Doug Hanzel – Syndication Server

International Senior Invitational: Doug Hanzel wins individual race, leads his Georgia team to the title

Put two USGA champions on the same squad in any team format, and it’s going to turn heads.

Put two U.S. Golf Association champions on the same squad in any team format, and it’s going to turn heads. That said, a three-man team featuring past U.S. Senior Amateur champs Doug Hanzel and Bob Royak finished right where many might have expected at the International Senior Amateur, but it was still a grind to get there.

Hanzel and Royak, of Savannah, Georgia, and Atlanta, respectively, combined with Atlanta’s Robert Sheats at Cartersville Country Club in Georgia to form one of six Georgia teams in the 28-team field. They took an early, one-shot lead in the 54-hole event, but it took a finishing charge to overtake teams from Kentucky, Atlanta and New York for the title.

“We came in second last year,” said Royak, the team captain. “I know if we put three good days together, I thought we’d be in the hunt at least. You never know how it’s going to go.”

Scores: International Senior Invitational

Led by Tony Wise, Kentucky’s team sailed into the lead in the second round and a team from Atlanta, featuring the ringer Jack Hall of Savannah, sat right between Royak & Co.

On the final day, both Hanzel and Royak found it difficult to keep track of the team standings on the golf course. Both, however, got word on the back nine that Sheats had eagled the par-4 10th.

Sheats, who plays out of Cherokee Country Club and has also made several USGA starts, felt like a natural replacement this year for Michael Standard, who competed with Hanzel and Royak in last year’s event, and he contributed plenty. Hanzel and Royak were under par all week, and after their scores made up the team score for the first 36 holes in the play-three-count-two format, in the final round, it was Sheats’ turn.

Hanzel brought in a final-round 66 and Sheats had 68. Royak’s 69 was the drop score.

“Really happy for his round today,” Royak said. “Since Doug and I counted the first two days, I knew he was really wanting to be a counter and I was really proud of how he played today. That was great.”

Royak downplayed his captain’s responsibilities at the event, saying he basically made sure everyone showed up on time. The men did dress in uniform, of sorts, for each round, and when Sheats told Royak he didn’t have a navy golf shirt, he invited a little ribbing.

In the end, shirt color mattered little and a strong closing nine was enough to get the North Georgia team to 10 under for the week and two shots ahead of Kentucky.

Even though his score didn’t count on the final day, Royak made three closing birdies, including on the par-3 16th where he stuck a 6-iron inside 4 feet.

Royak soaked in the opportunity play with teams from all over the country – even Ireland and Scotland fielded teams at Cartersville – as well as the opportunity to play team golf.

“We don’t play a lot of team stuff so we always love just to play four-balls or play a team and have guys to share it with,” he said. “You play so many individual events throughout the year, this is a nice kind of end-of-the-year thing where it’s kind of a team thing. You’re representing your state, in a way.”

Hanzel also thought the event featured an exciting format, even though he mostly had to keep to himself for the week. Two days before play began, Hanzel came down with a severe cold and spent the week distancing himself from his teammates and his opponents as much as possible to avoid passing it on.

The tournament also featured an individual competition, and Hanzel’s closing 66 moved him ahead of Kevin VandenBerg of Pulaski, New York, for the title. Hanzel was 10 under on his own ball and credits extreme accuracy for his scoring. He missed only five greens in 54 holes.

“It was a good ball-striking week, a good scoring week,” he said. “I’m very proud of how I played given how bad I felt.”

Hanzel felt the course presented a challenge each day as the setup shifted slightly. It played differently from last year’s event because of heavy rains.

“Last year, it was a little more firm and fast. The greens were firmer,” Hanzel said. “This year the greens held more, a little slower. I think it played actually a little easier. You could shoot the ball right at the hole and it was going to hold.”

The winning team with the volunteer group at Cartersville Country Club. (Golfweek photo/Ron Gaines)

While team events are few and far between in senior amateur golf, Hanzel and Royak both are headed to the East West Matches next month at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas. The week after that, Hanzel has been tapped to be an assistant captain at the Concession Cup, which will be played at the Landings Golf Club in Savannah, his home golf course.

