Perks, Prizes, Prestige at the PGA CPC

The three Ps await the Champions at end of the Club Professional Championship rainbow.

By Roger Graves, Special to PGA.com

Former Champions Steve Schneiter, Tim Thelen, Barry Evans and Wayne DeFrancesco are supremely familiar with the three Ps of the PGA Club Professional Championship – perks, prizes and prestige. As The CPC has soared in stature during the past decade, so has the luminous list of rewards that await the Champion.

When Schneiter won the 1995 PGA Club Professional Championship, he took home $32,000 and the prestige associated with winning a national championship and seeing his name engraved on the coveted Walter Hagen Cup. When Thelen secured his second CPC title last year at Twin Warriors Golf Club in New Mexico, he banked $53,000, earned the traditional invitation to the PGA Championship, gained exemptions to six PGA Tour events, and rocketed to the top of every amateur golfer’s list for lessons in Texas.

For PGA Professionals, The CPC is the ultimate tournament of the year. It is their Masters, U.S. Open and British Open rolled into one all-encompassing major. Of course, the PGA Championship is more prestigious nationally, but the participating PGA Professionals often feel more like an understudy on that stage than at the PGA Club Professional Championship, where they occupy the entire spotlight.

"It’s the one I gear up for every year and the tournament where I try to have my game where it needs to be," stresses Schneiter, who finished second to Thelen last year in addition to his 1995 championship. "It’s the major for PGA Professionals, and the perks just keep getting better. Last year I made $35,000 for finishing second, which is a little more than I received for winning in 1995. There are just so many perks that go along with winning. This year, you’ll get a great check, you’ll get to play in the PGA Championship, you’ll get exemptions into six Tour events, and you get a spot on the PGA Cup Matches Team. That’s a lot of incentives to play well, and that’s what makes it such a great championship."

Schneiter and Thelen both point to participation by The Golf Channel and the format change in 1997 that elevated The PGA Club Professional Championship from an exceptional national championship to a "major" championship. Prior to 1997, The CPC was played at three golf courses simultaneously with a field of 360 players. In 1997, local sectional championships were put in place to determine participants for four Regional CPC tournaments. The four Regional tournaments determine the participants in the 156-player final field, which this year converges on the Longaberger Golf Club in a 72-hole stroke-play national championship.

"It really made it like a big tour event when they changed it from three courses with nearly 400 guys competing to the way it is today," says Schneiter. "The four-day event with 156 players enables The Golf Channel to cover it, and that has added a lot of prestige. Unless you get into a PGA Tour event or qualify for the U.S. Open, this is the best thing you could possibly want to play in for club professionals. Back when I won in 1995, it included a spot in the World Series of Golf (at Firestone Country Club) and I got to play with Tom Watson. That was one of the highlights of my life."

Thelen likes the big-time aura and atmosphere that permeates The PGA Club Professional Championship, and is amazed by how many people saw him win on The Golf Channel in 2000 at Oak Tree and again last year at Twin Warriors.

"The PGA of America, the sponsors and The Golf Channel have really turned The CPC into a special event during the past decade," says Thelen. "The Golf Channel shows 70 or 80 percent of the players in the field at some time during the four days, and it’s amazing how many club members come up to you and say, ‘hey, I saw you on The Golf Channel. Nice going.’ All your members and everyone you’ve ever given lessons to are watching it on The Golf Channel, and you’re treated so well. It makes you feel like you’re on the big Tour for a week."

With the six exemptions to PGA Tour events that he earned for winning last year, Thelen has competed thus far in the Houston Open in April, in New Orleans, in the Reno-Tahoe Open, in Mississippi, and in Milwaukee. That’s just one of the perks that could be a springboard to a full-time career as a touring professional. Or could it?

"I was asked that same question the other day by Greg Cesario (of Titleist), and I said if I play as well this year as I did last year I’ll go to Tour Qualifying School again and see if I can get my card," says Thelen, who enjoyed conditional status on the Nationwide Tour a few years ago. "The six exemptions you get for winning The CPC is a carrot on a stick. It tempts you, but I try to remain realistic. If I’m going to play, I need to make a full-time commitment to play. That’s difficult to do right now. I’m teaching the game full time right now and those guys (on the Tour) are playing full time. There’s a big difference."

Evans, who ruled The 2002 PGA Club Professional Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., the same course on which two PGA Championships have been contested, calls The CPC the "Super Bowl" of golf for PGA Professionals.

"The PGA selects the best golf courses and sets up the course like a national championship," says Evans. "We’re seeing the PGA Club Professional Championship being played at courses that have either hosted the PGA Championship or Ryder Cup Matches, or are going to host them in the future. That makes it exciting for the PGA Professionals. You’re playing the finest golf courses under championship conditions against the best PGA Professionals in the country on national television. They treat you like a king for the week."

Adds DeFrancesco, who became the only player in CPC history to hold sole possession of the lead all four days en route to his championship in 2001 at the Crosswater Club in Sunriver, Ore., "Everything about The PGA Club Professional Championship is first rate. The PGA runs the tournament just like it does the PGA Championship, which is always a first-class event. The atmosphere is like playing in the PGA Championship or the U.S. Open, except you’re playing against your peers, fellow PGA Professionals. Once you win The PGA Club Professional Championship, it’s something you’ll never forget. It’s a tough tournament to win because the field is so deep and talented, and you’re always playing on a great golf course."

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