New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Well worth the wait
Local golf pro Ballo to make Tour debut in PGA Championship
Peter Ballo crossed paths with the No. 1 golfer in the world two or three times over the weekend at Kiawah Island Golf Resort. Ballo hadn’t been on the Ocean Course before, and Sunday he got the chance to play the back nine in his preparation for the 103rd PGA Championship.
“Yeah, I had a brief conversation with Dustin Johnson,” Ballo said. “It was, ‘Hi … How ya doing? … My name is Peter Ballo, one of the 20 club pros.’ … ‘Oh, congratulations.’
“It was awesome.”
Ballo, the assistant head pro at Silvermine Golf Club in Norwalk, was correct about the brevity. DJ may be long off the tee, but he is rarely long on words.
Yet a first-time experience like this for Ballo? It’s a long time coming.
“Obviously, I’ve wanted to play in any Tour event my whole life,” said Ballo, 29. “The fact that my first one is the PGA Championship — a major — definitely makes it nicer. I don’t know if I know the right words other than honored and excited.”
He came close in 2018.
He advanced to a playoff in the Travelers Championship Monday qualifier at Ellington Ridge. Four men for three spots. He was fourth.
Ballo, who played two seasons at St. John’s before transferring to Sacred Heart, is not unfamiliar with area success. He won the 2019 Met Section PGA Championship at Sleepy Hollow Country Club. He comes from an accomplished Stamford family of golfers.
Mike Sr. played in three U.S. Opens and in three PGA Championships.
For club pros, who teach the game, who run the pro shops, who pass the torch of the sport from one generation to the next, qualifying for the PGA Championship is special. They are dubbed the Team of 20. This year five qualified from the Met Section alone. They deserve to be
there.
Playing in his first PGA Professional Championship, Ballo qualified in a tie for eighth in Port St. Lucie, Florida, on April 8. He shot a first-round 78, but rebounded with rounds of four- and two-under par.
“Over the years even par is usually the cut,” Ballo said. “I started the day even. I got it one-under at 16. Made a bad but really good bogey at 18 to finish at even. After 45 minutes, I went to an interview with Golf Channel. After I was done, I was told I was in.”
A five-man playoff at one-over completed the field.
“I had so much to do with Team of 20 stuff right after the event,” Ballo said. “I came home and had a golf tournament in the Met Section, went right into that. I haven’t had a ton of time to think about it. I don’t know if that’s good or bad to be honest. I’ve had a good mindset, the same since I qualified. So maybe it’s a good thing.
“Now that I’m here I’m worrying about figuring out how to play the golf course. I think it’s playing to my advantage that I never had the time to take a couple of days — obviously I’m happy — but not over-exaggerate how this is so great and so on.”
Peter, 29, along with his dad, Mike Sr., his mom, Page and his brother, Mike Jr., were named the 2020 Family of the Year by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association for contributions to the sport and representing the ideals of golf and family. Mike Sr. was a longtime head pro at Woodway Country Club. Mike Jr. is an assistant pro at Westchester Country Club. Page was an All-ACC performer at North Carolina.
“They were nothing but excited and proud and happy for me,” Peter said. “They’ve been such great support. My brother’s boss was kind enough to let him take nine days off, so he’s down here to caddie for me.”
Mike Jr. may have defeated his brother by one stroke in the Met PGA Assistants Golf Championship at Bethpage in 2018, but it’s all support on the bag. Pete caddied for Mike Jr. after he qualified for the PGA Tour Corales Puntacana in March 2019 and a couple other events. Mike has caddied for Pete at some qualifiers.
“Mike had Korn-Web status for a year,” Ballo said. “He had Canadian status for three years. He knows more of the ins and outs. I’m a very plain-jane person when it comes to my golf. I just kind of go out, hit it, go. Especially on this golf course, it’s not just get up on the tee whack away and go find it. You’ve got to be a little more methodical. That’s something he has always been.
“He’s going to slow me down at times. Hold on,
let’s think about this. It going to be a huge help. He’ll be able to kind of tame my game.”
Mike Jr. was college roommates at St. John’s with Keegan Bradley, who won the 2011 PGA Championship. Through their friendship, Pete has met Brendan Steele, Luke List and Jamie Lovemark. Living in Florida over the last six winters — except this past one because of COVID — he has met Rickie Fowler.
“Winter is my time to dive into the golf game of my craft,” Ballo said. “I go to the Jupiter-West Palm area, play in PGA of America events, the Honda qualifier, the Puerto Rico Open qualifier. So when I go north to work on the full craft of being a club pro, I’m fresh and ready for the long summer season and hopefully my game is in a good spot to compete in the Met Section.”
He calls golf in his family a career path. His dad followed it for a half-century. After college his mom got into the golf business. After seven years as a PGA affiliate, Ballo has been a full member for 21⁄2 years.
Run tournaments, teach, help in the shop, ride around the course to check
in on members. Whatever is needed at the time, that’s the job description of a club pro.
“It’s a big craft we have to learn but it’s a good one and it’s a fulfilling path,” Ballo said. “Sure you have long hours, long summers when you hope you have time off. But at the end of the day, we do some really good things for people. We help guide them in their golf ventures in life, whether it’s breaking 100, 90 or win the club championship, it’s the same fulfillment we get.”
The members at Silvermine, where Ballo is in his fourth year, have been hyped since he qualified for the major.
“No matter how many times they’ve seen me, it’s congratulations,” he said. “I know there are 350-plus family memberships at my club that are rooting for me and hopefully see me on TV. It makes me happy and proud.”
Ballo said Mom and Dad have remained in Connecticut, but his wife, Kat, Mike’s fiancée and Page’s brother and wife will be there.
“So is my boss and his wife and a couple other (Silvermine) members, too,” Ballo said. “One member actually moved to
Charleston and he’s working the event as a marshal or live scorer. So I’ll have a little group here.”
Included in that group are Chris Gerwig and Jamie Bruno, his former high school hockey coaches. Besides golf, Ballo starred on the ice at Trinity Catholic.
“They’re big brothers, mentors to me,” Ballo said. “They told me ‘The first time you make it to a Tour event, no matter where it is, we’ll be there.’ They kept their word.”
So Peter Ballo tees off in his first PGA Tour event — a major — at 2:31 p.m. Thursday in the next-tolast group with Chris Kirk, ranked 63rd in the world, and Cam Davis, 127th. His goal?
“They’re in a bunch of layers,” he said. “Try not to be dead last. Try to be in the top half of the 20 club pros. Top five. Low club pro. Be as close as I can be to the cut. Make the cut. It’s how many layers can I check off ? The first layer already has been. At the end of the day, getting here to play with the best in the world is good enough.”