Hanzel has played in the event four times but this is his first foray into captaining anything.

“It will probably be more stressful than playing.”

Doug Hanzel adds another line to his unreal senior golf resume with Golfweek Pacific Northwest Senior title

Doug Hanzel’s golf highlights could make up a thick novel, especially as he continues to rack up titles.

Very few boxes remain uncovered on Doug Hanzel’s golf bingo card. While many players have a headline or two to their name – a USGA title here or a state amateur championship there – Hanzel’s highlights could make up a thick novel.

Especially as he continues to rack up titles.

On Thursday, the 67-year-old won the Golfweek Pacific Northwest Senior title at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington. Hanzel, of Savannah, Georgia, played up into the Senior division (for players aged 55-64) and eventually ran away with the title after three birdies in his final nine holes. He finished 8 under for 54 holes (with rounds of 71-68-69) and five shots ahead of Atlanta resident Jack Larkin, the fifth-ranked senior in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, and Jon Valuck of Scottsdale, Arizona.

Scores: Golfweek Pacific Northwest Senior Championship

Hanzel, who is ranked 12th among seniors in the WAGR, may be best known as the 2013 U.S. Senior Amateur winner, but he also made another run at that title in 2022, finishing runner-up to Rusty Strawn, and won the Canadian Senior Amateur in 2023. Once you start listing the accolades, it’s tough to stop.

Hanzel, who made his living as a pulmonologist, seems ageless on the golf course, and he went a long way in showing that in 2012 when he made history by qualifying for match play in the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur and U.S. Senior Amateur as well as being the low amateur at the U.S. Senior Open.

“I’m 66 but still competitive in senior golf,” Hanzel was widely quoted as saying after his Canadian Senior Am win last fall. “I don’t feel like a super senior, I’m still hitting it far.”

Already in 2024, Hanzel finished third in the John T. Lupton Memorial and seventh in the George L. Coleman Invitation’s Senior division. He started the year third at the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic. Hanzel, who went into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2019, told Golfweek he never tees it up without the expectation of winning – a competitive drive that stems from being the youngest of four brothers, all of whom were athletes – and that if he could win anything again, it would be the U.S. Senior Amateur.

At Wine Valley, Hanzel started the week with a bogey on the first hole but didn’t make another one for 41 holes. Even though it was his first time competing in the Pacific Northwest, his pursuers simply couldn’t make enough birdies to keep up in the final round, though Larkin made up significant ground with a birdie on No. 15 and an eagle on the par-5 closing hole.

Notably, a three-man tie for fourth at 2 under included 2016 U.S. Senior Amateur champion Dave Ryan.

Dave Ryan (left) and Doug Hanzel at Wine Valley Golf Club. (Golfweek photo)

In the Super Senior division, Fran Matthias won by a similarly large margin. Rounds of 70-71-74 left the Nampa, Idaho, resident at 1 under for the tournament and nine shots ahead of fellow Pacific Northwesterner Tom Lewis of Cle Elum, Washington. Matthias, who won the Idaho Super Senior Amateur title in 2022 and 2023, put together quite the colorful final-round scorecard. He started birdie-bogey, then logged a double-bogey, eagle and a bogey from Nos. 11-13.

The Legend Division title went to Michael Jonson of Sammamish, Washington, who went 6 under for the week with rounds of 71-69-70. Dan Parkinson of Lehi, Utah, was second at 5 over.

Greg Mokler of Timnath, Colorado, won the Super Legends title at 7 over.

A pair of past U.S. Senior Amateur champions are set for a final-round showdown at Golfweek PNW Senior Amateur

One round remains at Wine Valley Golf Club.

One round remains at the Golfweek Pacific Northwest Senior Amateur and a pair of past U.S. Senior Amateur champions are right where you might expect them to be: at the top of the leaderboard. Doug Hanzel and Dave Ryan are likely to figure heavily into the final 18 holes at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington.

Hanzel leads the Senior division of the Golfweek PNW Amateur after taking full advantage of “moving day” with a 4-under 68. That left him at 5 under for the tournament, and two shots ahead of Ryan and Jon Valuck, who are tied for second. Hanzel had a clean card with four birdies and no bogeys while Ryan bogeyed. Nos. 3 and 6.

