Parker Wins Senior Professional Championship; Pollack, Moss & Adcock Earn Qualifying Spots
By Tim Rogers
NOPGA Media
Mansfield: Steve Parker will admit that patience over the years has not been one of his stronger points during an otherwise successful career in the Northern Ohio Professional Golfers Association.
It will be begrudgingly, but he will eventually say it and agree at his lack of patience – some will call it golfing swagger – hasn’t been one of his rules to live by.
But that was the old – or the young – Steve Parker.
The Steve Parker of this day and age had plenty of patience over two days and 36 holes and won the 40th NOPGA Senior Professional Championship at an extremely windy and testy Westbrook Country Club.
Parker, 57, put the finishing touches on two exquisite rounds of golf on Tuesday, adding a 2-under 70 to his opening 3-under, bogey-free, 69 and a three-shot victory.
Scott Pollack and 2023 champion Mike Stone finished tied for second at 2-under 142 and 2022 champ Rob Moss was fourth at one-under 143.Pollack, General Manager of 1899 Indoor Golf in Twinsburg, and Stone, Director of Instruction at Belmont Country Club in Maumee, both had identical rounds of 71 and Moss, Head Professional at the Pepper Pike Club, went 71-72.
All four qualified to play in the 36th National Professional Championship, to be held next month in Sunriver, Ore. Because Stone is exempt to that tournament, Tony Adcock (74-70) will also advance after beating PGA Life Member and four-time winner Gary Trivisonno (73-71) in a playoff for the final qualifying spot.
Trivisonno becomes the first alternate and PGA Life Members Tom Waitrovich (70-75) and Tom Atchison (72-74) and Canterbury Golf Club Head Professional Jason Carbone (71-77) fill the remaining alternate spots.
Parker, a teaching professional at Portage Country Club after a long service as the Director of Golf, was a 3-shot runner-up to Stone last year.
Not so this year as he led from start to finish, taking a one-shot lead after the first round and staying bogey-free until the 12th hole.
“With the wind it was hard to be aggressive,” said Parker. “There were times you would be standing over the be all and the wind would gust or start coming from a different direction. I just wanted to play smart, not do anything stupid, and stay away from making mistakes.”
When asked if a lack of patience has not been one of his virtues, Parker laughed and said, “I guess that’s in the eye of the beholder. But with experience comes patience. I have had to learn to be patient, especially in tournaments with more than one round.”
After making the turn at 4-under for the tournament, Parker birdied the 11th and 13th holes — sandwiching a bogey on the 456-yard 12th — to get to 5-under.
He was unaware that Stone, his nearest competitor, had bogeyed 13 and 14 to fall to one-under.
“I didn’t know it until I was on the 16th tee,” Parker said.
From that point on he played for a safe neighborhood known as the middle of the green. The fat side of the green is a good place to be.
“The last thing you want to do on this course is get above the hole or short-side yourself,” he said.
He was below the hole on the 369-yard 16th and applied the clincher by rolling in a 35-foot, left-to-right putt that broke about five feet for his fourth birdie of the day. A bogey on the 18th was inconsequential.
Stone, who has been one of the hottest players in the Section this year, pointed to his putter.
“I just didn’t make any putts,” he said, adding that he missed birdie opportunities on four holes on the back nine. “But congratulations to Steve. He deserved to win. He was the best player over the 36 holes.”
Pollack played perhaps his best golf of the season and with a little luck and a few more turns of the ball his 71 could have been a 69. He left three or four putts on the edge. His lone bogey of the say came on the second hole. He played the next 16 holes in 2-under.
This is the first time Parker has won this event and it was easy to tell it was a satisfying victory. He credited Brookside Head Professional Cory Kumpf with giving him a putting tip and passed out praise to many of his NOPGA colleagues.
“This is great,” he said while posing for the obligatory photos. “It’s a great feeling. There are some great names on that trophy, men who have been mentors and guys I have learned from.”
And one of those lessons paid off handsomely at Westbrook.
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