bogeyed the hole, and force the playoff. Unfortunately for Mielke, the playoff started at the 18th, and he bogeyed it again, this time the result of a three-putt. Claxton's second par on the hole in less than an hour made him the champion.

Claxton, 53, spent four years on the PGA Tour (1997, 2002, '05, '08), but never made enough money to retain full status for following year. He spent 12 years on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour (1995-96, '98-2001, '03-04, '06-07, '09-2010), during which time the tour changed its name twice. The Korn Ferry is the sixth name that what was originally called the Ben Hogan Tour has gone by -- Ben Hogan Tour (1990-92), Nike Tour ('93-99), Buy.com (2000-02), Nationwide ('03-2012), Web.com ('12-19), Korn Ferry ('19-present).

While he was at it, Claxton became the first player to earn more than $1 million on the Hogan/Nike/Buy.com/Nationwide/Web.com/Korn Ferry Tour.

He has been a club pro in his native Georgia since he gave up trying to get back on the Big Tour, but he earned one of the biggest checks of his career -- $26,000 -- on Sunday.

Claxton made two birdies and no bogeys in the final round on his way to a 2-under 70. That gave him a 72-hole total of 274 (13 under). Mielke, a 59-year-old teaching pro from Florida, arrived at the same number by way of a closing 71.

Mike Small, the head coach of the powerhouse golf team at the University of Illinois, was also in the hunt all the way to the finish line. He was paired with Mielke, and he was actually tied for the lead twice, but briefly both times. After Mielke missed his par putt at the 18th, Small had an 8-footer for birdie, which would have gotten him into the playoff. But he missed. The result was an 11th consecutive par, a 71 for the round, and he had to settle for third place at 275. 

Bob Sowards started the final round in 11th place, but a 66 moved him up seven spots, into a tie for fourth, along with Alan Morin, at 276. Morin shot 71. Omar Uresti, who won this tournament last year, was outside the top 10 going into the last day, but a 67 lifted him into seventh at 278.  

There were only two times when the lead changed hands during the final round, although Claxton did pull even with Mielke when he made a birdie on the first hole. Mielke regained sole possession of the lead when he birdied the sixth hole, and things stayed that way until Mielke bogeyed the 14th hole (440 yards, par 4) and fell back into a tie with Claxton.

Claxton, playing one group ahead of Mielke, then took the lead -- for about 12 minutes -- with a birdie at the 356-yard, par-4 15th. Mielke got back into a tie for first with a birdie of his own at the 15th, and he also birdied the 506-yard, par-5 16th, thereby reclaiming sole possession of the lead. He could have won the tournament with a par at the 18th, but he hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker and had to lay up with his second shot. His wedge shot didn't even get onto the same level on the green as the hole, and he did well just to two-putted for his bogey.

In the playoff, both players found the fairway with their tee shots, and they hit their second shots to within 3 feet of each other, about 30 feet from the cup. Neither of their birdie putts came close, and both had 6-footers for par, from opposite sides of the cup.    

Claxton, who had an uphill putt for his par, went first and made the putt. Mielke had a slippery downhill putt with enough brake to make it really scary, and he missed. 

As a kind of consolation, Mielke earned a spot in the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship (May 26-29 at Harbor Shores GC in Benton Harbor, Mich.), an event that's part of the PGA Tour Champions schedule. So did everyone who finished in the top 35 on Sunday. 

Among them was Eric Chiles, the teaching pro at Chaska Town Course. Chiles, who finished second to Angus Flanagan at the Tapemark Charity Pro-Am in June, turned 50 in August, and he had another second-place finish that month, in the State PGA Championship. He tied Thomas Vizina and 17-time Minnesota Section PGA Player of the Year Don Berry in that one, and Vizina won it on the second extra hole of a playoff.

But in Port St. Lucie, it was Chiles who led the Minnesota contingent. 

He was in seventh place after shooting 70 at the PGA Golf Club's Ryder course in the first round on Thursday and 69 at Wanamaker in the second on Friday. Everyone still in the tournament (there were cuts after 36 and 54 holes) played Wanamaker in each of the last two rounds, and Chiles had a 74 there on Saturday. That knocked him out of the top 10 -- and top 20, for that matter -- but he moved up eight places with a 70 on Sunday and ended up in a tie for 16th place with an overall 283. So he made the top 35 with three shots to spare.

Berry, who has been the Minnesota PGA Senior Player of the Year in each of the 10 years since he turned 50, made it to the KitchenAid Senior PGA in each of his first five tries (2013-17). In three of those years, he made the cut. He failed to qualify for 2018 or '19, but he was back in the top 35 at the Senior Club Pro Championship in the fall of 2019. That would have gotten him into the 2020 Senior PGA -- except that the tournament was never held, a victim of Covid 19.

This year, Berry came close but missed the top 35 in the National Club Pro by two shots. The 59-year-old longtime head pro at Edinburgh USA was one behind Chiles after three rounds, but while Chiles was putting together a 33 (3 under) on the front nine Sunday, Berry was putting up a 37. Bogeys at the 10th and 11th holes pretty much did him in. He birdied the 13th (551 yards, par 5), but had to settle for pars on each of the last five holes, and finished with a 74. That put him in a tie for 48th at 288.


33rd Senior PGA Professional Championship

At PGA Golf Club

Wanamaker Course -- par 72, 6,961 yards

& Ryder Course -- par 71, 6,730 yards

(Each player played one of his first two rounds at Ryder and one at Wanamaker. All the players still competing then played the last two rounds at Wanamaker)

Final results (the top 35 finishers qualified for the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, May 26-29 at Harbor Shores Golf Club in Benton Harbor, Mich.)


1. Paul Claxton, Georgia           68R-69W-67-70--274 (-13)

2. Mark Mielke, Florida              68W-68R-67-71--274

3. Mike Small, Illinois                 68W-68R-68-71--274

T4. Bob Sowards, Ohio             72R-71W-67-66--276

T4. Alan Morin, Florida              68W-66R-71-71--276

6. Rob Labritz, New York           69R-67W-66-75--277

7. Omar Uresti, Texas               70R-72W-69-67--278

T16. Eric Chiles, Chaska        70R-69W-74-70--283

T46. Don Berry, Rogers          70R-74W-70-74--288

54-hole cut: top 70 & ties -- 218 (11-way tie for 68th place)

Bill Israelson, Staples              75W-70R-78-- 223

36-hole cut: top 90 & ties -- 146 (15-way tie for 89th)

Jeff Kringen, Wayzata                 75-74--149

Scott Spence, Ohio                     76-74--150

Mike Barge, Chaska                   75-75--150

Tim Thelen, Texas                      76-75--151

Thomas Vizina, Owatonna        79-80--159



    



 

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