One tournament. One day. One putt. How this Pennsylvania golf pro won $100,000
He had just sunk the biggest putt of his life.
Parks Price still had to wait.
Another golfer took a shot at keeping the most lucrative tournament around going.
Then another golfer.
Price watched and waited, his arms crossed, his mind flying, his trusted club resting against his chest.
“My putter head was moving up and down because my heart was beating so fast,” he said. “I was just trying to keep it together as much as you can.”
Price rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole of Tuesday’s Haverford Philadelphia PGA Classic at the Sunnybrook Golf Club — then watched his two competitors miss shorter shots.
Only then did it truly begin to make sense: The 36-year-old teaching pro at the Country Club of York had just won $100,000. It’s the largest winning check of any tournament in the 41 PGA of America sections.
Philadelphia PGA / Matt Frey
And Price only got himself in position for a playoff by storming through the back nine with four birdies, including two impressive bunker saves. He and two others ended regulation at 4 under 68.
They were among 120 golfers who started the day.
“One of my best rounds of the year that fell on the correct date. It’s timing,” said Price, a Taylorsville, North Carolina, native who has worked at the York club for two years.
He admits that the scope of his victory is still resonating, gradually. His biggest previous golf pay check was $2,400.
Price had golfed at Cape Fear Community College in North Carolina before trying to make it as a pro working grueling PGA mini-tours, surviving one tournament at a time.
He left the game for six years to work in sales.
But golf kept luring him back, and he landed an assistant teaching pro job in York in 2019. He was promoted to director of instruction this year.
Now, he’s getting married in April and is looking to buy a home in the York area.
“People don’t understand that the best thing that ever happened to me was the position at the Country Club of York,” he said. “I don’t know if I finally grew up, but things have just really started to go well for me.”
Especially this one round of golf this week.
On the first playoff hole, Price stared down his 25-foot putt, the longest in the group. He had missed a nearly identical putt on this same No. 18 hole during regulation.
The three men knew the winner would take home $100,000. The others would each pocket only $3,175.
Price adjusted, swung and delivered the richest, adrenaline-rushed putt of his life.
Philadelphia PGA / Matt Frey
He’s still processing it all since returning to town, teaching more lessons and helping run run another local tournament at the club.
“It’s just, ‘This is incredible,’ he said, searching for the right way to describe it all.
“It’s just really hard to even put those emotions into words.”
Frank Bodani covers sports for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on Twitter @YDRPennState.
