MUTTITT WINS QUALIFIER
Los Altos GC pro wins PGA Pro qualifier
Los Altos Golf Club teaching pro wins the tournament that could lead him back to next year’s PGA Championship.
SANDIA PUEBLO — David Muttitt retained the momentum from his sterling second round of last week’s major in St. Louis back home on a course in New Mexico.
At Twin Warriors Golf Club, the Los Altos Golf Course teaching pro put together rounds of 69, 71 and a tournament-low 68 to finish 8-under par and re-claim the Sun Country PGA Professional Championship with a 2-shot victory.
The tournament began with 36 holes on Monday and finished with 18 on Tuesday.
It is the fourth win for Muttitt, first since 2015, in the event that nets a $3,200 first-place prize and doubles as the Sun Country PGA’s section championship. He also won the event in 2012 and in 2013.
Muttitt and the next three finishers — the Club at Las Campanas’ Brad Lardon, Santa Ana GC’s Steve Manning, and Red Hawk GC’s (Las Cruces) Matt Sheehan — thus qualify for next year’s PGA Professional Championship in Bluffton, S.C., which will field more than 300 of the nation’s top PGA pros.
Muttitt already was exempt by virtue of his top 20 finish in this year’s tournament, when he tied for fourth.
The top 20 finishers in Bluffton will advance to play in next spring’s PGA Championship. That’s the path Muttitt took to this year’s event, which concluded Sunday with Brooks Koepka edging out Tiger Woods in St. Louis.
Muttitt opened the major on Thursday or with a miserable round of 81 that left him last in the field. He bounced back nicely in round two, which began Friday and concluded Saturday after weather intervened, with a 69. The two-round score of 150 was 10-over par and also 10 over the cutline.