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Benny Cook & Dylan Newman Win 2023 PGA Four-Ball Stableford Team Championship
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PGA Members Dylan Newman (left) and Benny Cook won the 2023 PGA Four-Ball Team Championship at PGA Golf Club February 7.
Early in the morning of February 5, Benny Cook and Dylan Newman showed up at the PGA Four-Ball Stableford Team Championship looking for a tee time because they were alternates.
Two days later, they left PGA Golf Club with the trophies.
Ah, the craziness of golf.
The team of Cook and Newman received a break to get into the field Sunday – rainy weather prompted several withdrawals – and they spent the last three days taking advantage of that good luck.
Cook, a PGA Assistant Professional at John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Florida, birdied the last two holes on PGA Golf Club's Dye Course to enable him and Newman to leapfrog two teams and win the PGA Winter Championships event with 47 points, one ahead of Steve Schneiter and Shaun Powers. Cook and Newman shared the $10,000 first prize.
Two days later, they left PGA Golf Club with the trophies.
Ah, the craziness of golf.
The team of Cook and Newman received a break to get into the field Sunday – rainy weather prompted several withdrawals – and they spent the last three days taking advantage of that good luck.
Cook, a PGA Assistant Professional at John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Florida, birdied the last two holes on PGA Golf Club's Dye Course to enable him and Newman to leapfrog two teams and win the PGA Winter Championships event with 47 points, one ahead of Steve Schneiter and Shaun Powers. Cook and Newman shared the $10,000 first prize.
Benny Cook, PGA
“We were just happy to get in the field,” said Cook, who was the Low PGA Club Professional (T44) at the 2021 PGA Championship. “We found out 40 minutes before our tee time we got in. We thought with the bad weather, that might happen.”
Cook almost eagled the par-5 17th in the final round with a chip from behind the green. He tapped in for birdie, and then made a 15-footer at 18 to clinch the victory. Cook had previously teamed with Ben Kern to win the Four-Ball twice, in 2020 and '21.
Cook almost eagled the par-5 17th in the final round with a chip from behind the green. He tapped in for birdie, and then made a 15-footer at 18 to clinch the victory. Cook had previously teamed with Ben Kern to win the Four-Ball twice, in 2020 and '21.
“When you have a great partner, it takes a lot of pressure off you,” said Newman, a PGA Assistant Professional at Brae Burn Country Club in Purchase, New York. “I kept telling Benny to be patient. We got off to a really good start, had a hiccup on 7 (with a bogey) but we rallied back.”
Cook and Newman trailed the teams of Schneiter-Powers and Sean McCarty-Rich Berberian Jr. by a point headed to No. 17 before the birdie gave them the lead. They were also helped tremendously when both of those teams failed to birdie the 17th after them.
“They gave us one by not birdieing 17,” Cook said. “We thought they would birdie 17, and we would have to birdie 18 to have a chance. Dylan and I hammed-and-egged it this week . . . we didn’t birdie a lot of the same holes, and that’s obviously useful.”
“They gave us one by not birdieing 17,” Cook said. “We thought they would birdie 17, and we would have to birdie 18 to have a chance. Dylan and I hammed-and-egged it this week . . . we didn’t birdie a lot of the same holes, and that’s obviously useful.”
Dylan Newman, PGA
Once Cook made his birdie at 18, the only way the team could lose was if someone in the final foursome holed his approach on the par-4 18th. Schneiter came close – his approach stopped three feet away – but that birdie only gave him and Powers runner-up honors.
“The 17th hole is what got us,” said Powers, who missed a 12-foot birdie after his partner was out of the hole. “I hit the putt the way I wanted to. It just didn’t go in.”
McCarty and Berberian were third with 44 points. The teams of Jason Caron-Danny Balin and Mark Anderson-Sonny Skinner tied for fourth with 43 points.
Defending Champions Bob Sowards of Dublin, Ohio, and Kern of Georgetown, Texas, tied for ninth with 39 points. Sowards and Kern finished second in last week’s Senior-Junior Team Championship after winning that event in 2022.
“My partner must have been the greatest player on the property the last two days because I played terrible,” said Sowards, the reigning Senior PGA Professional Player of the Year who had won three of his last four starts at PGA Golf Club. “It’s disappointing because I usually play really well on these golf courses. But you can’t play great every week.”
“The 17th hole is what got us,” said Powers, who missed a 12-foot birdie after his partner was out of the hole. “I hit the putt the way I wanted to. It just didn’t go in.”
McCarty and Berberian were third with 44 points. The teams of Jason Caron-Danny Balin and Mark Anderson-Sonny Skinner tied for fourth with 43 points.
Defending Champions Bob Sowards of Dublin, Ohio, and Kern of Georgetown, Texas, tied for ninth with 39 points. Sowards and Kern finished second in last week’s Senior-Junior Team Championship after winning that event in 2022.
“My partner must have been the greatest player on the property the last two days because I played terrible,” said Sowards, the reigning Senior PGA Professional Player of the Year who had won three of his last four starts at PGA Golf Club. “It’s disappointing because I usually play really well on these golf courses. But you can’t play great every week.”
The opening tee shot on the Dye Course is littered with bunkers.
The PGA Winter Championships are presented by GolfPass, On Location. The Stroke Play Championship starts February 12 on the Wanamaker and Ryder courses. Newman is the defending champion.
