Philo Jr. making a name for himself since '06 win
Ron Philo Jr. has enjoyed the spoils of his playoff victory at the 2006 PGA Professional National Championship, chief among them stepping out of the shadow of sister, LPGA star and one-time caddie Laura Diaz.
By Roger Graves, Special to PGA.com
Talk about instant fulfillment, immediate gratification, and achieving lifelong goals and dreams. Talk about proving that a PGA Professional can certainly play the game as well as teach and manage it. And talk about collecting a career's worth of memorable milestones in one unforgettable week.
Indeed, Ron Philo Jr. -- whose grandfather was a PGA Professional, whose father is a PGA Professional and noted instructor, whose sister is a standout on the LPGA Tour, and whose father's brother is a PGA Professional -- could check off a lengthy list of accomplishments after surviving a dramatic three-hole playoff to win the 2006 PGA National Professional Championship at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, N.Y., last June.
First, there was the sheer joy of winning the PGA Professional National Championship after collecting half a dozen top-10 finishes in 10 previous appearances. For Philo, the playoff victory over Alan Schulte of Fishers, Ind., was doubly gratifying because Philo had lost a playoff at the same Atunyote Golf Club in Central New York in the 2004 Eastern Regional PGA Professional Championship. So check off a little personal playoff revenge at Atunyote (pronounced "uh-DUNE-yote").
Of course, seeing his name engraved on the coveted crystal Walter Hagen Cup and printed on the $75,000 Champion's check certainly marked the culmination of a dream for Philo Jr. and his family of PGA Professionals. After all, it was Philo's largest payday of his playing career and his first National Championship after winning a litany of state opens, North Florida and New England PGA Section Championships and Player of the Year awards, and a handful of tournaments in the Metropolitan Section as the PGA head professional at Metropolis Country Club in White Plains, N.Y. So check off a lucrative paycheck and Philo's first National Championship.
The 2006 PGA Professional National Championship triumph also gave Ron Jr. his seventh ticket to the PGA Championship, easily trumping his uncle Dave's two PGA appearances and his father's single appearance in 1976. It also gave him the opportunity to play in six PGA Tour events this year, and exempted him to the final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying School. So check off another long list of goals as a player, since Philo Jr.'s National Championship opened a broad door of competitive opportunities.
Yes, Philo's PGA Professional National Championship last June wrought many rewards and helped the then-40-year-old PGA Professional accomplish many goals. But the two most important benefits might surprise you. First, his triumph brought respect with a capital "R." It proved Philo is not only a proficient player, but that he can win the big one and is comfortable on golf's everexpanding national stage. Second, and perhaps most important, Ron Philo Jr.'s 10-under-par 278 72-hole total and subsequent sudden-death victory over Schulte catapulted him from the shadow of his younger sister, two-time LPGA Tour winner Laura Diaz, and stamped himself as a recognizable, highly respected player in his own right.
"It's always positive when you win and it was gratifying to win a National Championship on a great golf course," admits Philo a year later. "But the biggest thing to me was to get out of my sister's shadow. I stopped being her brother for a while and got a lot of attention as the Champion of the PGA Professional National Championship.
"It's the biggest championship I've ever won and the biggest check I've ever earned, so it was extremely gratifying to perform well enough under pressure and win last year."
Philo says he has been fortunate to have some chances to contend in the PGA Professional National Championship the past few years, while also playing well in the PGA Championship. All of those opportunities have helped him evolve and become a better player. "It all fell into place last year at Turning Stone. It was the culmination of everything I've been working toward in my career," he says.
Job Change Leads Philo to Vermont's Sugarbush Resort
After splitting the past several years between Metropolis Country Club in New York and Ron Sr.'s Golf School at Amelia Island Plantation in Florida during the winter, Ron Jr.'s career has now led him to a new position with Sugarbush Resort in Vermont, where he is helping the golf and ski facility renovate its golf operations.
