At the top of elite senior amateur rankings, John and Greg Osborne remain brothers first

John Osborne and his brother Greg top their respective age categories to start the year.

No shortage of competitive fire burns within John Osborne – nor his brother Greg Osborne, for that matter. It’s just that neither Osborne directs that competitiveness at the other. As it turns out, five years is the perfect age difference to quell sibling rivalry on the golf course.

“It was a little bit too much of a gap,” said Greg Osborne, of Lititz, Pennsylvania. “When I was 10, he was 15. He was way better than I was.”

Now in their seventies, John and Greg Osborne still keep an eye on each other’s respective tournaments. Even when they compete together, they aren’t in the same age division. They often aren’t in the same geographic location either given that Greg plays actively in Golf Association of Philadelphia events (he was the Super Senior player of the year in 2022) while John, who maintains a house in Virginia but spends most of his year in Vero Beach, Florida, plays national senior events largely in the southeast.

Still, a month into the new year, the Osborne brothers find themselves in similar territory as they both top their respective age divisions in Golfweek’s rankings for senior amateurs. John, 75, is the top-ranked player in the Super Legends division (ages 75 and older) while Greg is perched atop the Legends division (ages 70-74). They are believed to be the first time two brothers to ever do such a thing.

More: Golfweek Senior Amateur Rankings

John led the Super Legends division after 36 holes of the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic at the Omni Orlando (Florida) Resort at ChampionsGate last month, and ultimately finished runner-up to Frank Costanzo. He also was second at the Gateway Senior Invitational two weeks earlier.

Greg reached the top of the rankings on the strength of winning the Legends division title at the Heron Creek Invitational and finishing runner-up at the Plantation Senior Invitational at the start of January.

Both men are headed to the Florida Azalea Senior and Moot Thomas Invitational in Central Florida next month.

Being older, John debuted on this senior circuit first. After years of playing corporate golf while working for PepsiCo, John got back into competition after he retired in 2006. Greg followed suit.

“It didn’t take much convincing,” said Greg, who is also now retired after a career first in lawn care and then in furniture sales. “I like to compete.”

Both aim to compete in roughly 15 to 20 events per year. It’s a lifestyle now.

The Osbornes are originally from Blacksburg, Virginia, and spent their formative years playing laps around the nine-hole municipal course in town now called The Hill. It’s the same golf course PGA Tour winner Lanto Griffin grew up playing.

“We were literally right across the street,” Greg said. “We’re talking 20 feet from the driveway to the golf course. I played just thousands of rounds on that golf course.”

As always, the age difference was too wide for them to have played many of those early rounds together. Greg remembers tagging along, mostly with his dad, as a 5-year-old while John was slightly older when he picked up the game. Both would make their way onto Virginia Tech’s golf team.

And later in life, both would also play their way into U.S. Golf Association championships, which is what many amateurs consider the pinnacle of the sport.

John competed in the now-retired U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in 1976 (played at Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids, Minnesota) after winning the Virginia Public Links Championship. He made the match-play bracket but bowed out in the first round.

Greg qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur in back-to-back years: 2011 (at Kinloch Golf Club in Manakin-Sabot, Virginia) and 2012 (at Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell, New Jersey). He made match play the first time but not on his return trip. He’s never forgotten either experience.

“That was incredible, the way you get treated at those USGA events is just unbelievable,” Greg said.

As they age into older divisions, qualifying for the U.S. Senior Amateur means topping younger and younger competitors on golf courses set up longer than in a tournament that includes divisions specifically for players 70 and above.

As John joked, “Every year, it’s like five more yards melt away.” But one of the things he likes about senior circuit events is that tournament directors adapt yardages for players of different ages. The idea is to set them up so that players have the same clubs in their hands as PGA Tour players would at their respective course lengths.

“Looking at the length of golf courses based on the length of the average players in our age groups, it makes it really competitive and a lot more fun when you have a course where you can reach a couple of the par 5s and every once in a while they have a drivable par 4,” he said.

It’s a small, competitive subset of players, and every win – whether it’s a qualifier or a tournament – is hard-fought. And it’s no small thing to be ranked No. 1.

