Category: Events

Golfer, runner, father, do-gooder: Kent Jesperson named Challenge Man of the Year for senior golf contributions

Kent Jesperson’s work in elevating the event, and senior golf in general, resulted in this year’s Challenge Man of the Year award.

In a past chapter of Kent Jesperson’s life, months of work would culminate this week – Boston Marathon week. Jesperson is a 32-time marathoner with a 3-hour, 10-minute personal record who has toed the Boston starting line nine times in his life. But running is only part of Jesperson’s sports story.

Jesperson, 70, is also a three-time Wyoming Senior Amateur champion, having won in 2008, 2010 and 2018. Winning those titles kick-started his involvement in the U.S. Senior Challenge, a one-of-its-kind senior event that brings together a four-man team of senior golfers from different states to compete in a 54-hole competition. The event dates to 1986 and has been played at venues all across the country.

As a top Wyoming senior, Jesperson was asked to put together and captain a team from his state after taking home senior am hardware.

“That started everything off,” he said of his relationship with the event.

For the past 12 years, Jesperson has recruited one or two teams to compete in the event. Six years ago, he went on the event’s Board of Directors. His work in elevating the event, and senior golf in general, resulted in this year’s Challenge Man of the Year award. It’s an honor annually presented to a person whose life has been exemplary in family, business and golf.

Jesperson has always felt a responsibility to make the sport better if he’s going to enjoy the benefits it brings. As a board member, Jesperson helped lay out policies, tried to recruit more states to take part in the event and helped pick future host sites.

The Man of the Year award was humbling in that it showed Jesperson he’d succeeded in his effort to give back.

“When they recognized me as Man of the Year, I was taken aback because I thought…you’re just one of the guys that go in there and do whatever it takes to try and make it better,” he said.

Jesperson took a similar hands-on approach to fatherhood, which delayed his competitive golf career a few years. He and wife Linette have two daughters, Tricia and Ashlee, and Jesperson didn’t want to miss the golden years of their childhood. He was also putting in hours of running at dawn, and it didn’t seem manageable to juggle that and golf.

“When they were growing up, I actually quit golf for nine years because it took too much of my time and I said my kids are young, they’ll only be young once,” he said.

Jesperson re-entered the game a few years before his 50th birthday. It didn’t take long to shake off any accumulated rust because he was 55 when he won his first Wyoming Senior Amateur. He was 64 when he won his last. Shortly before winning that third state senior am title, Jesperson tore his meniscus, which ended his running but not his golf.

Jesperson owned a real estate brokerage company for 40 years in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and upon retiring in 2019, moved to Phoenix full-time with his wife. Now he plays out of Verrado Golf Club and has a game five days a week in the winter.

“In the summer we travel and see our daughters, so I play less,” he said.

The 2024 U.S. Senior Challenge will be played at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia, on June 3-6. New Mexico won the event in 2023 when it was played in that team’s home state at Canyon Club at Four Hills.

Mark Strickland, newly 55, claims Golfweek Senior Amateur with birdie on the final hole

Since turning 55 and becoming eligible, Mark Strickland is one for one.

Since turning 55 and becoming eligible for events on the senior amateur schedule, Mark Strickland is one-for-one. The San Diego resident’s 55th birthday was March 28. He teed it up in the Golfweek Senior Amateur eight days later and walked away with the title on April 7.

At Desert Willow’s Firecliff Course in Palm Desert, California, Strickland had at least a share of the lead after every round. He was bogey-free in an opening 5-under 67, then followed with rounds of 71-70 for an 8-under total.

Strickland birdied the par-5 18th hole to edge Randy Haag or Orinda, California, by a single shot.

“I knew it was really tight,” Strickland said of the final round. “I really didn’t do a lot of scoreboard watching, just kind of played my game. . . . I didn’t know that we were tied going into 18, so he missed a birdie putt of maybe 15 feet and then I had one that was 12 feet and was lucky enough to get that one to fall.”

Scores: Golfweek Senior Amateur

Haag and Strickland represent some of California’s best talent in the senior game, even if Strickland has only called California home for three years. He was a longtime resident of Georgia before moving west when his wife took a different job. Strickland transferred within Yamaha Golf Car Company and now represents the Southern California territory.

