Category: Amateur

Player-of-the-Year races are tight entering Golfweek TOC at PGA National

The 54-hole event will feature four divisions (Senior, Super Senior, Legends and Super Legends) and will be played Dec. 13-15.

In Golfweek’s Senior Player-of-the-Year race, Kevin VandenBerg is all but untouchable. The 58-year-old from Pulaski, New York, has amassed a 3,350-point lead in Golfweek’s National Senior Amateur Rankings to this point in the season and is positioned to repeat as Player of the Year.

That doesn’t mean he’ll stay home for Golfweek’s final event of the season. Instead, VandenBerg, who is coming off top-3 finishes at the International Senior Invitational, Reynolds Senior and SOS Fall Classic, will tee it up at PGA National’s Fazio Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, for this week’s Golfweek Tournament of Champions. The 54-hole event will feature four divisions (Senior, Super Senior, Legends and Super Legends) and will be played Dec. 13-15.

VandenBerg is part of a deep field in the senior division, which also includes Iowa golf legends Mike McCoy, the 2023 Walker Cup captain, and Gene Elliott as well as 2019 Golfweek Player of the Year Ken Kinkopf and 2020 Golfweek Player of the Year Craig Hurlbert.

In the Super Senior division, the rankings add some drama to the competition. Greg Goode of Salina, Kansas, recently overtook Jim Starnes of Ft. Myers, Florida, at the top of the rankings. But Goode, who gained big points from his division win at the Golfweek Desert Showdown, only leads Starnes by 43 points.

The Super Senior field for the Tournament of Champions also includes Marcus Beck, the Tallahassee, Florida, resident who won Player of the Year honors in this division last year. Beck is ranked No. 5 in the Golfweek National Senior Amateur Rankings.

Notable names in the Legends division include Pete Allen, defending champion in this event, and Greg Osborne, who, earlier this year, led the Legends rankings at the same time his older brother John led the Super Legends rankings.

Perhaps the most impressive start belongs to Bev Hargraves of Little Rock, Arkansas. Hargraves has the Player of the Year title all but locked up after frontloading his schedule in an effort to do just that. After a top-5 finish in the Golfweek Desert Showdown last month, however, Hargraves began a 45-day stretch of radiation treatment for prostate cancer. In the run-up to the Desert Showdown, Hargraves told Golfweek he might suspend that treatment to compete in the TOC.

“If I need to, I’ll do it,” he said.

And here he is.

Don Donatoni, the Malvern, Pennsylvania, resident who trails Hargraves by 1,610 points, is also in the field.

In the Super Legends rankings, the top three players in the rankings are only separated by 420 points, and all three men will play in the TOC.

John Osborne of Vero Beach, Florida, leads Johnny Blank of Frostburg, Maryland, by 145 points. George Owens of Virginia Beach, Virginia, is another 275 points behind that.

World-renowned sports psychologist Bob Rotella named Yancey Ford Award winner

For his profound effect on the game, Rotella has been awarded the Yancey Ford Award, annually presented by Golfweek.

Bob Rotella’s vast influence in golf has unfolded in two ways. For hundreds of people – both in sport (golf particularly) and business – it was through one-on-one coaching with Rotella, now 75.

For untold thousands more, it was less personal though certainly no less impactful. To date, Rotella has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books on the topic of golf and performance, creating a series of resources for players worldwide looking to improve their experience with the game.

It’s for this profound effect on golf that Rotella has been awarded the Yancey Ford Award, annually presented by Golfweek to an individual who has made significant contributions to senior-amateur golf. Ford, the award’s namesake, is a fellow Virginia resident whom Rotella has come to know on the golf course.

Ford praised the way Rotella has changed the game by providing a mental approach that allows players at every level to maximize their potential.

“Sports psychology has been around for a century, and it really has, but Bob Rotella has made it part of the overall preparation, practice and playing for the best results of golf,” Ford said. “It is now part of the game, and he has influenced all of these people how to be better at playing golf.

