Local pro Dave McNabb eyes another PGA Championship invitation

The two most recent PGA Professional National Championships, the premier tournament for U.S. club professionals, have generated some memorable moments for Dave McNabb.

McNabb, 49, the head pro at Applebrook Golf Club in Malvern, has capitalized on his success in the PNC to earn back-to-back invitations to the PGA Championship, the first and second majors of his long career. He played four solid rounds in the PNC in 2013 and tied for ninth place to qualify. Last year, he sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to avoid a playoff for the remainder of the 20 available spots in the PGA.

"I just felt that I hung in there and something good happened at the end," McNabb said Saturday of last year's clutch putt, as he finished up preparations for Sunday's start of the PNC at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

"That [confidence] goes a long way when you play in these things, and you know that if that situation arises, you're going to be ready and you're up for the challenge. They don't necessarily all go in, and they don't all necessarily work out that way. But it's fun when they do, and it's fun to be in a position to have to do that."

McNabb missed the cut at both PGAs, but he would love to have another opportunity. He enters this year's PNC playing well, competing at two familiar layouts at Cricket Club - the Wissahickon and Militia Hill courses - and feeling confident.

"I love the golf courses," he said. "I've gotten tremendous support from my members, from my family. I'm very comfortable and I'm playing good golf, so my expectations are high. I've had three good practice rounds. I feel like I'm hitting the ball well, and I'm putting it great. So I'm feeling really good."

McNabb said the two golf courses are completely different. Wissahickon is the A.W. Tillinghast classic from the 1920s that underwent a restoration in 2013 and 2014, when bunkers and greens were brought back to their original dimensions and hundreds of trees were downed.

Militia Hill, opened in 2002, is a more open course.

"It's a little different," McNabb said. "It's a more modern feel [at Militia Hill] and a more traditional feel [at Wissahickon]. If you asked me, I don't know that I could pick one that I like more than the other."

McNabb, who lives in Newark, Del., is one of 13 Philadelphia Section PGA players competing. Another is 55-year-old Stu Ingraham, head pro at M-Golf in Newtown Square, who will tee it up in his 24th PNC.

"It's still very exciting," Ingraham said. "I'm on the back nine of my career, and I realize that. It's always exciting to play in one of these, a thrill."

Ingraham said the Wissahickon course "brings back a lot of memories" for him because he won the 1998 Pennsylvania Open there.