Headline: From the Massachusetts Open to the PGA Professional Championship: Rich Berberian, Jr. & Adam Rainaud Punch Ticket to Quail Hollow Club (NC)

For Immediate Release: June 22, 2017

Rich Berberian, Jr. (above) and Adam Rainaud advanced to the PGA Championship scheduled for August 10-13.

Sunriver, OR — Last week, after completing his first round at the Massachusetts Open Championship held at TGC at Sacconnesset, Vesper Country Club Director of Instruction Rich Berberian, Jr. said that he hoped the challenging competition would prepare him for the 2017 PGA Professional Championship, the next tournament on the young golf professional’s busy schedule.

As the event’s defending champion, there is no question that the 29-year old Berberian knew what it would take to compete in the field and once again earn entry into this year’s PGA Championship, which is taking place at Quail Hollow Club (N.C.) from August 10-13.

After a cross-country flight, a missed practice round and four-demanding days of competition that saw his name jump around the leaderboard, Berberian Jr. finished T5 and will once again return to what is one of the most sought after tournament’s for a PGA golf professional.

A Hooksett, New Hampshire native, Berberian made the two-day cut with a share of the lead after firing a 36-hole score of 6-under par 137 to tie with University of Toledo’s men’s golf coach, Jamie Broce.

However, in the third round of competition, which saw the field narrowed from the original 312 competitors down to the top 90 and ties, Berberian finished at 6-over par after a three-hole run of bogey-quadruple bogey-bogey in the middle of his round that quickly saw his lead evaporate.

Entering the fourth and final round of competition in the PGA Professional Championship, Berberian, Jr., no stranger to comebacks after overcoming a large deficit in the previous year’s event, once again displayed his physical and mental toughness as he carded a 1-under par 71 in the final round to jump 13 spots on the day and net a spot in his second straight PGA Championship.

Starting Wednesday’s final round at T18 and knowing only the top-20 would advance to the Championship Proper, Berberian tallied five birdies to his four bogeys and nine pars to make the large leap up the leaderboard.

Coincidentally, Berberian finished tied for fifth with South Hadley native Adam Rainaud, a 31-year old assistant golf professional at New York’s Winged Foot Golf Club.

The former University of Louisville golfer Rainaud finished his first two rounds at 1-over par 144 to make the cut, then fired a bogey free 3-under par 69 in his third round to make the jump towards the top of the leaderboard. Rainaud, who most recently competed in the 2016 Massachusetts Open Championship at Worcester Country Club, shot a 1-over par 73 in his final round of the PGA Professional Championship to finish T5.

Berberian, Jr. and Rainaud are among the 20 competitors in the field who advanced to the PGA Championship later this summer.

Omar Uresti, a 48-year old from Austin, Texas earned the top honor, defeating Newark, Delaware’s Dave McNabb in a two-hole playoff.

For more information on the PGA Professional Championship, sponsored by Club Car, Mercedes-Benz and OMEGA, visit: www.pga.com.