Craig Bowden, Ryan Helminen share PGA Professional lead
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Craig Bowden and Ryan Helminen each shot 5-under 67 on Sunday at Turning Stone to share the first-round lead in the PGA Professional Championship.
The final top 20 will earn spots next month in the PGA Championship at Baltusrol in New Jersey.
Bowden, a 51-year-old PGA Life Member who played on the PGA Tour from 1996 through 2012, is fighting pain in his left shoulder. He had six birdies and a bogey on the Atunyote course
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I guess I just used magic ice," said Bowden, from Bloomington, Indiana. "The shoulder has been troubling me for two months, and it really is tendinitis. Today was just one of those days. I got off to a good start, then, birdied 12 and 13, and also 15. It was pretty good ball-striking, good distance control with my irons and I made the putts I was supposed to make."
Helminen, a PGA Teaching Professional at Ridgeway Country Club in Neenah, Wisconsin, had six birdies and a bogey on the Kaluhyat layout.
"I think the course suits my game," Helminen said. "It's the type of course you need to plot your way around and I was very good off the tee. It is important for me to be patient, focused and committed to every shot. It's easy to get anxious out here."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mark Brown of Oyster Bay, New York, had a hole-in-one and was a stroke back at 68 along with 2013 champion Rod Perry of Port Orange, Florida; 2015 runner-up Ben Polland of Manhasset, New York; Omar Uresti of Austin, Texas; Brad Lardon of College Station, Texas; and Rich Berberian Jr. of Derry, New Hampshire.