The list of professional players who have worked with Rotella through the years is impressive, from Rory McIlroy to Juli Inkster to Davis Love III. His players have racked up a significant number of major titles through the years – seven Masters, 13 U.S. Opens, 16 Open Championships and 16 PGA Championships as well as 7 U.S. Women’s Opens, and the list goes on.

To the broader golf community, Rotella is perhaps best known for his bestselling book Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, originally published in 1995.

After receiving the Ford Award, Rotella reflected to Golfweek that he felt fortunate that he’d gotten to spend his life coaching – something he had always wanted to do.

“I feel quite humbled and very, very fortunate and I have a great deal of appreciation for what I’ve gotten to do and that some of the greatest players in history have trusted me enough to let me spend time with them,” he said.

Winning the award in Ford’s name is special to Rotella because of Ford’s love for and contributions to the game.

“I’ve known him for quite awhile,” Rotella said. “I’ve probably played golf with him five or six times and he’s just a sweetheart of a man and loves golf so I like him.”

Ford vividly remembers his first time meeting Rotella back in the late 1990s, and that’s thanks in large part to the four pages of notes he took from their session. He had his then-secretary type them up and he still has the original copy of individualized thoughts for his game that span course management to relaxation during a round.

“He’s a tremendous guy,” Ford said of Rotella. “First of all, he’s very down to Earth, very approachable. He’s a fantastic listener and he’s got great ears – he listens to what people tell him.”

Ford has observed how the latter quality has allowed Rotella to have a greater impact on students, as well as his ability to translate what a player is doing – and what he or she should be doing – into how to improve.

“He understands the physical aspect of the swing too, which is great,” Ford said. “He wouldn’t have the record he has if he didn’t know all that.”

Outside of his coaching and his work as a bestselling author, Rotella also has poured his expertise into the Rotella-Fedder Excellence Academy for junior golfers, based at the Club at Glenmore in Keswick, Virginia.

A significant part of Rotella’s career also unfolded at the University of Virginia, where he was a professor for more than 21 years and also served as the director of the university’s Sports Psychology Department. While no longer on staff at UVA, Rotella said he still works with several university athletes.

“I loved it when I did it,” Rotella said of his time at UVA. “I had a ball doing it, was totally into it, and when I left, I left so I could spend all of my time with people on a one-on-one basis most of the time who really want to learn about this stuff.”

These days, most of Rotella’s students visit him at his home for an intense two-day session of one-on-one coaching and then remain in touch with him by phone or Zoom. Asked how many athletes he is currently working with, Rotella replied “an awful lot.”

Many are professionals and some are college athletes, but some of his students are players who are in their 50s or 60s and still interested in improving their game. One such student is Lewis Brown, the 61-year-old who won the U.S. Senior Amateur in 2024 after an 11-month break from competition.

Rotella plays a good amount of golf himself, noting that “when I’m not working, I play,” but doesn’t usually compete in tournaments. He has, however, won the Virginia Super Senior Four-Ball three times with different partners.

Rotella, who had hand surgery six months ago, will compete in the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic in January when he accepts the Ford Award.

Past Yancey Ford Award recipients:

2010: Yancey Ford
2011: David King
2012: Debbie and James Rivers
2013: John Harrigan
2014: Charles Busbee
2015: Ronnie Tumlin
2016: Ted Smith (Posthumously)
2017: Urquit Morris
2018: James Bianco
2019: Rondal Gaines
2020: No Award (Covid)
2021: Gene Elliott
2022: Joseph Pavoni
2023: James Popa

Mexico’s Clarisa Temelo runs away with 2024 Women’s Amateur Latin America title

This was the fourth edition of the championship, which is conducted by the R&A and the Annika Foundation.

Clarisa Temelo earned the biggest victory of her life Sunday.

The 18-year-old from Mexico and freshman at Arkansas won the 2024 Women’s Amateur Latin America, running away from the field for a six-shot victory. Temelo finished at 9-under 275 for the week at Lima Golf Club in Peru.

