Stevie Cannady’s first national senior victory had a redemptive element. For much of the back nine at the Golfweek Super Senior, Legends and Super Legends National Championship, it looked like Cannady would easily bag the Super Senior title.
Then came the double bogey at No. 17, and his three-shot lead shrunk to one.
“After making double bogey I got a little nervous,” Cannady admitted.
Cannady had been trying to play to the front of the green at the Golf Club of Georgia’s par-3 17th but pull-hooked his tee shot into the pond there. When he stepped up the 18th tee, he refound his confidence. Playing with his three closest pursuers, Cannady put his approach inside 20 feet, the closest to the hole in the group, and left himself an easy one-and-a-half footer for par.
Scores: Golfweek Super Senior, Legends and Super Legends National Championship
“I’ve had seconds and I’ve had thirds and I’ve never won, so this is the first,” Cannady said of finally scoring a title. Shortly after the victory, as he drove from Alpharetta back home to Pooler, Georgia, near Savannah, he looked forward to sharing the news with his local golf buddies.
Cannady had consistent rounds of 73-72-70 for a 1-under 54-hole total. That left him one ahead of Todd Brown and two ahead of Chris Hall on a tight leaderboard.
Cannady turned 65 in early January, making 2024 his first year in the super senior division. Given that change of division, he decided to ramp up his schedule a little. It had been a few years since he had played much on the senior circuit as work – Cannady owns a logistics company that specializes in trucking, warehousing and some commercial real estate – prevented him for teeing it up very many weeks.
Before arriving at the Golf Club of Georgia, his best finish of 2024 had been a top 5 at the Lowcountry Senior Invitational in May.
It was the one that got away.
“I was one off the lead there and made a double bogey on 16, which cost me that tournament,” he said. “Didn’t know it at the time but the guy that won it actually double-bogeyed 17 and then bogeyed 18. If I had just parred the 16th hole, I would have won outright.”
Originally, Cannady was scheduled to play in a U.S. Senior Amateur qualifier early week, but decided not to play that round so that he could get a look at the Golf Club of Georgia, a course he hadn’t seen in 30 years.
“I definitely needed the practice round to refamiliarize myself,” he said. “It’s a fabulous facility, beautiful layout around the lakes and everything, in phenomenal good shape, too.”
On his very last driver swing of that practice-round day, Cannady cracked his driver head, which sent him to closest PGA Tour Superstore to find a replacement before the tournament started. Cannady ended up putting a new TaylorMade in the bag. He could fade or hook his old, familiar driver on demand, but found himself fighting a bit of a fade bias with the new club.
“I kind of had to play a little left to right all week,” he said. “Hit a few straight ones but most of them were fades, going left to right.”
In a final-round 70, his best score of the week, Cannady hit 86% of fairways and 89% of greens. He had 30 putts and aside from the double on No. 17, nothing but pars and four birdies – which all came on the front nine and helped him leapfrog first- and second-round leader Emile Vaughan, who ended up fourth after a final-round 75.
The momentum from Cannady’s Super Senior National Championship win could translate into something bigger down the road – the opportunities are certainly there this summer and fall. Cannady ticked off a solid tournament schedule coming up, which includes Society of Senior events at Turning Stone Resort in New York and Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon, as well as the Golfweek Senior National Match Play at Tot Hill Farm in Asheboro, North Carolina, and the North & South Senior Amateur at Pinehurst (North Carolina) Resort.
In the Legends division, Neil Spitalny of Chattanooga, Tennessee, clipped Charley Yandell by a shot as Yandell, who had led for much of the day, double-bogeyed the closing par 5. Spitalny put together a tidy final-round 70 which included three birdies and a single bogey at No. 16. He finished at 3 over for the tournament.
Phil Pavoni tied Yandell at 4 over for runner-up honors in the division.
Don Kuehn of Kansas City, Missouri, won the Super Legends division after rounds of 77-71-73 left him at 5 over for the tournament. Notably, Kuehn, who is in the Kansas City Golf Hall of Fame, claimed the 49th victory of his senior career. He has the distinction of having won the Kansas Senior Slam, which includes the Senior Amateur, Senior Four-Ball and Senior Match Play titles and “The Railer” Stroke Play Championship, and has done much to promote the game in his hometown.