State trio headed to PGA Championship

The PGA Championship normally features one of the strongest fields in golf. This week's edition is being held at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Each year, 20 PGA Club professionals qualify to play in the major championship. Connecticut has had representation often in recent years. This week is no different, in fact a little better.

Three golfers with state ties will tee it up beginning Thursday in the 104th edition of the championship. Two of them will be competing in it for the first time while the other will be playing for the fourth straight year.

“Each chance I play in it, I feel more comfortable,” said Alex Beach, a Stamford native. “I know what to expect. I've learned to normalize the experience. As crazy as that is to say, my biggest job at hand is to do that. … It is much easier and stress-free to go out there and trust what got me there.”

Beach, 32, is a teaching pro at Westchester CC in New York. Dylan Newman lives in Stamford, and hails from New Rochelle, New York. Casey Pyne is from Bloomington, Illinois and is an assistant at The Stanwich Club in Greenwich.

“I've talked to a couple of club pros who have played (in the PGA),” Pyne said. “I got some advice from them, the experience of being inside the ropes.”

Pyne and Newman finished tied for 11th place at 1-under in the PGA Professional Championship, which was held April 17-20 at Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas. Beach, who won this event in 2019, had to survive a 4-man playoff for three spots this time to advance for the fourth straight year.

In fact, Beach, a lefthander, chipped in for birdie on the first sudden-death playoff hole to advance.

“I know Casey and Dylan pretty well. We compete day-in and day-out in the Met Section. That prepares us well,” Beach said.

This will be the 11th time Beach has teed it up in a PGA event. In addition to the four other PGA Championships, he was able to secure six sponsor's exemptions on the PGA Tour for winning the 2019 PGA Professional Championship.

Among them was last year's Travelers Championship. He failed to make the cut in any of them. But making the cut this week isn't the goal.

“I have to go out and approach it to win the golf tournament. If you show up with any other goal in mind, you sell yourself short,” Beach said. “It's the best field in golf. You are going up against the top 136 players in the world and 20 of us.”

Newman, 30, is an assistant at Brae Burn CC in Purchase, New York. He said there are so many leaderboards at the PGA Professional

championship that it's hard not to know where you stand in regards to the top 20 projection.

But it wasn't until a 3iron second shot on the 18th hole that Newman knew he was going to be flying to Tulsa.

“Me and my caddie definitely exchanged some high-fives aggressively. I shoved him and he shoved me. It was relief at that point. It was one of the most stressful days on a golf course I've had in a very long time,” Newman said. “This is what I have lived for, what I have dreamed of and practiced for my whole life.”

Pyne not only has never played in a major championship, the 33-year-old has never even attended a major as a spectator.

Pyne agreed it was hard not to know where he stood throughout the final round because of the leaderboards.

He was second heading into the final round. But despite a 78, Pyne was able to qualify. He was “breathing a huge sigh of relief when he holed out an 18inch final putt to avoid the playoff.

“It's all house money. I've been practicing my butt off to get my game sharp and ready to go,” Pyne said.

The low 70 golfers and ties make the cut for the weekend.