A challenging win

Nevillewood pro overcomes heat and late struggles

Nevillewood pro survives heat, tough field to win Tri-State PGA.

Kevin Shields, soaked in sweat, pumped his fist after he made his final putt of the Tri-State PGA championship at Valley Brook Country Club. In temperatures that approached 90 degrees Tuesday, he exited the course with the lead, scoring a 6-under 138 in the two-day, 36-hole tournament.

Moments later, Tony Traci of South Hills Country Club, playing in the final group after leading at the end of the first day, narrowly missed an opportunity to tie Shields for the lead. His second shot on the hole, a gap wedge, slipped off the front of the green. Traci almost salvaged his afternoon with his next shot, but his ball rolled just wide of the cup.

“I knew I had to make 3,” the South Hills Country Club pro said.

Instead, he finished the hole in four shots, recording a 5-under 139 for the tournament, one stroke behind Shields.

Shields’ victory, marked by 3-under 69 scores both days, was his first in the event. The Club at Nevillewood pro led for much of the second day after recording two birdies on the front nine while many of his closest competitors struggled.

He ran into little trouble until the final four holes Tuesday. He bogeyed the 15th hole to narrow his lead to one stroke, then — for a moment — appeared to be in similar trouble on 17.

Shields dropped his club to the ground immediately after he took his tee shot, watching his ball veer to the left where it landed off of the fairway, in the vicinity of trees. Shields held a one-stroke lead at the time, and further mistakes would have been costly.

“The way it felt, I felt like I hooked it, but I hit it so hard, I was so bad off the heel that it didn’t hook,” Shields said.

“And I just stared at it until I saw that as long as it was on grass, I saw machinery down there, I didn’t know what was down there.”

Shields found a clear path out of his rut and hacked his ball across a stream. What could have been another dangerous hole resulted in his fourth and final birdie of the day.

Traci wasn’t the only threat to Shields. Before Shields even started warming up in the morning, he had a slight cramping sensation from the heat. He drank lemonade, frequently from a Styrofoam cup that he placed on the ground next to where he set up at each hole, throughout the day.

“I was dying,” Shields said after his victory.

“I’m dying. It was awful.”

With his victory, Shields qualifies for the 2016 PGA Professional National Championship June 26-29 at Turning Stone Resort in Verona, N.Y., along with the other top-five finishers in the event.

Traci, Richard von Tacky of Green Acres Golf Club, Joe Boros of Treesdale Golf and Country Club, and Bob Ford of Oakmont Country Club rounded out the top five.

Barry Evans of Berry Hills Country Club and Jason Martin of Wheeling Country Club qualified automatically because of past performances in the national tournament.