“I tried to enjoy every shot,” Temelo said. “Walking down the 18th, I was thinking about what I was going to achieve and playing in three majors in 2025. It was a like a dream to me. Ela (Anacona) was at the University of Arkansas when she won last year, so it’s nice to follow her.”

With the win, Temelo earned exemptions into three major championships in 2025: the Chevron Championship, Amundi Evian Championship and the AIG Women’s Open. She also earned an exemption into the Women’s Amateur Championship next year.

“Each one of the tournaments are so important in golf,” Temelo said. “I played in a junior event at the Evian, the course is amazing and I’m looking forward to going back. Of course, the AIG Women’s Open is a dream and everyone wants to play in that one. The Chevron is also a major and I’m looking forward to playing in it.”

Clarisa Temelo won the Women’s Amateur Latin America and earned three major championship exemptions. (Photo: R&A)

She led wire-to-wire, though her margin of victory was only half as big as Anacona’s last year in Argentina.

This was the fourth edition of the championship, which is conducted by the R&A and the Annika Foundation. Next year, it heads to Mexico for the first time.

Matt Kuchar’s son WDs from Florida state tournament for ‘breaking rules’; team DQs without enough players

Jupiter entered the Class 3A state championship as one of the tournament’s favorites.

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. — Jupiter boys golf, ranked No. 2 nationally per iWanamaker, withdrew two of its golfers halfway through playing in the state championship this week, ending any hope for a state title.

Jupiter entered the Class 3A state championship as one of the tournament’s favorites and was in second place after the first day of play.

However, the Warriors started Wednesday’s second round with only three of five golfers on the course at Mission Inn Resort + Club, dashing their chances at a state championship in 2024.

Jupiter golfers Talan Wilkes and Cameron Kuchar, son of nine-time PGA Tour-winning golfer Matt Kuchar, were each absent on the second day of the tournament. Jupiter head coach Bruce Wasserman said “non-course incidents” forced the players’ withdrawals.

“Breaking rules of the state honor code for golf, for non-course stuff, is all I can really say,” Wasserman said.

Florida High School Athletic Association golf administrator Ed Thompson clarified that the two golfers were not disqualified; rather, they were withdrawn by Jupiter.

“WD” is listed next to both Wilkes and Kuchar’s names on the FHSAA scoring sheet.

“We were disqualified as a team because we only had three guys left, but the three guys, it was a great day with what they did,” said Wasserman, who became emotional discussing the circumstances. “From the start of this year, we knew we had the talent. We set out to win a state championship. We get here, we’re in position, and then this happens. It was devastating to them and emotional for all of us.”

After commending the efforts of his remaining players, Wasserman indicated that at full strength, his program might have won it all.

“Reasonably sure, if we would have had our full squad, we would have walked away with the title,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s a learning lesson for all of us. In the end, we had a fantastic season. We won a huge tournament in Orlando, we won districts, we won regionals, and things happen. That’s sports. That’s life. You’re not going to see a team as strong as this team, ever. But decisions, you know?”

Jupiter’s Hampton Beebe shot a 144, tying for the fifth-best individual score to achieve a medallion at tournament’s end.

“We did come a long way this year,” Beebe said. “This place is not easy. I’m proud of how I finished.”

Jupiter’s Hampton Beebe poses for a photo with his medal after shooting a 144 at the state tournament, good for fifth place overall (Nov. 20, 2024).
Brayden Jenard shot a 145, the eight-best mark, while Tristan Wieland wasn’t far behind with a 147, good for tenth place in the tournament.

In the wake of Jupiter’s ineligibility to compete as a group of give golfers, Viera took first place in the state championship, flanked by Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton) and Ponte Vedra.

Jupiter’s Brayden Jenard putts during the Class 3A state championship on Nov. 20, 2024. (Photo: Alexander Peterman/Palm Beach Post)

Dwyer takes sixth place in Class 3A state championship

Wylie Inman shot a 146, including two birdies on the back nine to crack the top 10 with a stellar performance for the Panthers, who finished sixth place overall in the tournament.