“It is very competitive and when you get a chance to win, that tightness creeps in there and it’s hard to get it home,” John said. “Everybody who wins one of these senior events will tell you the same thing: They’re hard to win. At every level of golf, to win is really hard but to be competitive is what’s really a lot of fun.”

Mid-tourney tune-up puts Steve Sharpe over the top at Golfweek Senior POY Classic

After winning the super senior division of the Golfweek Senior POY Classic, Steve Sharpe now has four top-5 finishes to start 2024.

Even as he was doing it, Steve Sharpe thought, I’ve got to be crazy. Nobody takes a swing lesson in the middle of a tournament and comes out with a win, right?

But Sharpe, who turns 67 later this week, couldn’t resist the opportunity to have Sean Hogan at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy at the Omni Orlando (Florida) Resort at ChampionsGate look over his swing. So after a first-round 74 at ChampionsGate for the Golfweek Senior POY Classic, Sharpe made an appointment with Hogan. The next day, he shot a 1-under 71 – one of only eight rounds under par all week in the tournament’s four divisions – and took the lead in the super senior division. He bookended that round with another 74 on Thursday and walked away with the division title. He was 3 over for 72 holes and four shots ahead of Doug Harris from Vero Beach, Florida.

“I wasn’t turning enough in my backswing,” Sharpe said. “I was kind of lifting it with my arms. I’ve been knowing it forever but I didn’t know how to fix it. I just put it right in play and it was shaky a couple holes but overall, my ballstriking really got a lot better there.”

Scores: Golfweek POY Classic

Sharpe drove home to Greensboro, North Carolina, the next day where he works in construction for P&S Grading LLC, after playing four January senior events. He won the Plantation Senior Invitational, was runner-up at the Gateway Senior Invitational, finished fifth at the Heron Creek Senior and won again at the POY Classic.

When work is slow in the winter, Sharpe likes to go south and load up on tournaments. He’ll play more local events and Carolinas Golf Association events the rest of the year.

Sharpe has made seven career U.S. Golf Association starts, most recently at the 2016 U.S. Senior Amateur. He played the U.S. Mid-Amateur twice and qualified for the U.S. Senior Open in 2007 and 2009.

Remarkably, Sharpe didn’t begin playing golf until he was 30. Once he started, he found that he loved the individual nature of the sport and loved to compete, so he started working more and more at his game.

“Keeps me busy,” he said.

Sharpe is still sorting out the nuances of competitive golf, notably the pressure that comes with the lead. Starting on the back nine in his final round, Sharpe birdied the first hole. Then he could feel that pressure closing in on him. He played Nos. 5-7 in 4 over, but birdied No. 8 to seal the deal.

“When I’m up around the lead, I just try to control myself,” he said. “I know I can do it if I don’t get too emotional.”

All four divisions featured tightly grouped leaderboards, but the senior division was perhaps the closest race – especially early week. Matthew Avril of Vero Beach, Florida, took a share of the lead in the second round and won by three shots on the strength of a final-round 2-under 70. Despite its difficulty, he played the back nine in 2 under the final day.

“I made my only bogey of the day unfortunately on 7 but I bounced back, made birdie on 8 and parred 9 and so I knew with a good solid even par, again with the conditions, if I could play solid on the back, somebody was going to have to do something pretty good to do it,” Avril said. “So it was in my hands. But that back nine has a stretch there from 13 to 16 that is really tough.”

Matthew Avril
Matthew Avril, senior division winner of the 2024 Golfweek Senior POY Classic.

Avril was 1 over for 54 holes, which was three better than Rick Cloninger of Rockhill, South Carolina. Doug Hanzel of Savannah, Georgia, and Mike Lohner of Southlake, Texas, tied for third another shot back.

The key to his win, Avril thought, was a birdie on the long par-3 14th, which played 195 yards. He pulled driver there in the second round but used a hybrid on Thursday and stuck it to 20 feet for the birdie.

On No. 16, a par 4, Avril hit it to 4 feet from a downhill lie in a back bunker and made par.

Avril noted that each day of the tournament had its own set of challenges, from wind and cold temperatures to saturated conditions from an early-week rain to a rye grass overseed that allowed for little roll.

Avril is not a particularly long player, but he makes up for it in accuracy.

“The goal is always to hit fairways and greens and I put the ball in play, which is really the strength of my game,” he said. “I hit 41 out of 42 fairways over the three days, and so I got off to a good start.”

