Kressler’s wake-up call is worth it at f inal tour event
Pro from Massena captures title on the 3rd playoff hole
Sometimes it does pay to get up in the morning.
Kyle Kressler, owner and head pro at Cedar View Golf Club, left Massena at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday and headed toward Albany Country Club for the Northeastern New York PGA Tour Championship and Champions Cup.
“The only reason I showed up is I knew I was going to get some guaranteed money with the Champions Cup,” Kressler said.
It proved to be a worthwhile trip. Kressler prevailed in a three-hole playoff to win $1,500 for the Tour Championship and $1,650 in the Champions Cup.
A par on the third extra hole was enough for Kressler, 36, to eliminate Woodstock head pro Chris Sanger. Hiland assistant pro Scott Berliner, who already had wrapped up his ninth straight NENYPGA Player of the Year title, was eliminated with a bogey on the first playoff hole.
Kressler said his “preparation” was last year when he won the NENY Pro Championship qualifier at Saratoga Spa.
“I came in, similar to last year’s section championship, with zero expectations, not knowing how I was going to hit the ball,” he said. “That’s proven to be a sound strategy to me. Maybe next year I’ll just play in tournaments and nothing else.”
Because he owns the course, Kressler has been busy aerating greens and winterizing his course, located 75 miles southeast of Ottawa, Canada.
“We had our first snowfall four days ago,” Kressler said. “We’re very close to the border, and it’s been very cold. We’re winding down. We’ve got about a week or two left.”
The Champions Cup portion is set up similar to the PGA Tour’s Fedex playoffs, where the points list is reset. Kressler began in sixth place, but the 2,500 points awarded to the winner vaulted him past Berliner and Sanger.
Berliner had wrapped up the Player of the Year points list by late summer. Sanger was second.
“This was a very good year,” said Sanger, 33. “It’s my second year as a Class A (professional status required to play in most of the section majors). I’m full-time playing as a Class A, so it was a really good year. I had a good year a couple of times as an assistant and not a Class A, so I wasn’t able to play in this stuff.”
“It’s disappointing,” Berliner said of losing the playoff, “but overall I had a good summer. My last two events weren’t the best for me, but it is what it is.”