Sports
Rockville Native Hopes Third Time's a Charm at PGA Championship
Soccer-star-turned-golf-pro Danny Balin qualified at national tournament last month.
Danny Balin, a Rockville native turned Connecticut club golf professional, has qualified for next month’s PGA Championship.
Balin, a 30-year-old assistant pro at in Greenwich, CT, qualified by finishing in the top 20 at the 45th PGA Professional National Championship, June 24-27, at Bayonet Black Horse in Seaside, CA. Balin finished tied for 15th with a 2-over-par 290.
Balin also competed in the 2010 and 2011 PGA championships, missing the cut both years.
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Balin discussed his childhood in Rockville and his introduction to golf in a 2010 profile on GreenwichTime.com. “My family didn’t play golf,” he told the newspaper.
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Balin also didn’t play for the golf team at Penn State University, where he majored in PGA Golf Management.
However, he did play on ’s 1996 state championship soccer team and took up golf seriously relatively late in life for a professional, The Gazette reported in a 2011 profile of Balin.
Click here to read the full story in The Gazette.
A made ESPN SportsCenter’s “Top Plays” in September.
The 94th PGA Championship will be held Aug. 9-12, at The Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, SC.
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