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Pieczynski gets surprise win
By Joe Logan
Inquirer Staff Writer
Jul 24, 2008
Chances are that even those who follow local golf haven't heard of the winner of yesterday's 104th Philadelphia Open Championship. His name is Gregory Pieczynski - "Pie" to his buddies - and he's a 25-year-old driving-range pro from Wilkes-Barre with dreams of playing on the PGA Tour.
Pieczynski advanced his cause with an impressive 5-under-par 67 for a 2-shot victory at Lookaway Golf Club in Buckingham, snatching one of the two most prestigious titles in local golf (and the $8,000 winner's check) from under the noses of contestants in a field that is always strong and deep.
"This is my first official win as a pro," Pieczynski said. "I have been playing well all summer, and had a feeling. It just felt like a matter of time until I did win something."
The tournament was slated as a one-day, 36-hole championship, but thunderstorms forced officials from the Golf Association of Philadelphia to shorten it to one round yesterday for the first time since amateur Michael Brown won in 1997.
Too bad it didn't go the full two rounds, because Pieczynski might have found himself in a shoot-out with three or four players who also had a hot hand. Among them was Michael McDermott from Merion Golf Club. He shot 69, finishing as low amateur and tied for second with David McNabb, a pro at Cavaliers Country Club in Newark, Del.
For McDermott, a win would have meant the crowning achievement in arguably the most dominant run by an amateur in years. GAP officials have taken to calling his achievements of the last year the Amateur Slam, since the 33-year-old financial planner from Bryn Mawr won the Patterson Cup and the Silver Cross at the end of last year, then won this year's Mid-Amateur and Amateur Championship. The Open would have been the ultimate cherry on top.
"I would have loved an opportunity for a second round," McDermott said. "But nothing says [Pieczynski] wouldn't have shot 5 under again. He played a beautiful morning round."
Starting with a birdie at the first hole, where he almost holed out from 120 yards, Pieczynski was gunning to go low. Long off the tee, he also was dialed in with his irons yesterday. But his putter was his biggest ally.
"Every makeable putt I had I knocked right into the center," he said. "Ten-footers seemed like three-footers."
When the storm halted play at 2:28 p.m., only two groups still were completing their first rounds, and Pieczynski was in one of them - in the fairway on the 18th. Eventually, when there was a break in the weather, GAP officials sent the two groups out to finish their rounds.
Pieczynski has failed in two attempts to make it through Qualifying School for the PGA Tour. Last year, he played a mini-tour until the tour died and he ran out of money. Now he's back in Wilkes-Barre, where a pro he knows who owns a learning center and range has given him a job teaching while he works on his game.
What's Pieczynski going to do with the $8,000?
"I've never had this much money, so I don't know," he said. "Maybe save it for Q-school."
Contact staff writer Joe Logan at 215-854-5604 or jlogan@phillynews.com . Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/joelogan .
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