William Cui shot a 149 as a freshman. Notably, he shot par on every hole on the second day.

Alex Peterman covers high school sports for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at apeterman@gannett.com.

Can Spain end the Americans’ run at the Spirit International? Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio thinks so

When the Spaniard came to play at Texas A&M, she was the second-ranked women’s amateur in the world.

TRINITY, Texas — The immense pressure, according to Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, has been slowly slipping away. She’s not sure if it’s because she’s easing up on herself a little or if the game is just slowing down after two full seasons of SEC golf.

When the Spaniard came to play at Texas A&M in the fall of 2023, she was the second-ranked women’s amateur in the world. The pressure to win was intense, and the winner of the 2022 World Junior Girls Championship and Junior Golf World Cup expected the victories to keep piling up.

She got into two events on the Ladies European Tour and shined in each, tying for third in her debut at the Madrid Ladies Open, and then she led after 36 holes at the tour’s season finale – the Spanish Women’s Open – before eventually placing T-5.

But it took a bit to acclimate to college golf after her sister Bianca left College Station. Fernandez Garcia-Poggio played well, but not at the insanely high standard she’d previously set.

Cayetana Fernández García-Poggio tees off during a practice round at the 2024 Spirit International (Photo: Hugh Hargrave/Spirit Golf)

Whether others were applying pressure or not, she now admits the struggle was internal.

“When I got here, I put all expectations on me,” she said on an 80-degree Tuesday at Whispering Pines Golf Course. “I was like I need to play good. I need to prove that I’m good. And that didn’t help me at all.”

To be fair, Fernandez Garcia-Poggio had a banner freshman year, finishing as a second-team All-SEC selection and contributing the second-lowest stroke average for a freshman in Aggie history.

But the hard work finally paid off at the end of October when the 19-year-old shot a 4 under through three rounds to capture the Charles Schwab Women’s Collegiate at Ridglea Country Club in Fort Worth, her first collegiate title. She finally got back into a winner’s circle and has set the wheels in motion for what could be a big spring campaign.

More: Texas golf course ravaged by flooding ready to host another Spirit International amateur event

Before she returns to SEC action, Fernandez Garcia-Poggio is feeling truly at home at the Spirit International, a biennial event that brings teams of two male and two female players together from multiple countries. So while she’s enjoying the sunny surroundings of her adopted home of Texas, she’s playing for Spain with friends Carla Bernat Escuder (Kansas State), Pablo Ereno Perez (UCLA) and fellow Aggie Jaime Montojo Fernandez.

“I love Texas,” she said. “I’ve played here before at this course and I love it. It’s so peaceful. And I’m enjoying college a lot. I love being here. But I do miss home sometimes and to be able to play with my friends, talk Spanish and represent Spain, this is nice.”

Opening ceremonies for the Spirit were held Tuesday night and competition for the 2024 event starts Thursday and runs through Saturday.

The team to beat for years has been the American squad, as the hosts have won five of the last six tournaments with only a slight hiccup in 2019 when France proved victorious. The U.S. side is stacked again with North Carolina senior David Ford,  Tommy Morrison of Texas, USC star Jasmine Koo and high school phenom Asterisk Talley. Other countries represented include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland.

Jaime Montojo Fernandez, Pablo Ereno Perez, captain Sofia Marcos De Prat, Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio and Carla Bernat Escuder of Team Spain at the Spirit International. (Photo: Hugh Hargrave/Spirit Golf)

But Fernandez Garcia-Poggio thinks her team has what it takes to stop the run.

“I have to say, I think we have a really good team and we have a lot of odds to win, but you never know because it’s golf, right? But (Wednesday), we played amazing, all four of us. So I think we could win and hopefully take America.”

The Spirit has hosted numerous stars before, players like Lorena Ochoa, Lexi Thompson, Brooke Henderson, Charley Hull and Rose Zhang.

