Hunt Gilliland has been on the very top of a leaderboard at a major golf tournament.
The Council Fire director of golf earned a spot in the 1990 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek and was 1 under par through six holes of the first round.
“It was right there above (Nick) Faldo’s name,” said Gilliland, who worked in Florida at the time. “But it didn’t last long. I went on and shot about 82 because I started missing fairways. Then my name got on the bottom of those lines.”
The 2011 PGA Championship will be held Aug. 8-14 on the Highlands Course of the Atlanta Athletic Club. In that field of 156 of the best golfers in the world, 20 spots will be reserved for club professionals from across the nation who advance through a qualifying system.
Tennessee Section PGA professionals will begin their qualification process Aug. 3-5 in the Tennessee Sectional Championship at Council Fire.
“It’s part of the tradition going – from your local section, to the national, then on to the season’s final major that makes the PGA very special,” PGA of America CEO Joe Steranka said during media day Monday at the AAC.
The top five finishers from Council Fire advance to the national club pro championship. Then the top 20 there will be in the final major of 2011.
“That’s been part of the PGA Championship’s DNA,” said 2011 PGA Championship tournament chairman Ryan Cannon. “It’s part of the history and tradition.”
That history and tradition include the likes of Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson and Gene Sarazen, club professionals who toured the country playing in tournaments to pad their pockets with extra change.
“Most of the revenue from championship golf came from ticket sales, and there wasn’t a lot of revenue to pay purses,” Steranka said. “It wasn’t to the point where you could make a living playing tournament golf, so many of the pros were also club professionals, because the PGA Tour didn’t exist until 1968.”
The Tour provided golfers with a tour-only career possibility, but the PGA Championship remains the only amateur-free major.
“The one thing that didn’t change was having grassroots PGA professionals who are serving their club members, and they go play in our national championship and the top 20 qualify,” Steranka said. “It is the thrill of all thrills for them and their members to watch them hitting balls alongside Phil, Tiger, Camillo and the other world-class players.”
Lookout Mountain Golf Club pro Adam Campbell will give it a go next week with nothing but hopes and prayers of advancing to the club pro championship, let alone playing in a group with guys he sees on TV.
“That would be a dream come true,” Campbell said. “It’s the thing I stay up late and dream about. But since I haven’t touched a club in six weeks, it’s probably not realistic.”