CPC History
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2004: Whistling While He Worked

Defending Champion: Bob Sowards, Columbus, Ohio
Site:Nashport, Ohio
Date:June 24-27, 2004
Course:Longaberger Golf Club
Purse: $450,000
Par: 72 (7,250 yards)

In some 23 career rounds at Longaberger Golf Club, Bob Sowards of Columbus, Ohio, had gained enough course knowledge to apply for superintendent. He knew where every putt would break, where every hazard was located and could almost predict every change of direction in the wind.

The only missing piece to a championship puzzle, he said, was when to get aggressive and close out a victory. But Sowards was boosted by his caddie Sunday afternoon along with seven one-putt greens to hold off Mike Small of Champaign, Ill., by one stroke and win The 37th PGA Club Professional Championship.

Sowards’ closing 2-under-par 70 gave him a winning total of 12-under-par 276, and bring home a career-high paycheck of $60,000 in the showcase event for PGA Professionals. A hard day’s work also helped provide Sowards with a healthy down payment on a new family home in rural Columbus.

“This is everything I had expected,” said Sowards, the first Southern Ohio PGA member to win the CPC. “My goal was to shoot every round in the 60s, but not having done that, I’m still happy."

Small, making his first appearance in the CPC closed with a solid back-nine 32 and a 69 for a 277 total. Chip Sullivan of Troutville, Va., was third at 280 after a 70.

Four players were another stroke back at 281, including Ron Philo, Jr., of Fernandina Beach, Fla., who had a 68; Tim Fleming of Oklahoma City, Okla., who had a 70; and third-round leader Jeff Coston of Blaine, Wash., who struggled home with a 77.

The low 25 scorers earned a berth in the 86th PGA Championship, Aug. 12-15, at Whistling Straits-Straits Course in Kohler, Wisc. For Small, it will be his first PGA Championship appearance.

Thelen, 42, an assistant professional at Bushwood Golf Center in Houston, Texas, finished with a 3-under-par 69 capped by a spectacular recovery for a bogey-5 from a greenside bunker on the 18th hole. His winning total of 6-under-par 282 earned him a first-place prize of $53,000 from a total purse of $400,000 along with exemptions into six PGA Tour events. In addition, the top 25 finishers earn berths in the PGA Championship in August.

Schneiter, the 1995 PGA CPC Champion and an assistant professional at Schneiter's PebbleBrook Golf Links in Sandy, Utah, just missed a 60-foot uphill birdie putt to finish with a 71 and 283.

Thelen, who also won the 2000 CPC, joined Roger Watson (1974-75) and the late Larry Gilbert (1981, '82, '91) as the only multiple winners of the nation's showcase event for PGA Professionals.

"It's awesome," said Thelen, who collected an eagle, three birdies and a bogey on Sunday. "When I got the trophy (The Walter Hagen Cup), I got goose bumps. You're Champion again for another year. And people earn their way to get here, all 156 players. They're all great players and you just got to stick to your game plan and not get disgusted if you hit a bad shot, especially on the golf courses that they have this tournament on each year."

2003: Twin Warriors

Defending Champion: Tim Thelen, Richmond, Texas
Site: Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M.
Date: June 19-22, 2003
Course: Twin Warriors Golf Club
Purse: $400,000
Par: 72 (7,624 yards)

Tim Thelen of Richmond, Texas, made a 20-foot eagle putt on the first hole Sunday at Twin Warriors Golf Club to grab a lead he wouldn't relinquish in the 36th PGA Club Professional Championship. And despite a furious rally by Steve Schneiter of Sandy, Utah, Thelen went on to capture a one-stroke victory and his second PGA CPC title in the last four years.

Schneiter, the 1995 PGA CPC Champion and an assistant professional at Schneiter's PebbleBrook Golf Links in Sandy, Utah, just missed a 60-foot uphill birdie putt to finish with a 71 and 283.

Thelen, who also won the 2000 CPC, joined Roger Watson (1974-75) and the late Larry Gilbert (1981, '82, '91) as the only multiple winners of the nation's showcase event for PGA Professionals.

2002: Valhalla once again center stage

Defending Champion: Wayne DeFrancesco, Baltimore, Md.
Site: Louisville, Ky.
Date: June 20-23, 2002
Course: Valhalla Golf Club
Purse: $300,000 awarded in 2001
Par: 72 (7,030 yards)

The nation's finest PGA Professionals will determine their national champion for the first time in the Bluegrass State, June 20-23, 2002. The 35th PGA Club Professional Championship becomes the third premier event staged at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville,Ky., site of two of the most dramatic PGA Championship victories.

In 1996, Mark Brooks birdied the 18th hole twice in a span of 30 minutes — first to earn a playoff berth opposite Kentuckian Kenny Perry and the second time to win the 78th PGA Championship.

But, perhaps the most memorable major championship in modern history came in 2000 when world No.1-ranked Tiger Woods and Tour journeyman Bob May battled 21 holes on an August Sunday in the 82nd PGA Championship. Woods and May sank birdie putts on the 72nd hole to set up the first three-hole aggregate score playoff in a major championship. Woods birdied the 16th hole, and then scrambled for pars with May to emerge a one-stroke victor.