Valuck had the lead after the first round and for most of the day on Wednesday, especially after playing his first 11 holes in 3 under. But a bogey at the par-3 14th and a double bogey at the par-5 18th hurt, dropping him into the tie with Ryan.

Scores: Golfweek Pacific Northwest Senior Amateur

Hanzel, of Savannah, Georgia, won his U.S. Senior Amateur title in 2013 but came close to winning another one in 2022 before falling to Rusty Strawn in the championship match. Ryan, of Taylorville, Illinois, prevailed in 2016 over Matthew Sughrue when the championship was played in nearby St. Louis.

Dave Ryan at the 2010 USGA Senior Amateur.

Interestingly, there’s another U.S. Senior Amateur contender in the field in Pat O’Donnell, who had the first-round lead in the Super Senior division but now trails leader Fran Matthias by a shot. O’Donnell, an Oregon native who was inducted in the Pacific Northwest Golf Association Hall of Fame in 2022, backed up an opening 67 with a 75 on Wednesday to fall a shot behind Matthias, of Nampa, Idaho.

O’Donnell lost to Hanzel in the 2013 U.S. Amateur final.

Michael Jonson of Sammamish, Washington, grew his lead from one shot to nine shots in the Legends division. With rounds of 71-69, he is 4 under and leads Greg Tatham and Dan Parkinson, who are both at 5 over.

The Super Legends division lead belongs to Greg Mokler of Timnath, Colorado, who is 5 over after rounds of 75-74. Stephen Wilson of Solana Beach, California, is next at 14 over.

Pat O’Donnell, a PNGA Hall of Famer, is right at home atop Golfweek PNW Senior leaderboard

O’Donnell is a born and bred Pacific Northwesterner.

There’s a lot to be said for keeping it simple. That’s the first part of Pat O’Donnell’s golf mantra, and the second half is something he lived by on Tuesday in the opening round of the Golfweek Pacific Northwest Championship: Keep it in the fairway.

O’Donnell, 70, doesn’t stray much from the middle of the golf course. He knows he hit all 18 greens in an opening 5-under 67 at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington, and couldn’t remember missing any fairways.

“I’m not long but I’m not short,” O’Donnell said when asked to describe the strength of his game. He thinks his driving may be better now than it ever has been.

Scores: Golfweek PNW Senior Championship

O’Donnell is a born and bred Pacific Northwesterner and has the benefit this week of knowing the nuances of Wine Valley. The Happy Valley, Oregon, resident is not a regular on the national senior circuit, but his good friend Jim Pliska, owner of Wine Valley and a competitor in the tournament’s senior division, talked him into teeing it up at this week’s Golfweek event.

On Tuesday, O’Donnell’s 67 was not only good enough for the Super Senior division lead, it was the lowest score of any competitor in all four divisions (including Senior, Legends and Super Legends). O’Donnell is actually playing up despite the fact that he qualifies for the Legends division (for ages 70-74), but he leads Fran Matthias of Nampa, Idaho, by three shots.

“I don’t know where I belong in this thing,” he joked.

O’Donnell made five birdies in his first round, including an easy birdie at the par-4 17th after sticking his approach from 115 yards. He made another tap-in birdie on the par-5 closing hole.

He also made eagle on the par-5 third after reaching the green with a driver and a 6-iron – despite that being a hole he doesn’t normally go for – and then dropping a 35-foot putt.

“I had a good day plus it’s different than when I normally play here because usually it’s in April, which is cold and windy. This is warm and breezy,” he said. “The golf course is such a good golf course too, and it’s in good shape. The greens are holding which makes it particularly easier if it does get windy.”

One of the most challenging parts of Wine Valley is its enormous greens, but O’Donnell has a leg up here from experience.

“By playing here in the past, you kind of knows the dos and don’ts of the greens but you’re still not going to get a straight putt,” he said. “There’s always a break to them.”

In the Pacific Northwest, O’Donnell has a lot of this savvy. He took up the game at 10 years old at Columbia Edgewater Golf Club in Portland.

