The PGA Championship - It is a professional golf, and there are a Professional Golfers. Lessons former house, run local tournaments and get money for green fees and other services in the Pro Shop counter. The latter travels the world tour pros, is usually a personal trainer or two, and often cash controls some heavy competition.
Two groups are mixed a bit ', if at all. Except for one week each year.
Since the PGA Championship is sponsored by an organization representing some 28,000 professionals in the American Golf Club, 20 points in the field 156 is reserved for professionals of the club's annual work on a daily basis.
And then you have scenes like that of Wednesday, the final practice round when Luke Donald, No. 1 ranked golfer in the world, waving to Stuart Smith, a pro club in Reno, Nevada desired Donald Smith, who was waiting in the driveway ninth, hit the ninth green to the elevation, where Donald was standing.
"I saw him wave, and as I am ready to swing, I thought it would make headlines if I hit a bad shot and nailed him in the head," Smith, 43 , said. "But it did not happen, and you know when I arrived, he had a big smile on his face and shook my hand."
Then there was the scene of the practice putting green when Brian Cairns, Teaching Pro, Fox Hills Golf and Banquet Center in Plymouth, Michigan, badly misjudged the green very fast in the Atlanta Athletic Club, and beat his first putt past the hole way. The ball rolled and rolled until it was close to where Phil Mickelson practiced.
How to retrieve his ball Cairns timidly rebellious, Mickelson turned and said: "Club Pro, is not it?"
But Mickelson has also offered his hand to shake.
"He congratulated me for entering the tournament and chatted with me for a while," said Cairns, who is 47th "It was really flattering. I think the tour pros welcome us. They know that we are part of the event. "
It was more than 40 years as the PGA of America has always made room for some of their own. In 1968, there were 64 professional clubs in the country. The number was reduced to 40 in 1980, 25 in 1995 and 20 in 2006.
The club professionals to overcome one of the best in the league top 20 PGA Professional. This year, age group 29-55, nine-play of the first PGA Championship, one of the four golf majors. They come from all over the country. But whatever their origin, the club professionals to see how their symbolic presence. They were sent to representatives of the broader work of community golf: club-swinging 28 000 linked to other ambassadors who work hard in private and public golf courses, driving and other areas of the golf complex.
"Maybe some of the benefits on the tour does not like to get 20 points," said Danny Balin, a program assistant in Greenwich, Connecticut, and the youngest of the professional club in the event. "But I think most of them know that if they receive the most attention and help to make golf popular, we are the only place to keep the game going by the people there and teach them to play better.
"Golf is not likely to grow up without one of us."
Scan the biographies of 20 club professionals to begin in the first round on Thursday, it is clear that there was only one way for the 2011 PGA Championship. Balin, who have not started playing competitive golf until he was 22 years, rises at 5:00 every day so you can exercise for two hours before he starts on a day to eight hours of lessons and other related work club. He practiced for two or three hours later. Smith, meanwhile, had a competitive run in the background, including playing professionally overseas in his 20 years, but now says he only played 27 holes on average every two weeks.
Able in four rounds of Bali Club Professional Championship by shooting 63 on the last day, jumping from thirty-fourth in the fourth. Smith was in fourth place, nine holes of play left, then shot 41 the final nine holes, carded a final round 78 and finished tied 12 th.
Craig Stevens, 50, from nearby Sandy Springs, Georgia, has become a local favorite. He has his son, Chase, who is also the club pro, caddying for him. Friends of the Family plan to become a tournament wearing the t-shirt that read "Team Lumpy," a tribute to the elder, and a little round, Stevens.
Sean Dougherty of Overland Park, Kansas, he hoped his trip to the PGA Championship this year could give a boost to his original club, the Milburn Country Club, where the historic club was destroyed by fire eight months ago.
The minutes of the professional club in the last PGA Championship have been identified. Only seven made the cut in two days last five years. Work week, usually lasting six days to most clubs and includes dozens of lessons and many other responsibilities do not make it easy for professionals in the club to hone their games.
"I am a professional teacher," said Cairns. "I want to do well this week and I'm proud of my competitive record, but there is nothing more rewarding than helping someone to play better and enjoy the game more."
Smith recalls that when he qualified in June for the PGA Championship, his duties have not changed much at Somerset Country Club in Reno. It was often too busy to play golf a lot.
"I had members to see me and say," Do you think Rory McIlroy prepares for PGA putting men Dashboard Invitational? '"Smith said with a smile on Wednesday." Another member said: "I bet Tiger Woods is not ready to make the PGA by jumping into a car to fix a problem on slow play. "
"And they're right on this. But I love what I do and do not want to stop doing. While I'm here this week, I'll try to beat the best chance I can whenever I'm on the ball and I have fun. And I'm pretty sure you will succeed at a time. "