In the past six months, Strickland played in the 2023 Stocker Cup and the Jewel at Hacienda, a four-ball event, but otherwise, his senior calendar is just getting started. He landed at the Golfweek Senior Amateur because it was a short two-hour drive from his home.

For the time being, Strickland may be best known for finishing as the low amateur at the 2023 U.S. Senior Open at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. That finish would have exempted him into the 2023 U.S. Senior Amateur but for the fact that he wasn’t yet 55. It did get him into both the U.S. Mid-Amateur and the U.S. Amateur in 2023, but he missed match play in both events.

“It gets me in the Senior Open this year, which that’s the biggest prize of all for me,” Strickland said. “I just love competing in those USGA events, any of them, but the Senior Open is a treat.”

Strickland will head to Newport (Rhode Island) Country Club in June for that event before traveling overseas in July for the British Senior Amateur.

None of this is new for Strickland, who has played in 21 USGA events in his career, including five U.S. Amateurs and four U.S. Mid-Amateurs. He played four straight U.S. Ams from 2003 to 2006, reaching the Round of 16 at Hazeltine Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, in 2006 when he was 37. Strickland lost to Alex Prugh.

Strickland played college golf at Wake Forest from 1987 to 1991. As a sophomore, he roomed with 2011 Open Championship winner Darren Clarke. He also overlapped Len Mattiace and Billy Andrade (though Andrade was out of playing eligibility by the time Strickland arrived). After graduation, Strickland played in Asia and South America plus teed it up on the Hooters Tour. After five years, he left the professional game before being reinstated as an amateur in 1998.

Even though the senior amateur circuit has now opened up for him, Strickland isn’t ready to begin touring again, so to speak. He’ll continue working for Yamaha while picking and choosing where to tee it up.

“I’ve been looking forward to competing with some of the senior guys that I’ve known forever,” said the easygoing Strickland, “and it’s kind of fun to see them again and compete with them.”

Super Senior Division

Pete Higgins of Mercer Island, Washington, was able to leapfrog Jim Starnes of Ft. Myers, Florida, for a one-shot win after having co-led with Starnes after the first round. Higgins, who finished at 3 under, lost ground when Starnes had a second-round 65, but posted a final-round 73 as Starnes fell to 77 in the final round.

Bob Cooper of Monroe, Louisiana, posted a final-round 65, but his charge left him one shot short, tied with Starnes at 2 under.

Legend Division

Michael Jonson of Sammamish, Washington, won at even par after rounds of 72-75-69 and James Saivar of San Diego closed out a wire-to-wire victory in the Super Legend Division at 4 over.

Jim Starnes lights up Desert Willow’s Firecliff for Super Senior lead at Golfweek Senior Amateur

“It all came together today,” Starnes said of a bogey-free 65.

Jim Starnes had shot his age twice before Saturday, but never in a tournament. So when Starnes, who is 66 ½, went bogey-free for a 7-under 65 on Desert Willow’s Firecliff Course in Palm Desert, California, for the second round of the 2024 Golfweek Senior Amateur, he not only took a year off, he shot to the top of the leaderboard.

“It all came together today,” Starnes said.

Starnes was laser-like with his irons on Saturday and hit 16 greens in regulation. He made a birdie putt of 35 feet on No. 16, but the other four birdies were off of putts inside 10 feet. On the par-5 18th, his ninth hole of the day, he faced 215 yards to the green on his second shot and decided to lay up with 7-iron. With 66 yards left to the green, he two-hopped a 60-degree lob wedge into the hole.

“Drove it extremely well and so it was fundamentally pretty low stress,” he said. “If I wasn’t making a birdie, I was making fairly easy pars so it was fun and I hope I can do it again.”

Scores: Golfweek Senior Amateur

After an even-par round of 72 in Friday’s opening round, Starnes now leads the super senior division by three shots over Pete Higgins of Mercer, Washington. Higgins, who had a co-lead at the start of the day, posted a 3-under 69 on Saturday.

Starnes, who hails from Ft. Myers, Florida, is ranked second in the Super Senior division of Golfweek’s National Senior Amateur Rankings. He finished 2023 third on the points list for his division, and in 2016 he was named the Senior Player of the Year as the top points-getter.