Avril hasn’t competed as much in the past year, but he did win the Florida Senior Azalea in 2023.

“I’ve got a full slate coming this year,” he said. “Really looking forward to playing as much golf as my body will let me. All of us get a little beat up at this age.”

Bev Hargraves of Little Rock, Arkansas, won the legends division at 5 over.

Notably, in the super legends division, Frank Costanzo of Savannah, Georgia had the round of week – a final-round 68 that included six birdies – and won his division by six shots over John Osborne of Vero Beach, Florida.

From Michigan triple crown to national senior crown: Kevin VandenBerg’s 2023 golf marathon was POY-worthy

“I know I’d like to become one of the better players in what I call the senior circuit, that’s what I’d like to do,” Kevin VandenBerg said.

Back in the summer of 2000, Kevin VandenBerg swept Michigan’s three major amateur tournaments: the Michigan Amateur, Golf Association of Michigan Championship and the Michigan Mid-Amateur. He still remembers a conversation from the next spring. A younger player approached VandenBerg, in his mid 30s at the time, and questioned why, after that hat trick, he hadn’t turned pro – everyone just assumed he would but VandenBerg, who played college golf and baseball at Kalamazoo College in Michigan and was nearly drafted as a catcher, never had those pro aspirations.

Fast forward to 2021 when VandenBerg turned 55 and entered the senior amateur division. He still harbors no pro dreams, but there is something else now.

“I know I’d like to become one of the better players in what I call the senior circuit, that’s what I’d like to do,” he said. “I’m just trying to focus on my game, take care of the things I can do and improve my game the best I can.”

You get there by playing tournaments. Lots and lots of tournaments. In 2023, VandenBerg, a money manager who owns his own company, Apogee Investment Management, teed it up in competition 44 times between Golfweek senior events, Society of Senior events, local tournaments and USGA qualifiers.

Plus, he said, “I played more in 2022.”

But while 2022 ended with VandenBerg runner-up to Rusty Strawn for Golfweek Player of the Year honors in the Senior division (players aged 55-64), VandenBerg did one better in 2023 and took the title for himself. He finished 144 points ahead of Bob Royak, winner of the 2019 U.S. Senior Amateur, courtesy of a T-2 finish at the Ralph Bogart Tournament at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor, Florida. He knew he needed a finish of third place or better at Copperhead to top Royak.

Kevin VandenBerg
Kevin VandenBerg

“I didn’t look at the scoreboard until the last day we were on 17,” VandenBerg said, “and I looked at the scoreboard and I think I was fourth or tied for third. I knew I needed to make a birdie on one of the last two holes, probably, and I made a 20-foot birdie putt on the last hole and that put me over the top.”

VandenBerg, now 57, was motivated by the realization he had a limited window of time on the low end of the senior age bracket.

“I wanted to try and play in as much as I could to try and take advantage of it,” he said, “so I just wanted to play in stuff when I’m earlier and when I’m healthier.”

Knowing his health would play a big role in his golf, VandenBerg lost 60 pounds in 15 months. It went a long way in taking pressure off his back and knees so that he could keep up with such a demanding tournament schedule. It’s possible to play too much, and VandenBerg felt that a few times in the past two years.

An equipment switch to PXG also briefly set back his game this past spring, bringing his handicap from +4 to 0 in a span of two months, but by April he had begun to figure out his new clubs.

“I’m still working on trying to hone in my putting,” he said, “but I’m really satisfied with where my game is now that my equipment is kind of settled in.”

Notably, VandenBerg won the Two Rivers Senior Invitational in 2023 and reached the quarterfinals of the Golfweek Senior National Match Play. Having won the Plantation Senior Invitational and finished third at the Gateway Senior Invitational to start 2024, VandenBerg now counts 13 top 5s in his last 20 starts.

VandenBerg splits the year between Naples, Florida, and Pulaski, New York. In 2023, his wife Nikki took a year off from her job as a middle school special education teacher so she could travel the senior amateur circuit with her husband. They often traveled by RV – an unusual method among VandenBerg’s competitors.

Golf is always a part of VandenBerg’s daily routine – whether it’s work in the morning and play in the afternoon or vice versa – and he recognizes the good fortune in that. A recent goal has been to get his game to the point that he can be competitive in the major events, and 2024 could be the year for that breakthrough.