Valhalla has earned its perch as a center of golf's greatest theater, and the 35th PGA Club Professional Championship — which has had its share of thrills over the past three decades — is next up on the national stage.

2001: True Grit returns to Crosswater

Champion: Wayne DeFrancesco, Baltimore, Md.
Site: Sunriver, Ore.
Date: June 21-24, 2001
Course: Crosswater Club
Purse: $300,000
Par: 72 (7,470 yards)
Entries: 156, Cut at 145 (70 players advanced)

John Wayne gave his Academy-Award winning performance as Sheriff Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit," a 1969 film that was shot on location at Sunriver (Ore.) Resort and near today's Crosswater Club. Wayne DeFrancesco of Baltimore,Md., who has seen the film has also lived the life of "True Grit." He survived three back operations by 1988, and was told by doctors to give up competitive golf.

Like Rooster Cogburn, DeFrancesco had other ideas how to achieve his dreams. DeFrancesco began the 34th PGA Club Professional Championship with a 7-under-par, course record 65, then added middle rounds of 69 and 72, before battling cold, drizzle and a steady wind at Crosswater Club to finish with a 72. He tapped in for par on the 72nd hole for a winning total of 10-under-par 278, threestrokes better than 2000 Champion Tim Thelen of Richmond,Texas; MarkBrown of Glen Cove, N.Y., John Aber of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Don Berry ofMaple Grove, Minn.

DeFrancesco had back operations in 1983, 1986 and '88. Two vertebrae in his spine were fused in the second operation. But the vertebrae had grown too well and his third operation was to cut away more bone to take pressure off the nerves in his back.

"After the operation I worked to get a real estate license in Virginia in 1989. And,I got married," said DeFrancesco. "I didn't play golf for two years. I got a teaching job at Woodholme in 1991." DeFrancesco came back to the game slowly, and was the low PGA club professional in the 1995 PGA Championship. The past six months, DeFrancesco has worked with a physical therapist, Greg Rose, of Rockville,Md. DeFrancesco has lost 15 pounds and said he is renewed.

"The last six months I have been working out an hour to an hour and a half," he said. "This is the first time I have really felt normal. I walked this place and my back is fine. It's like a new me."

DeFrancesco became the only player in the history of this national championship to hold the lead alone all four days. A field of 156 PGA Professionals representing 39 states competed on the longest layout (7,470 yards) in PGA ofAmerica history — that also includes the PGA Championship. The field averaged 73.59 strokes on the demanding Bob Cupp-designed layout.

	Course average	Under par	At par	Over par	Round leader	Low round	Wayne DeFrancesco
Rd. 1	73.58	41	19	96	65 - Wayne DeFrancesco	65 - Wayne DeFrancesco	65 - 1st
Rd. 2	73.05	55	27	73	134 - Wayne DeFrancesco	67 - Robin Wilkin	134 - 1st
Rd. 3	72.50	28	8	34	206 - Wayne DeFrancesco	68 - Tim Fleming, Mark Miekle, Dave Nordeen	206 - 1st
Rd. 4	75.93	3	7	60	278 - Wayne DeFrancesco	70 - Mark Brown, Don Berry	278 - 1st
Totals	73.60	127	61	263

2000: Oak-la-homa Bound

Champion: Tim Thelen, Richmond, Texas
Site: Edmond, Okla.
Date: June 22-25, 2000
Course: Oak Tree Golf Club
Purse: $300,000
Par: 71 (7,015 yards)
Entries: 156, Cut at 154 (78 players advanced)

A spectacular lightning display hovered long enough ... almost seven hours ... near Oak Tree Golf Club on a Sunday morning. Mother Nature's exhibition cancelled the final 18-hole round of the 33rd PGA Club Professional Championship, but it didn't end the dramatics. A contingency plan of a five- hole cumulative score playoff was deployed to decide the winner of the Walter Hagen Cup. Tim Thelen of Richmond,Texas and Mark Brown of Glen Cove, N.Y., who had tied after 54 holes at 1-over-par 214, marched to the 10th tee on a soggy Oak Tree layout to decide the national championship. Thelen, a 39- year-old assistant at Baywood Country Club in Pasadena, Texas, opened the duel by saving par from a greenside bunker. Two holes later, at the 131-yard par-3 13th, Thelen hit a sand wedge to within four feet of the hole. Brown's tee shot sailed wide right into a grassy swale, from where he saved par with a brilliant recovery pitch and made a 10-foot par putt. But Thelen's one-stroke margin held up on the par-4 14th, as he two-putted for par from 35 feet and Brown followed by missing his downhill 20-foot birdie attempt. Thelen had learned much from his CPC appearance one year earlier, when he tied for eighth at Whistling Straits in Kohler,Wis. "I had been there before and gone through the pressure. I felt I was ready. Oak Tree was without question the toughest golf course I've played in my life - by two shots."

	Oak Tree averages	Sub-par rounds	Par rounds	Rounds over par	Round leader	Tim Thelen
Rd. 1	76.7	2	4	149	69 - Bob Boyd	72 - T7th
Rd. 2	7707	3	1	151	67 - Shawn Kelly	142 - T1st
Rd. 3	75.7	3	5	70	69 - Jeff Freeman	214 - T1st*
Totals	76.9	8	10	3703

Won five-hole cumulative score playoff