LI pros have fun at PGA Championship

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- "Who are those guys?"

That was the buzz during practice for the PGA Championship Monday as people watched three Long Island club pros playing with a colleague from Westchester. Occasionally, someone in the gallery would come up with name recognition, albeit mistakenly. A few thought Matt Dobyns, the head pro at Fresh Meadow, was Jason Dufner, the runnerup at last year's PGA.

Not a problem. Dobyns, as well as Mark Brown, the head pro at Tam O'Shanter, Darrell Kestner, director of golf at Deepdale, and 17 other club pros belong here for two reasons: They earned their way in by qualifying and they are among the people who make golf live and breathe.

While the crowds and TV audiences will be watching Tiger Woods and the rest of the big names this week in the season's final major, club pros know that just about all of those big names are here because they were taught by some club pro.

"They all started somewhere," said Brown, who conducted Tam O'Shanter's 50th Anniversary tournament Sunday and Monday teamed with Dobyns in a match against Kestner and Frank Bensel, an assistant pro at Century Country Club in Purchase. "That's our job to grow the game, to try to have everyone who comes to the club or who plays golf to enjoy it -- and continue to play, not to just try it out and leave. We're ambassadors for the game of golf."

All of them signed dozens of autographs Monday. Brown joked with spectators when a stray tee shot landed near them. It would be great to make the cut, as Kestner did at Baltusrol seven years ago. But the club pros want to make sure they do what they tell their members to do: Just enjoy it out there.

"I might never be at another major again," said Dobyns, the reigning PGA Professional national champion who is being miked this week by TNT. "The last thing I'd want to do is come here and ignore the experience."

Kestner, in a major in a fifth different decade, said he has learned that less is more when it comes to practice at a major. And he knows that the tour pros appreciate what he and his peers do. Fredrik Jacobson was amazed at breakfast Monday when he learned this is Kestner's 10th PGA. "And Vijay [Singh] came up to me said, 'Hey congratulations on making it and have a good week,' " the Deepdale pro said.

As Brown said, "We're all trying to do the same thing."