“I think it’s helped – a couple of people have talked with me and said that I should feel confident in trying to play in some bigger events and really trying to do better in some of the events,” he said.

Marcus Beck was the Golfweek Super Senior Player of the Year in 2023.
Marcus Beck was the Golfweek Super Senior Player of the Year in 2023.

Marcus Beck, 66 and winner of Golfweek Player of the Year honors in the Super Senior division (for ages 65-69), is trying to get back there too. He last competed in the U.S. Senior Amateur in 2016, at Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis, and made match play.

For Beck, who works for Merrill Lynch, this past season was about testing the water to see how many events he’d like to play. In 2023, he competed in not quite 20. Beck anticipates he may play fewer times in 2024 – instead picking his favorites and returning to those spots – though the pull of the competition schedule is hard to ignore.

“It’s kind of contagious if you do well, you know? You want to go on to the next one,” he said. “You make a lot of friends and you see them again at the next one and then my wife might travel with me, she’s got friends now. So it turns out to be a nice thing.”

Beck won the Florida Senior Azalea and the Reynolds Senior Invitational. A runner-up at the Senior Porter Cup and a third-place finish at the North & South Senior also make the highlight reel.

Beck was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, and still resides there, playing out of Capital City Country Club. His bunker game is sharp, he’s tough inside 100 yards and his distance stacks up well in his age division. The big difference in his game in 2023, though, came from a putting lesson he took with Mike Shannon at TPC Sawgrass.

“Same lesson I got when I was 14 years old,” Beck joked, “but it clicked pretty well and I was happy with that.”

In the Legends division (ages 70-74), George Walker of Fairhope, Alabama, won the Player of the Year title with 7,475 points, which was 1,393 better than Peter Allen of South Port, North Carolina, in second. Walker reached the semifinals of the Golfweek Senior National Match Play.

For the second consecutive year, John Blank of Frostburg, Maryland, won the Super Legends division (ages 75 and over) Player of the Year title, this time by 1,635 points over Bill Engle of St. Augustine, Florida.

Golfweek launches inaugural Tech Lab event

Golfweek has announced a new, first-of-its-kind event in the golf industry, coming March 2024.

Golfweek has announced a new, first-of-its-kind event in the golf industry, coming March 2024. In a joint venture with underdog venture team, the USA Today Sports Media Group property is launching Golfweek Tech Lab, an event that will unite stakeholders in the investment and golf communities with a curated group of technology startups that can enhance both the game and business of golf.

The inaugural Tech Lab will be held in Frisco, Texas, on March 20-21, in collaboration with Omni Hotels and at the home of the PGA of America. The event will feature more than 20 emerging companies that aim to impact the business of golf, as well as panelists, and keynote speakers that are investing in the sport. Golfweek has partnered with underdog to identify the best-in-class companies that will participate, as well as leverage their event expertise to produce the event.

“We’re thrilled to launch this joint venture with our partners at Golfweek and USA Today Sports Media,” said underdog co-founder Dan Mannix. “Tech Lab will be a major hub for innovation in the golf industry, and we’re excited to bring our network and experience in working with sports technology startups and event production to Frisco this spring.”

“This is an exciting opportunity for us to gather thought leaders in the golf space and get a glimpse into the future of business in and around the sport,” said Nate Scott, VP and Publisher of USA Today Sports Media Group. “We’re excited to partner with underdog and our hosts at the Omni in Frisco to make this a special event.”

Tickets are on sale now.

About Golfweek

A property of USA Today Sports Media Group, Golfweek is recognized as the most authentic, authoritative and independent voice in golf. It features award-winning journalists comprehensively covering breaking news, Tour competition, lifestyle features and every other aspect of the golf arena. In addition to legendary print editions, digital properties reach 65% of U.S. golfers, including nearly six million avid golfers, 21 million golf fans and 29 million golf enthusiasts. Golf content is also syndicated across 260 publications in the USA Today network. The Golfweek brand encompasses Golfweek magazine, Golfweek.com, Golfweek Events and Golfweek Custom Media.