Fernandez Garcia-Poggio thinks a big week at the Spirit could help propel her into a similar space.

“I think I’m ready to push this season, the spring season, and hopefully starting this tournament,” she said. “I love competing and I love to have those nerves whenever you are about to win or you can win. So even though I put pressure on myself, I think I’m working on it and I’m getting better.”

Texas golf course ravaged by flooding ready to host another Spirit International amateur event

Just over six months ago, a 100-year flood rushed through the area, causing major damage.

TRINITY, Texas — Shea Morenz is not prone to hyperbole. A former University of Texas football quarterback and first-round pick of the New York Yankees, Morenz has seen his share of major sports stages and is largely unflappable on a golf course, where his smooth swing puts his athleticism clearly on display.

But during a recent round at Whispering Pines Golf Club, the top-rated private golf course in Texas and the host of the biennial Spirit International, even Morenz had to shake his head in awe.

A little more than six months ago, a 100-year flood rushed through the area, causing major damage to the Chet Williams-designed golf course and making this year’s edition of the Spirit International a long shot. The tournament, originally concocted by course founder Corby Robertson — Morenz’s father-in-law — welcomes two men and two women to represent their countries in a team event like no other.

Morenz, who witnessed the devastation first-hand, was amazed at how the pristine course shaped up after the onslaught of wet weather.

“It’s really incredible what has happened here,” Morenz said while playing the front nine of the course that takes up just a small segment of the 400-acre property about 90 minutes from Houston. “There was silt covering huge portions of this golf course. To see it in such amazing condition now is really incredible.”

Whispering Pines Golf Course in Texas suffered massive flooding in April 2024. (Photo courtesy Whispering Pines)

Originally, the course was born from a camp hosted on the property. and a game that Robertson called “olf, which is golf without the greens.” As part of the weekly routine, eager campers would hit shots off a tee to a wide-open “green” that was simply a pushed-up piece of turf with a washtub in the middle. The kids loved it.

Over time, Robertson and others realized this would be a prime piece of property for a golf course. By then, he’d become an energy magnate, first in oil, then in coal, and had the financial means to create the course. In the 1990s, when beetles started eating away some of the camp’s trees, he decided to make a go of it, starting with a series of three legit holes, then adding irrigation systems and creating the course that now tops Golfweek’s Best Private Courses in Texas list: Whispering Pines.

Soon after, in 2001, the Spirit International Amateur Golf Tournament was born, a biennial event with from each of 20 countries that span six continents.

The opening ceremonies were held Tuesday night and competition for the 2024 event starts Thursday and runs through Saturday. The American squad will look to extend a streak of five victories in the last six tournaments. With North Carolina senior David Ford, tall Texas star Tommy Morrison, talented USC freshman Jasmine Koo and high school phenom Asterisk Talley, the U.S. side is a solid bet once again.

The other countries represented include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The Americans are led by former Spirit player Nathan Smith, who is serving as captain after Stacy Lewis passed the reins. Smith won the individual men’s event back in 2011 as well as the team title.

And while Robertson is eager to see the matches play out, he’s most thrilled that the course is back in playable shape. The neighboring short course called The Needler didn’t fare as well, and won’t be ready for play until deep into 2025, and the main course’s signature 15th hole, which jutted into a river, will need to be rebuilt. But the course is ready for 80 international players, which is something of a wonder.

“It’s very hurtful to watch something that you’ve invested your time, interest and financing in and to just watch Mother Nature take it apart. And it wasn’t as bad on the big course. On hole number 15, we’re gonna have to rebuild the greens. I’m sorry, we got a temporary and it’ll be better someday,” Robertson said. “We’re looking for ways to build this back so that it’s more fortified. But it’s ready and that’s what matters.”

Corby Robertson speaks at the Spirit International Media Day at Whispering Pines Golf Course. (Tim Schmitt/Golfweek)

Robertson, who was an All-American defensive lineman at the University of Texas, is not only eager to see the way the Spirit plays out, but he’s also looking forward to seeing how far his beloved Longhorns, ranked third in the country, can go in the College Football Playoff. He’s been impressed with coach Steve Sarkisian, who is now in his third season at the helm.