"It is every PGA Professional's ultimate dream to be playing the game full-time and making a good living playing the game," says the 41-yearold Philo, "but the reality is that I would never want to stop working with my students in some capacity. I still love to teach the game as well as play.
"The opportunity at Sugarbush Resort is ideal for me. I can continue to take advantage of the opportunities I have to play the game, while also making some exciting improvements to the overall golf-club operations. We are putting in a lot of new practice tees and a learning center, and we hope to have a golf school location there late this season or early next season.
"I've been fortunate to have a lot of playing opportunities through The PGA of America (seven PGA Championship appearances and 11 trips to the National Championship), but as a PGA Professional, I still get a lot of gratification from teaching the game and watching students excel."
Under the watchful eye of their father, Ron Sr., Philo and his sister Laura grew up "farming golf balls," as their grandfather David liked to call it, at a driving range their grandfather had purchased in upstate New York near Schenectady in the early 1970s. When Grandpa Dave suffered a heart attack, Ron Sr. came north to help operate the facility, and Ron Jr. and Laura spent their summers hitting thousands of range balls and sharpening their putting skills on the miniature golf course Ron Sr. built. As they grew older, they developed their games at The Edison Club, with which their grandfather had a strong relationship.
"All the guys coming home from work at the General Electric plant used to stop by to hit range balls or play miniature golf," remembers Ron Jr. "My sister and I developed a good, friendly rivalry growing up around golf, and it has lasted throughout our lives.
"I've caddied for her and she has caddied for me over the years. I caddied for her for the first time when she won the North-South Amateur at Pinehurst, and we try to caddie for each other when our schedules allow. "I've been fortunate to watch her do well and evolve as a player, and I've been able to help her along the way. We both have a good understanding of each other's golf swing."
Ongoing Support from Sis
Laura was carrying Ron Jr.'s bag at Baltusrol Golf Club while four months pregnant during the 2005 PGA Championship, and helped her older brother make the 36-hole cut for the first time. Yet, at the end of each day, it seemed the spectators were more interested in Laura's autograph than Philo's. "That doesn't really bother me; we have a great relationship," he assures. "She was a big part of the performance at Baltusrol. On the fourth tee of the first round, she recognized that I was getting real short and quick, so we made an adjustment and I came back to play the next 32 holes 2-over to get through to the weekend.
"I can still hear her in my head now when I get a little tight and short, and don't finish my backswing."
A year ago, Diaz made the nearly two-hour drive to Verona, N.Y., to see Philo putt out on the final hole of regulation after she played in the Wegmans Rochester LPGA earlier in the day in Pittsford, N.Y., where she tied for 17th. She had kept in touch via cell phone with Ron Jr.'s mother at the National Championship, receiving occasional updates. When Diaz heard that her older brother had aced the par-3 third hole early in the final round, she knew it might be an omen.
"I called Mom on the way over to Turning Stone and asked, 'How's he doing? How's he doing?' At the time, he had a two-shot lead," recalls Diaz. "She told me he had a hole-in-one and I said, 'No way!' That was really exciting and then when we got here, I watched him putt out on 18 (in regulation), gave him a hug and he said, 'Hey, I had a hole-in-one!' and I said, 'Yeah, how about that.' "I think we were all as nervous as he was in the playoff, but I'm glad we made it over there in time to see him win it. What a moment!"
After Philo Jr. narrowly missed a birdie opportunity on the 72nd hole that would have given him the title in regulation, he and Schulte both parred the par-5 18th and the par-4 10th holes to begin the playoff. At the 11th hole, a 210-yard par-3 with a water hazard on the right, Philo wisely played his tee shot into the left rough to give him a good angle at a highly challenging pin placement on the right side of the green. Schulte then hit his 5-iron tee ball into the right lateral hazard, which quickly led to a double bogey and gave Philo the Championship with a bogey-4.
Now that Ron Philo Jr. has not only stepped, but vaulted, out of his sister' shadow, he plans to enjoy the best of both worlds -- continuing to play the game against top-flight competition and teaching the game his grandfather, father and uncle taught him.