About underdog venture team

underdog venture team is a team of passionate people who build brands and create value, with a social impact model at the core of all we do. As a next-generation agency, underdog provides an integrated mix of Brand Building services, and also invests in and partners with Ahead-of-the-Trend startups in the industries they know and believe in. Visit underdogteam.com for more information

Jim Popa wins Yancey Ford Award, adding another chapter to a full life in golf

For as long as he can remember, golf has been Jim Popa’s life.

For as long as he can remember, golf has been Jim Popa’s life. It has been the family game and the family legacy for the Popas, bringing as many memories in services rendered as rounds played. Jim Popa has left his mark primarily in the former way.

Popa, 69, not only led both the Ohio Golf Association and the Columbus District Golf Association, but was the longtime Executive Director of the Society of Seniors. Despite all that, Popa, now fully retired, never imagined himself a candidate for the Yancey Ford Award, annually presented by Golfweek to an individual who has made significant contributions to senior-amateur golf.

When Ford himself called to tell Popa he was this year’s award winner, Popa was speechless. Near the beginning of Popa’s 24-year tenure with the Society of Seniors, Ford was president of the organization. The two men have remained friends since.

“He’s a wonderful human, he’s a great old Virginia gentleman who just epitomizes what you would hope all golfers would be,” Popa said. “Gentle, competitive, nice guys who just really reflect what we’d like to have as models for senior amateur golfers.”

Jim Popa (Courtesy Ohio Golf Association)
Jim Popa (Courtesy Ohio Golf Association)

Popa and Ford had shared a vision for the Society of Seniors, and Ford was in Popa’s corner when it came to Popa’s rise to the role of Executive Director. Notably, the two men worked to raise money for and launch a scholarship fund for the sons or daughters of full-time employees of the golf courses where the Society of Seniors hosted its events. To date, nearly 20 scholarships have been awarded.

Popa, an Ohio native, followed in his father Nicholas Popa’s footsteps as the executive director of the Ohio Golf Association, taking up the reins after his father’s death in 1993. In 1998, Jack Hesler, an original member of the Society of Seniors who knew Jim Popa as a board member of the Ohio Golf Association, asked Popa to attend a Society event and provide some feedback. Once there, it took Popa all of five minutes to realize he wanted to be a part of it.

Popa took over as Executive Director in 2014 but maintained the executive director role for both the Ohio Golf Association and Columbus District Golf Association for the next few years. After the summer tournament season in Ohio, he would often take his help on the road in the winter to run the Society’s events.

“I was very honored to have that job,” Popa said of his work with the Society, even though it kept him busy.

The Yancey Ford Award follows Popa’s induction into the Ohio Golf Hall of Fame earlier in 2023. He also has been awarded the Southern Ohio PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in and the USGA’s Ike Granger Award for longtime commitment to golf.

Clearly, Popa’s contributions to golf have been great, even though he didn’t originally intend to make it his job. After graduating from high school, and having done drafting and layout work for his father’s ad agency in Columbus, he enrolled at Ohio State to study commercial art with aspirations of becoming a cartoonist. Upon learning he’d need to take a few chemistry courses when he transferred into the fine arts program, Popa – not a science guy – decided instead to take some time off. He spent the next two and a half years caddying on the PGA Tour, most notably for his brother-in-law Ed Sneed, whose four Tour victories included the 1977 Tallahassee Open with Popa on the bag.

With Sneed, Popa had the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the game’s greats in that era, including Arnold Palmer, Lanny Wadkins, Tom Weiskopf and Jack Nicklaus. He gathered enough stories for a lifetime – or a least a thick memoir.

And when it was all over, he landed back in Ohio, once again with golf as his north star.

“After I came back to town, I went to work for my father doing layout work,” Popa said. “One thing led to another, and pretty soon I was going to tournaments with him. We had other people to run the advertising agency, and he and I sort of started running golf in Ohio.”

Jim Popa (Courtesy Ohio Golf Association)
Jim Popa (Courtesy Ohio Golf Association)

Popa and his wife Martha – who Popa describes as the “great woman” behind his story – raised three children as Popa guided golf in Ohio for three decades. With that service largely behind him, Popa now reserves a place for golf in his life with a weekly game that’s strictly for fun.

“Golf is the greatest game of all,” he said in reflecting on the game to which he gave so much. “I’m convinced that it’s a game where we have taught the young players to be gentleman on the golf course, to shake hands, to wear their hats forward, have their shirttails tucked in. They respect the game, they respect the traditions, that’s what I always try to impress on the young people in my tournaments.”