To claim a POY title is a labor of love that forces men like Starnes to tee it up frequently and to play well. For Starnes, that means 22 to 25 national senior starts, plus a half dozen four-ball events and a few Florida State Golf Association events.

Already this year, Starnes has won the Florida Azalea Senior. He was top 5 at the Heron Creek Senior and the Moot Thomas Invitational. Starnes, who has been retired three years from Pitney Bowes postage meter company, still enjoys the ride and camaraderie even as he chases a spot in the rankings.

In his career, Starnes has qualified for three USGA events: the 2016 and 2021 U.S. Senior Amateurs, plus the 1974 U.S. Junior Am. He plans to keep trying for the Senior Am.

“I’ll keep swinging until the courses get too long or I get too short,” he said.

Starnes plays out of Fiddlesticks Country Club in Ft. Meyers, Florida. He has sought help from many different teachers around the country over the years, but currently is working with Mike Shannon out of TPC Sawgrass. A veteran player like Starnes knows it’s always a work in progress.

“It’s a combination of putting little pieces from all these different people together,” he said. “When things aren’t going right, watch YouTube or Instagram.”

Senior division

First-round co-leader Mark Strickland, from San Diego, followed his opening 67 with a 71 to take a slim solo lead. At 6 under for the tournament, Strickland, who was the low amateur at the 2023 U.S. Senior Open, has a one-shot lead. Greg Sanders, of Anthem, Arizona, and Randy Haag, of Orinda, California, are right behind him at 2 under.

John Brellenthin made up the most ground near the top of the senior leaderboard with a second-round 66. Brellentin, of Dallas, made six birdies in a back-nine 31 including four in a row from Nos. 13-16. He is 4 under for the tournament after opening with 74.

Legends, Super Legends

Jeffrey Knox of Jupiter, Florida, leads the Legends division at 1 over while James Saivar of San Diego held onto his lead in the Super Legends division. Saivar is 3 over.

Golfweek Senior Am: A pair of 67s highlights opening day at Desert Willow’s Firecliff Course

Only 11 players broke par across the four divisions, which features 167 players total, with another seven at even par.

Outside of a pair of 67s atop the senior division leaderboard, Desert Willow’s Firecliff Course didn’t give up much in the opening round of the Golfweek Senior Amateur in Palm Desert, California. Only 11 players broke par across the four divisions, which features 167 players total, with another seven at even par.

Mark Strickland of San Diego and Greg Sanders of Anthem, Arizona, claimed the pair of 67s with only one bogey between them. Sanders bogeyed the par-4 second but more than made up for it with five birdies over his first eight holes.

Strickland, meanwhile, was bogey-free for the day, throwing out a steady supply of birdies as the day wore on.

Scores: Golfweek Senior Amateur

Northern California native Randy Haag was responsible for the third sub-70 score, and his 69 left him in third in the senior division. Haag, a well-known player in the NorCal area who has multiple NCGA Player of the Year titles, had a colorful day. His card included five birdies offset by four bogeys, but most notably a hole-in-one on the par-3 14th, which played 141 yards from the senior tees on Thursday.

The Golfweek Senior Amateur is the second senior event in the desert this week, following the Golfweek Senior Division National Championship, which Denver’s Jon Lindstrom won on Wednesday. Lindstrom had an opening 1-over 73 on Firecliff which left him in a tie for 13th along with Kirk Maynord, Jerry Gunthrope and Craig Hurlbert, among others, who all finished in the top 6 at Desert Willow’s second layout, the Mountain View Course.

In the super senior division, Pete Higgins of Mercer Island, Washington, and Bob Cooper of Monroe, Louisiana, both had opening rounds of 1-under 71. Higgins’ included an eagle at the par-5 seventh.

Michael Jonson of Sammamish, Washington, leads the legends division with an even-par 72. Pete Van Ingen, who hails from Palm Beach, Florida, is a shot back, and a group of three men are tied for third at 2 over.

San Diego resident James Saivar led the super legend division with a 2-under 70.

High Point gets a Big South tuneup with Golfweek/Any Given Tuesday title at Caledonia

Late-round energy gave the Panthers a three-shot victory at the Golfweek/Any Given Tuesday Collegiate.