“Sark has got a really talented group of young people who are pulling the rope in the same direction. It’ll be interesting to see how far they go,” he said. “I think they could go all the way.”

Local legend Brady Exber wins Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown despite brutal conditions

“I like the course management aspect of golf,” Exber said when asked how he felt about a week when weather forced him to get creative.

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.

Las Vegas local Brady Exber climbs to top of Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown

Las Vegas’s own Brady Exber certainly played like a local on Thursday at the Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown.

Las Vegas’s own Brady Exber certainly played like a local on Thursday at the Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown. As the scores indicate, conditions have been brutal at Paiute Golf Resort for two days, but in Round 2, Exber used consistency to move into a share of the lead.

His second-round 7-over 79 was tied for the lowest in the division, and was one of only eight scores under 80 in the second round. Exber’s round included a birdie on the par-5 third and an eagle on the par-5 11th. Otherwise, he generally succeeded in keeping the big numbers off his card.

Exber is teeing it up in the Golfweek event just days after captaining the West team to victory at the East West Matches at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas, last week. Exber is known as one of the most prolific golfers in the Southern Nevada region, with a long list of Southern Nevada and Las Vegas titles to his name as well as USGA starts.

Scores: Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown

Exber, at 16 over, holds a share of the lead with first-round co-leader Matthew Avril, the Vero Beach, Florida, resident who won the Golfweek Senior POY Classic to start the year.

After that, the leaderboard remains tight, with two men tied for third at 17 over and three men tied for fifth at 18 over.

The top of the Super Senior leaderboard is dotted with Midwesterners, with Kevin Belknap of Wichita, Kansas, still the sole leader at 15 over. Belknap backed up an opening 79 with a second-round 80 and leads Terry Tyson of Perrysburg, Ohio, by a shot.

Greg Goode of Salina, Kansas, had the best round of any competitor on Thursday – a 5-over 77 that moved him into solo fourth.

Neil Spitalny remains in the lead in the Legends division. The Chattanooga, Tennessee, resident fired an opening 77 and despite backing up to 81, leads by five shots.

Another Las Vegas player, Steven Johnson, leads the Super Legends division after rounds of 81-80. He is one shot ahead of Greg Mokler of Timnath, Colorado.

Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown: The elements present a fierce test on opening day at Paiute

Two men from the East Coast fought their way to the lead at the Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown.

Amid the whipping wind they found in the desert on Wednesday, two men from the East Coast fought their way to the lead at the Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown. After a tough opening day at Paiute Resort’s Snow Mountain course in Las Vegas, Doug Stiles of Athens, Georgia, and Matthew Avril of Vero Beach, Florida, share the lead in the Senior division.

Across all four divisions, scores soared in the opening round. The field averaged 84.9 for the opening 18 holes as the wind blew 25-40 mph and the day began at a crisp 40 degrees.

Stiles and Avril both landed at 8-over 80 for the day. Avril didn’t make a birdie, and while Stiles made two, he also had a couple of big numbers on his card. Still, both men made the most of the day and managed to take a one-shot advantage on five players tied for third at 9 over.

Scores: Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown

Among the big group at 9 over is Brady Exber, who is teeing it up this week in his Las Vegas hometown after captaining the West team to victory at the East West Matches at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas, last week.

In the Super Senior division, it isn’t all the surprising that Kevin Belknap from Wichita, Kansas, leads the pack with a round of 7-over 79. Belknap, from the windy plains, fired one of just three rounds under 80 on Wednesday. He leads Stevie Cannady of Pooler, Georgia, by a shot. Cannady, who won the Golfweek Super Senior National Championship in July, birdied the 11th but double-bogeyed the 18th.

The two best scores of the day came from the Legends division, where Steve Cribari of La Quinta, California, and Neil Spitalny of Chattanooga, Tennessee posted rounds of 76 and 77, respectively.