“When you get to the senior level, these guys, this is the life they’ve led and it’s second nature to them to just be that courteous to each other and to respect the rules and the golf course and respect the people who run the tournaments. That’s what I like the most about the Society.”

He has done more than his share to shape it.

Vance Welch leads tightly contested 2023 Golfweek Senior Tournament of Champions

Scoring was hard to come by Wednesday.

Wednesday’s second round at the Golfweek Senior Tournament of Champions at The Forest Golf and Country Club in Fort Myers, Florida, saw wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour, making scoring a premium all day long.

Among those who took advantage of the adverse conditions was Maryland’s Vance Welch. Already twice a Golfweek events winner in 2023, Welch has an opportunity to cap off a four-win season before the calendar flips to 2024.

Welch began the day one stroke back of first-round leader John Barry at 1-over par. 

Even on the day and 1 over for the tournament through 27 holes, Welch turned up his game while the winds churned off the nearby Gulf Coast. Three birdies on his first four holes to start the back nine dotted Welch’s scorecard to quickly put him at 2-under par.

A tee shot on the par-3 fifth hole rode the right to left wind a bit too hard, finding trouble just 6 inches out of bounds. A double bogey dropped Welch back to even, but back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 6 and 7 put him back in the hole with a four-shot swing back to 2 over in just three holes.

Finishing strong with birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 to cap off his round, Welch was pleased with how he finished, despite the hiccup.

“As soon as I saw the ball go out of bounds, I said ‘You know what, I’ve had some good breaks today, this is the bad one…I’m not going to let it bother me.’ I just came off three birdies, so I can’t complain too much.”

A big reason as to why Welch was able to rebound and keep the throttle down late into the round?

“I videotaped my practice rounds,” Welch said. “It’s something I’ve never done before…I was watching it and as the round went on, I was not finishing my swing. I don’t know if I was tired [or what], but it really showed me some flaws in my game that I need to fix. I’ve hit the ball fantastic the past two days, I’ve only hit one bad shot.”

Welch’s film study has paid off as he now holds the 36-hole lead, two shots clear Jim Doing (3 over). Patrick Stayer (4 over), Ken Kinkopf (5 over) and round 1 leader John Barry (5 over) all look to give chase on Thursday to take the title in what will be a windy and rainy final round.

Super Seniors (65-69)

Overnight leader, Greg Goode, grew his one-shot lead with a three over 75. Duke Delcher (5 over), Mike Arter (6 over), James Starnes (7 over) and Golfweek No. 2 Steve Humphrey (8 over) are all vying to close out a come-from-behind victory.

A win for Goode would secure a top-five finish in the Golfweek Player of the Year race, while a runner-up finish for Humphrey would put him ahead of No. 1 Marcus Beck for the PoY Super Senior title with one event remaining in the season.

Legends (70-74)

Pete Allen continues to sit on the top of the leaderboard in the Legends division. Enjoying a three-shot lead after the first round, Allen (6 over) now holds a four-shot lead following a second-round 76.

Paul Schlacter (10 over), Vince Scarpetta (11 over) and Sam Robinson (11 over) round out the podium with 18 holes remaining.

Super Legends (75+)

Despite gusty conditions, 18-hole leader Gary Hardin (3 over) bested his age, bouncing back from an opening-round 75 with an even-par 72 on Wednesday. He holds a four-shot lead on Jack Marin (7 over). Cole Henry (8 over) sits in third place after a double bogey on his final hole cost him the low round of the day of 71.

Ann Sophie Bourgault continues winning fall with Golfweek International Junior title

Ann Sophie Bourgault is on a bit of a winning streak recently with the Golfweek International Junior Invitational being her latest victory.

Ann Sophie Bourgault has been on a bit of a winning streak recently. Two weeks ago, she topped the field in a South Florida PGA Junior event, firing a final-round 4-under 68 to wrap up the victory – which included playing her back nine in 5 under.

On Sunday, Bourgault did herself one better, using a final-round 67 at Celebration Golf Club in Orlando, Florida, to win the Golfweek International Junior Invitational by four shots.