Lyndsey Hunnell has devised a way to stave off late-round fatigue. It’s called the Bonus Bev, and her High Point women only earn the reward by playing the final five holes of a competitive round in even par or better.

“Sometimes you’ll kind of see teams coast off for the last couple holes, getting tired, but these girls really grind their ball the last five and that’s kind of when they moved up the leaderboard a little bit more,” Hunnell said.

Late-round energy gave the Panthers a three-shot victory at the Golfweek/Any Given Tuesday Collegiate. Wednesday’s final round was wiped when heavy downpours made the course unplayable and the tournament reverted to 36-hole scores. High Point had played the first two rounds in 6 over, which left them ahead of runner-up Florida Gulf Coast with Cal Poly in third another five shots back.

Scores: Golfweek/Any Given Tuesday Collegiate

In the second round, High Point played the closing holes in 4 under, which gave them a big boost. (Players nicknamed the game Bonus Bev because often, they’ll use their reward on a drink at Starbucks.)

Hunnell had also prepared her players for the nasty conditions they would likely see in the final round – big gusts and downpours. Bogeys would be part of the game.

“It wasn’t going to be perfect conditions out there and just to kind of roll with what we could and just kind of embrace what we had in front of us because everyone else had to lay in the same conditions,” she told them. Ultimately, of course, those third-round scores were wiped.

Hunnell, who played collegiately for Virginia before using a fifth-year at Xavier, is in her second year coaching at High Point after spending the past three seasons as an assistant coach at Campbell. In her last year at Campbell, that team won a fall event at Caledonia, so even though High Point had not played in this event before, the team benefited from savvy coaching.

“I knew the course pretty well and that it’s a little bit shorter,” she said. “We practiced a lot more wedges last week and really knowing our numbers. . . . I knew it was going to set up well for my team and that’s why we were really excited we were going to get to go.”

So far this season, High Point has won once and finished inside the top 5 another six times. Hunnell brought in three new players this year who made an immediate impact in the lineup. That includes fifth-year Wake Forest transfer Julia McLaughlin and Anna Howerton, a freshman from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who led High Point at Caledonia with a third-place finish individually at 1 under. She finished two shots behind individual medalist Hannah Karg of Coastal Carolina.

Hannah Karg of Coastal Carolina won the individual title at Caledonia. (Golfweek photo)
Hannah Karg of Coastal Carolina won the individual title at Caledonia. (Golfweek photo)

“I think it’s helped the girls to know I’m bringing in fresh blood and you have to earn your spot, you can’t just expect to keep it year to year,” she said. “I think that’s kind of been the vibe and they have all such great team chemistry and they get along so well.”

In fact, the players at home typically set an alarm so they can send off a team good-luck text before the start of a round.

High Point needs a team firing on all cylinders heading into the Big South Conference Championship in two weeks. To get through a bit of a slump recently, Hunnell gathered her team to re-evaluate their progress.

“I showed them their goals they had set at the beginning of the spring and showed them where they were at so I think that kind of sparked a little bit of their drive, and they’ve been working really hard before this tournament,” she said.

Campbell has always been the powerhouse in the Big South, having won the last seven straight league titles (and the Automatic Qualifying spot into NCAA Regionals that goes with that), but Campbell made the move to the CAA before this season.

Last spring, High Point lost to the Camels in the final match. High Point is the heir apparent to Campbell, but Hunnell knows the Panthers need to walk into that spot with confidence.

“We’ve got a chip on our shoulder there,” she said. “We’ve been in contention and we know what it feels like and we know what to expect.”

Richmond conquers closing holes to win Golfweek/Any Given Tuesday event and a Haskins exemption

“This is like icing on the cake and certainly being able to play in the Haskins next year and go to the Masters, the guys are over the moon and we’re thrilled to be a part of it.”

The Augusta/Haskins Award Invitational – for any team, but particularly a mid-major one – is what you might call a schedule upgrade. Richmond coach Adam Decker will be happy to work it into next season’s lineup after his team won the exemption at the rain-shortened Golfweek/Any Given Tuesday Collegiate on Tuesday.

Richmond had a one-shot lead on Long Island University and Valparaiso through two rounds at True Blue Golf Club in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, and was ready do battle during a final round that was forecasted to be wet. But with a handful of holes left on the back nine, heavy rain made True Blue unplayable, and scores reverted to 36 holes, leaving Richmond with the title and Long Island and Valparaiso in a tie for second.

