Last week was a good one for Aaron Rai, who beat the competition at Aronimink Golf Club and won the PGA Championship for his first major title.
But it was also a good week for Ben Kern, one of 20 PGA pros to qualify for the tournament. Kern was the only club pro to make the cut (shooting 74-67-77-72); he finished in 80th place and earned $23,930. He even played in the last round with former captain no. 1 and European Ryder Cup, Luke Donald.
“It’s very special,” Kern said Sunday. “Obviously, once I got into the business, it was a goal to come out here and play in this type of event. It’s a once-a-year opportunity that I’ve had the opportunity to play in three. It’s pretty special to be on this field and then walk away with the club’s lower pros, that’s all.”
When he’s not playing in the PGA Championship, Kern is the general manager at Hickory Hills Golf Club in Grove City, Ohio. He said Sunday that he had a lot of work to get back.
“It’s going to be busy,” Kern said. “I haven’t looked at my emails. So I’ll get back to my emails in a few days. Unfortunately, I’m probably going to be at my desk for a lot of things, getting caught up, getting the bottom back where it needs to be, giving all the information to the members and what we have coming up because our season is going.”
But before he went back to his desk — or maybe his desk — Kern did something important: He posted his results from a major golf tournament on his handicap.
Some pros, like Jon Rahm and Max Homa, for example, have handicaps that are kept semi-active, but they don’t post often. And we’re going to guess that Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy didn’t post their scores Sunday night either. (And if any of the club’s other pros scored, they didn’t get four rounds like Kern, or get to hold a crystal trophy Sunday night.)
USGA – who would like you to get your Handicap Index — noticed that Kern entered his results and tweeted about it on Tuesday.
Kern’s 3-under 67 he shot Friday was the only one of his PGA Championship scores that counts toward his Handicap Index, and for good reason — only two players shot a lower score in the second round, and Kern’s 67 was good for a -6.7(!) differential. of Aronimink The course’s back-to-back rating is 75.5 and the slope is 144, though those numbers don’t factor in a major championship setup, so Kern’s margins could be even lower.
Kern said last week that he carries a handicap to have matches with members at his home club. He was asked on Friday, after that 67, what happens now.