“It’s definitely an important tournament,” Bourgault said when asked how her Golfweek victory stacks up with the others she’s amassed in a short but decorated career. “I think it’s the first invitational I’ve won so I’m definitely proud that I was able to win with such a great field and great people playing in this tournament. I think it’s definitely up there on the list for sure.”

After opening with 73, Bourgault managed the wind much better on Day 2.

“It was kind of a scrambling day,” she said of the first round, “saving par a lot of the times and just not how I would want to play. Today I just kind of woke up and just stuck with my gameplan, just focused each shot at a time and trust myself.

“Today I was able to hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, and I converted some birdies so just kept the game simple.”

Scores: Golfweek International Junior Invitational

Bourgault’s final round was particularly big at Celebration, and it ties her personal best in competition. Earlier in the fall, Bourgault used a final-round 67 to win the Quebec Amateur Championship. In fact, she won all three divisions – amateur, junior and juvenile – to be named a Triple Crown winner in the event.

For the past four years, Bourgault, who goes by the nickname “AnnSo” and wears those letters in a necklace, and her family have lived in Naples, Florida, for six to eight months of the year. They return home to Quebec, where Bourgault plays out of Royal Ottawa Golf Club, in the summer months.

Bourgault was invited to Team Canada selection camp this year but didn’t make the final roster even though the experience helped move her game forward. The high school sophomore hopes to play college golf in the U.S. and is looking ahead to this summer, when coaches can begin communicating with her. Until then, she’s putting her energy toward keeping a list of where she’d like to play and improving her game to make sure she has that opportunity.

Photos: Golfweek International Junior Invitational, Girls

Consistency has always been a strong point of Bourgault’s game and as a self-described shorter hitter, she has needed her short game to be sharp. She recently started working with putting coach Derek MacDonald back home at Royal Ottawa and can see that paying off.

“Right now I think what I’m trying to improve is gain more distance, gain more strength, keep working out and getting stronger,” she said

Bourgault notes that she has begun working with a personal trainer and that outside of golf, CrossFit is another thing that occupies her time. Clearly, she doesn’t let anything remain a weakness for long.

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Photos: Golfweek International Junior Invitational, Girls

Check out images from the 2023 Golfweek International Junior Invitational at Celebration Golf Club in Orlando.

The Golfweek International Junior Invitational, which has been played for more than 20 years, wrapped up at Celebration Golf Club in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday.

Lucas Gimenez ran away with the boys competition, going 12 under to win by nine shots. Ann Sophie Bourgault won the girls division by four shots after finishing 36 holes at 4 under.

Add Gimenez and Bourgault to an impressive list of past champions that also includes LPGA players Annie Park, Stephanie Meadow and Bailey Tardy on the women’s side and Peter Uihlein, Morgan Hoffman and, more recently, U.S. Walker Cup team member Nicholas Gabrelcik on the men’s side.

Golfweek International Junior: Scores

Check out photos from the competition at Celebration:

Photos: Golfweek International Junior Invitational, Boys

Check out images from the boys competition at the Golfweek International Junior Invitational at Celebration Golf Club in Orlando, Florida.

The Golfweek International Junior Invitational, which has been played for more than 20 years, wrapped up at Celebration Golf Club in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday.

Lucas Gimenez ran away with the boys competition, going 12 under to win by nine shots. Ann Sophie Bourgault won the girls division by four shots after finishing 36 holes at 4 under.

Add Gimenez and Bourgault to an impressive list of past champions that also includes LPGA players Annie Park, Stephanie Meadow and Bailey Tardy on the women’s side and Peter Uihlein, Morgan Hoffman and, more recently, U.S. Walker Cup team member Nicholas Gabrelcik on the men’s side.

Golfweek International Junior: Scores

Check out photos from the boys competition at Celebration:

As head coach John Wurzer orchestrates a steady build, Pomona-Pitzer claims a calculated Golfweek D3 October Classic win

Pomona-Pitzer outscored the field on the par 5s at Baytowne Golf Club, and it helped deliver the title at the Golfweek October Classic.

It isn’t always possible to put a finger on where, exactly, a winning team found its edge. In the case of Pomona-Pitzer, however, connecting the dots is relatively easy.