“We were making a couple birdies before the big monsoon hit,” Decker said. “I felt like we were in a really good spot to finish strongly.”

Not only does Richmond receive a spot in the 20205 Augusta/Haskins tournament but since the event is played in the days leading up to the Masters, each team in the field traditionally receives tickets for Monday’s practice round at Augusta National.

Scores: Golfweek/Any Given Tuesday Collegiate

“We weren’t super focused on everything that surrounds it, we just wanted to keep getting a little better each week this season,” Decker said of playing solid golf with that carrot dangling. “This is like icing on the cake and certainly being able to play in the Haskins next year and go to the Masters, the guys are over the moon and we’re thrilled to be a part of it.”

The closing holes at True Blue Golf Club in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, require some strategy. They’re scoreable yet penal. Richmond was 3 shots off the lead when they hit that stretch in the first round but ballooned to double digits back. That stretch became a point of conversation in a subsequent team meeting.

“Our conversation the night before was let’s just get in position to have a chance on Wednesday and get it within shouting distance,” Decker said. “Lo and behold, Cole (Ekert) really put the team on his back and shot 6 under par and the other guys really hung in there and were able to get a one-shot lead going into Wednesday.”

Ekert, a junior, made seven birdies in his team-leading charge before making his sole bogey at the par-4 18th for a round of 66. He was 8 under for the tournament, which resulted in his second individual win. Valparaiso’s Caleb VanArragon was second a shot back.

As Ekert was scoring, Decker thinks his teammates might have picked up on the buzz from spectators. He didn’t bring it up. Regardless, his team navigated the closing holes deftly and that ultimately made the difference.

Richmond's Cole Ekert (Golfweek photo)
Richmond’s Cole Ekert (Golfweek photo)

This is Richmond’s first team title since the 2021 VCU Shootout. It’s well-timed momentum leading into the Atlantic 10 Championship in three weeks. Decker said this is a deep team with competitive qualifying.

“We’ve had a lot of different lineup looks trying to figure out what makes the most sense for the end of the year and conference championship, so I think we’re just trying to figure out the right pieces to the puzzle at this point.”

Richmond is going to need to be prepared to go really low at the conference championship, Decker knows, so the focus in qualifying leading up to that tournament will be getting comfortable in the red. That might involve playing shorter tees in practice – anything to reinforce birdies.

“I think the mindset has to kind of evolve to a spot where you’re really comfortable being 5 under par and looking for one more,” he said.

Postseason is the time of year when coaches are looking to find out what their teams are made of, and just as Decker’s squad showed him something at True Blue, so did Ben Belfield’s Long Island men.

Under bleak final-round conditions, Long Island mounted a charge, getting to 7 under before the course became unplayable. They had a lead on Richmond entering the final stretch and Belfield took a lot away from that performance – particularly what it shows him about mental fortitude with such a massive opportunity on the line.

“For them to come down against a good field on a good golf course and show themselves and show other people that we’re not just some scrappy northeast program, these kids can play,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll see more of that as we go through the rest of the season, but it’s a big deal. It was really nice to see.”

Jon Lindstrom cruises to victory at Golfweek Senior Division National Championship

Lindstrom never looks at the scoreboard, he prefers to play his game and let the chips fall where they may.

Jon Lindstrom never looks at the scoreboard on the golf course, preferring to play his game and let the chips fall where they may.

In the final round of the Golfweek Senior Division National Championship, he was 16 holes deep in the round – and five shots under par – before a playing competitor let him know he had a five-shot lead.

“Once I heard that, I played it pretty conservative on the last two holes,” said Lindstrom. “I really wasn’t paying attention other than I knew I was beating the guys in my group but I wasn’t sure if somebody ahead of me was going low.”

After parring in for a closing 67 on Desert Willow’s Mountain View Course in Palm Desert, California, Lindstrom claimed his first major senior amateur victory of the year. At 8 under, he was three better than runner-up John Brellenthin from Dallas, who fired a 68 in the next-to-last group on Wednesday.

