HORNUNG’S CLASSIC
EVENT PARTNER
(Michael Crowley & Bob Hornung Jr.)
Monday afternoon ended a crazy week of golf for Michael Crowley. The Morningstar GC head PGA Professional would cap off a run of seven straight days of competitive golf by teeing it up in the 53rd Hornung’s Classic at South Hills G&CC. If it wasn’t for a pro-am rainout on the Monday prior, Crowley could have tacked on another day to the streak.
Needless to say, Crowley didn’t quite envision such a busy stretch of golf until recently. With just a handful of days to go before the event he would get the invite of a lifetime when the American Family Insurance Championship would come calling with a sponsor’s invite. Combine that opportunity with U.S. Senior Open qualifying, and all of sudden the days of golf started adding up.
Crowley certainly was ready for the opportunity, but one wouldn’t fault him for showing up and going through the motions on Monday.
However, the exact opposite would happen. The 2023 Wisconsin PGA Professional Stroke Play champion would grab the lead early on and never look back. He would birdie three of his four opening holes. Knocking it to about six feet on no. 12, getting up and down on the par-5 14th, and then backing it up by hitting a wedge to two feet on no. 15.
He would cool off a bit as he made the turn to the front nine but for every bogey he carded he had an answer. With only four holes to play he would roll in a key 28-foot birdie putt on the par-4 8th to separate himself a bit. The separation would be short lived though as a 3-putt on the very next hole would cut his lead down to just one. A nice 5-foot par putt on the always difficult par-3 10th would keep him the driver’s seat.
With groups starting to finish the shotgun start, a handful of 1-under-par 70s would be posted. The chasers eagerly monitored their phones to see what Crowley would do on the par-4 11th, his final hole. Their hope for a playoff would be extinguished as the Fox Point resident would jump from 2-under to 4-under in a heartbeat.
Executed to perfection, he pounded a drive on the 336-yard hole to about 20 years short of the green and then pitched it in for eagle. The 4-under-par 67 would be good enough to give him a three shot win over four formidable foes.
Finishing in the tie for second place were Andy Hansen, Joe Leonard, Mick Smith and Andrew Troyanek.
“It was really nice to be able to come back after a long week and play well,” Crowley wrote via text. “I definitely putted better today than I did at the American Family Insurance Championship. Today I was able to really manage my game well because of a lot of things I learned from Austin (Gaugert) caddying for me the past week.”
Dating back to last year, Crowley has now been victorious in three of the last four one-day WPGA 18-Hole Stroke Play Classics.
As always, the WPGA and our professionals would like to express our appreciation to Hornung’s Golf Products and the Hornung family. Their commitment to the event and continuing the tradition is unwavering. Once again it was another fantastic day of golf, competition and camaraderie.
The Wisconsin PGA would like to again thank South Hills G&CC and their membership for taking the opportunity to host. The course was was in great shape, navigating the soggy month of May in a fine fashion.