After winning the Golfweek D3 October Classic on Tuesday, what head coach John Wurzer calls the biggest regular-season victory in program history, Wurzer could pretty confidently point to the long holes at Baytowne Golf Links in Sandestin, Florida. He coaches a team of longer-than-average players, and so Wurzer had been chewing on par-5 scoring for a while.

“The first day, they were 9 under on the par 5s,” Wurzer said. “It was, for us, a really amazing performance on those holes and it really kind of separated us the first day.”

For the week, Pomona-Pitzer played the par 5s in 11 under. Carnegie Melon, which finished runner-up to the Sagehens, played them in 4 over. Pomona-Pitzer finished 54 holes at 15 over, 18 shots ahead of Carnegie Melon, the team that had topped Pomona-Pitzer two weeks ago at the Fall Preview.

That’s easy math, and it’s not like Wurzer had intricate, detailed plans for his players – though they could have easily followed them if he did.

Wurzer, in his sixth season as the head coach of Pomona-Pitzer, notes that his program attracts an Ivy League-kind of athlete. “They have to be amazing students, so they’re poised, they’re smart, they’re aware, they’re very coachable,” he said.

It’s a unique setup back home in Claremont, California, where Pomona College and Pitzer College, two separate institutions that combine into one athletic program, help comprise the “5Cs” that also include Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College and Harvey Mudd College. The latter three compete in the combined Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletic program.

Pomona-Pitzer competes in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference along with perennial powerhouse programs Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The area is loaded with talent, to the point that Wurzer said his team never competes in a tournament where there isn’t at least a top-8 school in the field. The proverbial bar is no further than two stout par 5s away. That’s the distance to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, which won the 2018 D3 women’s golf title.

“Our main rival for golf is 1,000 yards away, on the same campus,” Wurzer said.

When Wurzer arrived in Claremont six years ago, Pomona-Pitzer was a talented program that had never won the conference title. The Sagehens won it the past two years. He has orchestrated a slow build, and so far this season, his team has won twice and finished runner-up twice.

“For us, it was really about getting competition,” he said of two trips east to start the fall. “We wanted to come to this event because it was really one of the two best regular-season events in the country – in the fall for sure.”

At the Golfweek event, Pomona-Pitzer drew senior leadership from Katelyn Vo, who led the team with a runner-up finish individually. Vo, at 1 over, was three behind individual medalist Sydney Kuo of Washington University-St. Louis.

Sydney Kuo, Washington University-St. Louis
Sydney Kuo, Washington University-St. Louis

Jessica Mason (fourth) and Emily Chang (T5) also bring back experience, while freshmen Eunice Yi and Rachel LeMay have played the whole fall season with the Sagehens.

“We’ve just built toward rising to the level of competition that’s in our conference and they set the bar and we’ve just tried to kind of reach it and surpass it,” Wurzer said. “Wins like this just show that we have players that have bought in and they’re exceptionally talented. The teams in our conference have pushed us to be great because the only way we accomplish goals that we set is to beat them first and foremost.”

Wurzer knows as well as any college coach that success does not happen overnight. A native of Southern California, his history in the game is layered with teaching, program-building and simply observing at every level.

Wurzer founded the Torrance High School girls golf program in 2000 and coached the team to its first of many California Interscholastic Federation State Girls Golf titles in 2005. Program alumni include Angela Park, the 2007 LPGA Rookie of the Year, plus LPGA players Jane Rah, Jenny Shin and Demi Runas.

Wurzer gained notice for what he was doing in high school golf, mostly as his players were recruited to top schools (or went straight to professional golf), and he spent four years as the Director of Golf Operations at USC, learning under then-head coaches Chris Zambri and Andrea Gaston.

After an assistant coaching stint at Long Beach State, his alma mater, Wurzer found a head-coaching opportunity at Pomona-Pitzer, where he leads the men’s and women’s teams.

After so many years in a pocket of high-caliber golf, Wurzer’s knowledge is deep. He has watched notable careers unfold in all directions – from Lizette Salas, for example, to Stewart Hagestad.

“I’ve seen a lot and it just allows me to have perspective and coach these players, recruit very differently but coach a very similar way and use a lot of those lessons I learned along the way from SC and when I was at Long Beach State,” he said.

As his time at Pomona-Pitzer is showing, the ultimate success of a program comes down to the players. But the identity? That’s built quietly, and painstakingly, by the coach.

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