Scores: Golfweek Senior Division National Championship

Kirk Maynord of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the second-round leader, birdied three of his final four holes on his way to a final-round 68 but it wasn’t enough to catch Lindstrom. Maynord finished solo third at 4 under, followed by Jerry Gunthorpe of Ovid, Michigan, in fourth at 2 under.

Lindstrom, 56, who still works full-time for the insurance brokerage firm Marsh & McLennan, overseeing the Denver and Salt Lake City offices, flew to Palm Desert from his Denver home a few days early, which helped him acclimate.

“I had been hitting it good the whole week just haven’t been making a lot of putts,” he said of his final round. “I hit it closer today than the previous two days and I was making putts, so it was a good combination.”

His first birdie came on the opening hole, when he hit it to 3 feet and converted. He was 4 under on the front nine and never made a birdie putt longer than 6 feet. Lindstrom’s ballstriking played a big role as he kept leaving himself with looks.

The 56-year-old thinks he hits the ball farther than average in this age group, though he’s not particularly long in the bigger picture. He had irons into every par 5 this week, even hitting a 9-iron on one hole.

“That doesn’t happen on mid-am courses,” he said, “for me, at least.”

Lindstrom is in only his second year competing on the senior circuit, but this lifestyle is familiar. He competed in mid-amateur events until turning 55 and welcomed the shorter yardage and competitors closer in age. In 2023, his debut year on the senior circuit, Lindstrom put together his schedule strategically.

“Last year I knew I had the full year, I wanted to get into as many events as possible to get as many points as possible,” he said.

After winning the Trans-Miss Senior and the Heron Creek Senior, plus making match play at the U.S. Senior Amateur and logging several other top-5 finishes in senior amateur events, Lindstrom’s ranking climbed. He’s currently No. 422 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and No. 6 among players 55 and older. He qualified for the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur based on his World Ranking and will be exempt into the 2024 U.S. Senior Amateur, too.

The Trans-Miss win gave Lindstrom not only a boost in points but a boost in confidence. This circuit is still loaded with talent, and, as Lindstrom noted, it’s always meaningful to win. He felt that again Wednesday at Desert Willow.

“Although I had two or three wins, I had a number of top 5s, which is always satisfying, which means I’m always competing,” he said of 2023. “It was just a matter of having a day like today where I could move up significantly.”

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Long way from Louisiana: Grady Brame leads Golfweek Senior Division National Championship

Grady Brame’s day at Desert Willow Golf Club in Palm Desert, California, was nothing if not tidy.

Grady Brame’s day at Desert Willow Golf Club in Palm Desert, California, was nothing if not tidy. Brame has found the Mountain View course at Desert Willow, site of the Golfweek Senior Division National Championship, is getable, provided a player can put it in the right spots.

“You have some opportunities to make some putts if you can hit the green,” he said.

Brame, 66, did that 16 times on Monday, converting three birdies in the process and taking a one-shot lead on the 83-man field with a 3-under 69.

Desert Willow is a long way from Brame’s Hammond, Louisiana, home, but it hardly looked that way as he reeled off a “low-stress” round all the way across the country. He only missed the green at Nos. 1 and 17 and chipped inside 3 feet on both holes to make up for it. Two of his three birdies came off putts inside 5 feet. Brame felt he drove the ball well on Monday, too, and hit a number of good iron shots, generally leaving himself in places that made it possible for him to score.

“My speed was really good,” Brame said of his performance on greens he called fast enough but not scary fast, “so when I was missing them, for the most part with the exception of three holes, my pars were tap-ins, inside of a foot.”

Scores: Golfweek Senior Division National Championship

When he was able to make a short tester of a par putt at the par-5 18th to remain at 3 under and with the solo lead, it made his lunch taste that much better.

Brame is a well-traveled player. He’ll tee it up about a dozen times each year in senior amateur events, and he keeps throwing his hat in the ring in U.S. Golf Association qualifiers, despite still working in commercial real estate for Sterling Properties, a company he has been with for 42 years.

Brame has played 23 USGA events over the course of his career, noting he had a knack for playing well in the qualifiers for those events. All told, he has played six U.S. Amateurs, 13 U.S. Mid-Amateurs, one U.S. Senior Amateur and three State Team Championships. He continues to play qualifiers for the Mid-Am, Senior Am and Senior Open.

