PGA of America Golf Professional Tim Weinhart of Georgia is playing in his third KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. Two of them have been staged at Harbor Shores. So fortunately, he has a pretty good feel for the golf course.
“I’m very comfortable here,” Weinhart, part of the Corebridge Financial Team competing this week, said on Tuesday. “There is plenty of room to drive the ball. It’s a second-shot golf course. If you’ve got control of your irons, you can shoot a good number here."
A year ago at PGA Frisco’s Fields Ranch East, Weinhart had finished up his final-round 74 and already had driven off-property when he received an interesting call: It was a PGA of America official asking him if he could return to the golf course. Mark Brown of Florida had unexpectedly made double-bogey at the par-5 closing hole, and Weinhart suddenly was tied for Low PGA of America Golf Professional.
Weinhart, 54, likely is the first professional so honored after having to cut short a trip through In-N-Out Burger to receive his glass bowl for co-Low Professional. (He and Brown, who tied at 6-over 294, also were offered kitchen makeovers from KitchenAid.)
The final scene wrapped up what had been a long, strange week for Weinhart, an alternate who did not learn he would be part of last year’s KitchenAid field until the Monday of tournament week.
Weinhart said being Low Professional from such a deep and talented pool of PGA Professionals certainly is a source of pride for him. In addition to the glass bowl he received, his experience was priceless, and something he can pass along when he is teaching at one of the two Atlanta-area clubs where he works. Weinhart has been Director of Instruction at Heritage Golf Links in Tucker since 2015, and also teaches at Woodmont, in Canton. (“I’m blessed,” he said.)
“As an instructor, the biggest thing that I’m trying to communicate to all my students and players, the ones who are trying to get to college, I’ve got a couple who are trying to play on the mini-tours, is the preparation,” he said. “You can prepare, but don’t overprepare. It’s easy to stay out here (practicing) all day. I know when to shut down and go chill.”
Weinhart says his game has become more rounded since he began playing on the bigger stages, and he is pretty accomplished as a player. He was only 23 when he became a PGA of America member, and is only one of four players to have captured the Georgia PGA Grand Slam: Georgia Open, Georgia PGA, Atlanta Open and Georgia PGA Match Play. He was inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2020.
At 54, he is encouraged by the improvements he continues to see in his game.
“I’ve been hitting it pretty good the last couple of years,” Weinhart said. “Prior to that, I practically lived and died on my putter. I figured a few things out in my golf swing, and it feels good.
“My ball-striking has been pretty consistent. When I putt good, it (my score) starts with a ‘6’ (meaning a score in the 60s), and when I don’t, it doesn’t.”