Behind Cribari and Spitalny, the next-best score in the division came from Michael Paulsen of Fort Worth, Texas, who had 82.

In the Super Legends division, Greg Mokler of Timnath, Colorado, leads with 80. Steven Johnson of Las Vegas and Richard Hunt of Bixby, Oklahoma, are right behind him with rounds of 81.

Bev Hargraves enters the Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown eyeing the completion of a year-long POY quest

The 73-year-old started thinking: What might happen if he teed it up in more tournaments?

Bev Hargraves seems to always be in contention, and after so many top-10 finishes in senior amateur events, the 73-year-old started thinking: What might happen if he teed it up in more tournaments?

To start 2024, Hargraves sat down with his wife and pitched an idea. He wanted to play more tournaments to see if the extra starts would launch him to the top of the Golfweek National Senior Rankings for players in his age group (70-74 years old) and land him Legends Player of the Year honors.

It would be a commitment, for sure.

Hargraves still has an insurance agency back home in Little Rock, Arkansas, and works eight to 10 hours a day. He underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2021 and has been battling prostate cancer for the past few years. The latter necessitated him front-loading his competition schedule a bit this year.

Shortly after he competes in this week’s Golfweek Desert Showdown at Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort, Hargraves will begin a 45-day stretch of radiation treatment that will take him off the national senior amateur circuit.

“What I want to do is to see how I play in Las Vegas and if I can possibly wrap up the Player of the Year,” Hargraves said.

Hargraves won his age division earlier this year at the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic, giving him a huge boost in his quest. He also won the Legends title at the Low Country Senior and tied for second at the U.S. Senior Challenge, a state team event for which he serves on the board.

Golfweek National Senior Amateur Rankings

All of that has Hargraves sitting atop the Legends rankings, with a 1,120-point lead on Don Donatoni of Malvern, Pennsylvania. Expect Hargraves to keep a close eye on the standings even as he undergoes radiation. He has considered the possibility of suspending treatment to squeeze in one more tournament in December.

“If I need to, I’ll do it.”

Through the years, Hargraves’ competitive nature clearly hasn’t changed much, and neither has his game.

“Historically my driving has been the best part of my game,” he said. “I’m not long but usually in the fairway. The part that helps me in every tournament is my short game, chipping and putting, which has always been good.”

The latter he still credits to Paul Runyan, a World Golf Hall of Famer for whom he had the good fortune to caddie during the Mohawk Open, a pro-am played in the 1960s at his home golf course, Helena (Arkansas) Country Club.

“He was a short game guru and he’s the one who kind of taught me different techniques on chipping and putting,” Hargraves said of Runyan.

Hargraves first came to the game as a caddie at 9 years old and began playing two years later. He never had a lesson but observed while he caddied. He took advantage of the opportunities that came to him, like a front-row seat to Runyan.

Regardless, Hargraves’ golf resume is full. He has won more than 80 individual titles in Arkansas, served in various leadership roles in his state association, regional associations and even the USGA (notably, Hargraves was a member of the U.S. Mid-Amateur Committee from 1991 to 2006). He has traveled domestically and abroad to compete in tournaments.

Until this year’s run at player-of-the-year honors, Hargraves, who played collegiately for the University of Arkansas in the 1970s, has typically played just five or six national tournaments a year. As he has gotten older, golf has become the sport in which he remains physically competitive. As a younger man, he liked to compete in baseball, football or anything else that satisfied his natural competitive drive.

When Hargraves turned 45, he turned his focus to playing in the U.S. Mid-Amateur, and he qualified for five of those. He attempted qualifying for the U.S. Senior Amateur at age 56 and has played six of those. He last qualified for a U.S. Senior Am in 2017.

“One thing I do want to do, and it will be hard to do, is qualifying for the U.S. Senior Am,” he said of goals that still remain on the table.

As always, Hargraves continues to seek out the highest level of competition. It’s his “why.”

“I like to compete against the best,” he said.