“Still trying to chase the dream,” he said.

In Louisiana golf circles, the name “Grady Brame” is one synonymous with very good golf – doubly so, in fact. Brame’s son Grady Brame Jr., played professionally for more than six years, competing largely on the PGA Tour Canada but also Monday qualifying his way into three Korn Ferry Tour events plus the Sanderson Farms Championship on the PGA Tour.

Brame Jr., who played collegiately for Southeastern Louisiana, won the Louisiana State Amateur in 2014 and 2015, making the Brames the only father-son duo to win that event. Brame Sr.’s title came in 2002.

Brame Sr. has also won the Louisiana Mid-Amateur twice, and there was a time when he had a perfect streak of starts in that event, which dates to 1991. (Somewhere along the way, he finally missed a tournament.) The Louisiana Golf Association events still find their way onto Brame’s calendar, and he’ll head home for the Louisiana State Senior after playing this week’s Golfweek desert doubleheader.

Behind Brame, California residents Dick Engel and Robby Funk are tied for second with Kirk Maynord of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. All four men had rounds of 2-under 70. Engel and Funk both birdied the par-5 closing hole to get there.

Montana resident Craig Hurlbert, a playing captain at the Golfweek Challenge Cup in 2022, is one of four men tied for fifth at 1 under.

The group at even par includes New Yorker Kevin VandenBerg, the 2023 Golfweek Senior Player of the Year. VandenBerg was 2 under through his opening four holes, but lost ground with five bogeys over the remainder of his round, including at No. 17.

Preview: Back-to-back Golfweek events bring nation’s best senior amateurs to Palm Desert

When a week-long run of senior amateur golf begins on April 1, the contenders list will be deep.

When a week-long run of senior amateur golf begins at Desert Willow Golf Club in Palm Desert, California, on April 1, the contenders list will be deep.

The Golfweek Senior Division National Championship field of 90 players, ages 55 and older, will compete in one division from one distance over 54 holes. The past two champions of the event, Jerry Gunthorpe and Gary Albrecht, will return, and that only scratches the surface. The field also includes three of the top six players in the current Golfweek Senior Rankings: top-ranked Kevin VandenBerg plus Matt Avril (No. 3) and Steve Maddalena (No. 6).

Desert Willow is a public facility owned by the city of Palm Desert that includes the 18-hole Mountain View layout, where the Golfweek event will be played, as well as another 18 holes, named Firecliff. Both layouts opened in the late 1990s and have been extremely popular among community members. The design team responsible for Desert Willow includes Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry and former PGA Tour player John Cook, plus local landscape architect Eric Johnson.

Mountain View features more water than Firecliff but also mountain views all around. The entire facility was designed to both highlight the desert landscape on which it sits – starting with the mile-long approach to the resort that allows visitors to acquaint themselves with the landscape — and operate in an environmentally sensitive way.

A year ago, Albrecht, a 66-year-old who had dropped down an age division for this event, needed an extra hole to claim his title. After winning, Albrecht got right back to it, teeing it up a day later in the Golfweek Senior Amateur. Again this year, the Senior Amateur will directly follow the Senior Division National Championship at Willow Creek on April 5-7, but will feature four separate divisions for ages 55-64, 65-69, 70-74 and 75 and over.

The Golfweek Senior Amateur also has the distinction of being one of 10 events at which senior players can earn points toward a spot on the U.S. team in the Concession Cup, a Walker Cup-style match put on by the Amateur Golf Alliance that pits the best mid-amateurs and senior amateurs from the U.S. against those from Europe.

Two-thirds of the field at the Golfweek Senior Division National Championship field will stay in Palm Desert to compete in the Golfweek Senior Amateur. That includes Albrecht, Avril and VandenBerg. Other notable names in the senior division include longtime Louisiana-based amateur Grady Brame, who has appeared in several USGA championships; Craig Hurlbert, a playing captain at the Golfweek Challenge Cup in 2022; and Allen Peake, a former member of the Georgia State House of Representatives who has become the marathon man of senior golf.

Golfweek’s top-ranked super senior Jim Starnes plus defending champion Jeff Burda highlight the 65-69 year-old division.

John Seehausen is back to defend in the Super Legends division.

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.”