Looking back on a week of brutally windy tournament conditions, Brady Exber admits there were holes at Las Vegas’ Paiute Golf Resort on which he didn’t even try to make par.
“I just didn’t want to make more than a bogey,” said Exber, a Las Vegas local who knows that fall weather in the desert can sometimes bring whipping winds. “I had probably two or three times, just chips from just off the green, that I knew I couldn’t get the ball to stay on the green from chipping.”
Being a Southern Nevada native, Exber is hardened to desert golf in all conditions. That, and he’s exceptionally experienced at the highest level of the game, having won countless Southern Nevada golf titles as well as the British Senior Amateur in 2014 and the Canadian Senior Amateur in 2018.
He added another title on Nov. 8 as he managed the course and the conditions to win the Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown by one shot over Matthew Avril of Vero Beach, Florida. Exber, who won with rounds of 81-79-71 for a 15-over total, dedicated his latest victory to his daughter, Jordan.
Scores: Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown
“I like the course management aspect of golf,” Exber said when asked how he felt about a week that had forced him to get creative. “Whether it’s good weather, bad weather, I like to kind of map out how I would manage the course depending on the weather so I generally – it’s hard to say I enjoyed it because it’s not really enjoyable. I understand it, I can deal with it.”
Exber, 68, barely managed to get in a practice round at Paiute after having come directly from the East West Matches on Nov. 1-3 at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas. The biannual matches pit the 18 best U.S. amateurs from east of the Mississippi with those from west of it in a mix of fourball, foursomes and singles matches.
Exber captained the victorious West team, and left Maridoe high on the concept. His team was highlighted by three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad plus numerous other top amateurs such as Drew Kittleson and Trip Kuehne.
“It was a thrill for me to get to watch those guys play,” he said. “I just can’t believe – I really pinched myself that they even asked me to be the captain. It was just great.”
It was his first time in the captain’s position, however, and he found that part of it nerve-wracking – especially when the score was so close.
“To just be out there watching the matches and not being able to do anything other than come on guys, let’s go, you know root for your guys, it was tough,” Exber said. “It was nerve-wracking.
“I will say that our team, they played so hard and especially down the stretch, it was tight right down to the end and our guys just kind of played, out-toughed them. They were gritty.”
While Exber, back in Las Vegas this week, might have benefited from some local feel in the howling desert wind at Paiute, the top two players in the Super Senior division hailed from Kansas. Despite living in a Plains state, division winner Greg Goode noted “we don’t play in this kind of weather back in Kansas.”
Goode, from Salina, opened with 87 when the conditions were toughest, but rallied with a remarkable second-round 77 and capped it off with a closing 75 for a one-shot victory over fellow Kansan Kevin Belknap.
This was Belknap’s first national senior event, and Goode had only recently talked him into competing. It ended up being a very tough test.
“I’ve never played golf where you never had an easy shot,” Goode said, “because of the wind and the speed of the greens, you just couldn’t stop the ball from rolling when it got on the green, the wind would push it around. It really did help you live in the moment, I will say that. It helped you play one shot at a time – you weren’t thinking about anything else.”
After the first round, Goode had felt so discouraged he didn’t even look at the scoreboard until an email from the tournament director that evening that gave the day’s average score: 85.
“I looked at the scores and I thought, I shot an 87, I’m still in it,” Goode said. “I just played really solid golf the last two days.”
And ultimately, as Goode pointed out, “that’s golf.”
With the victory, Goode gained considerable ground in the Super Senior Player of the Year race. He began the week trailing Jim Starnes by roughly 1,200 points.
Neil Spitalny of Chattanooga, Tennessee, won the Legends division at the Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown with consistent rounds of 77-81-81. He was two shots ahead of Michael Paulsen of Fort Worth, Texas.
Richard Hunt of Bixby, Oklahoma, won the Super Legends division by a three-shot margins after rounds of 81-82-77.