“They just put me to work out there because I was just irritating as a little kid,” he said. “They put me to work picking up range balls. Did that all the way through high school. Worked in the shop, ran the shop, turned pro for about three and a half years then decided, better get a real job.”

Before turning pro, O’Donnell qualified for the 1972 U.S. Amateur. Despite his short stint as a professional, O’Donnell never went to Q-School. He began work at the Boeing facility in Portland early in 1979 and retired in 2015.

During that time, O’Donnell drifted away from the game, taking nearly a decade off of competition, but returned shortly before turning 50. He has since qualified for the U.S. Senior Open three times and played nine U.S. Senior Amateurs, including the 2023 championship at Martis Camp in Truckee, California.

O’Donnell’s proudest moment competing in USGA events came in 2013, when, as an unheralded senior amateur, he played his way to the final match against Doug Hanzel (O’Donnell lost to Hanzel, 3 and 2).

“You can’t beat that when you go in with no expectations and you’re kind of a, ‘Who’s this guy?’” he said.

O’Donnell was still working at the Boeing plant then – a good-sized facility, he said, with nearly 1,500 people on the day shift.

“I swear half of them were tuned in on the internet watching that match,” he said. “It was really neat when I got back to work.”

O’Donnell may not frequent national senior events like the Golfweek circuit, but in this part of the country, he’s well-known. He was inducted into the Pacific Northwest Golf Association Hall of Fame in 2022 after compiling a jaw-dropping amateur resume that includes 11 Oregon Senior Men’s Stroke Play titles and six Oregon Senior Amateur titles. He has been named the Oregon Golf Association Men’s Player of the Year four times and the PNGA Senior Men’s Player of the Year three times.

At this point in his competitive career, O’Donnell mainly competes in Oregon Golf Association events – and mostly those designated for seniors after marveling at how far “the kids” now hit it. He’ll still try to get into the U.S. Senior Amateur, and plays a qualifier for this year’s tournament next week.

“The USGA stuff is all a bonus for me,” he said before joking, “I’m getting toward the end of the line.”

Jon Valuck of Scottsdale, Arizona had a 3-under 69 to lead the Senior division. Rick Corkill of Vancouver, Washington, and Greg Chianello of Portland, Oregon, are tied for second at 2 under. Hanzel, the 2013 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, is tied for fourth with three other players at 1 under.

Michael Johnson of Sammamish, Washington, leads the Legends division at 1 under and Greg Mokler of Timnath, Colorado, is atop the Super Legends division at 3 over.

Big names highlight the field at Golfweek International Senior Invitational

There are 28 teams from the United States, three from Europe and one from Canada.

CARTERSVILE, Ga. – Ninety-six of the world’s best senior amateur golfers are set to duke it out for team and individual glory at Cartersville Country Club.

Twenty-eight teams from the United States, three teams from Europe and a team from Canada have descended on CCC. Among them are some of the biggest names in the senior amateur game.

Reigning Walker Cup captain Mike McCoy is captaining Team Iowa alongside teammates Terry Cook and Joe Palmer. Doug Hanzel (Georgia), Jon Lindstrom (Colorado) and Bob Royak (Georgia) are the top three ranked seniors in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). The field boasts 10 of the top 50 WAGR seniors and two of the top 20 European seniors.

This week, it’s not just about the golf legends. Former NFL quarterbacks Stan Humphries and Billy Joe Tolliver are also teeing it up this week. Tolliver and Humphries, who played in Super Bowl 29 with the then-San Diego Chargers, both are feeding their craving for competition as they tee it up with the best in the game.

Nine Europeans have made the trip across the pond to test their game against a stacked field of Yanks.

Leading the charge is Team Scotland, who have No. 4 ranked WAGR European senior Ronnie Clark and are captained by No. 20 ranked Derek Patton.

Team Ireland, Germany and Canada are all vying for the upset to take home the International crown.

As the Golfweek senior amateur season begins to come to a close, the Golfweek Player of the Year race is just heating up. With 16 players inside the top 100 of the Golfweek player rankings, individual PoY points are on the line, making this week just that much more important.

Golfweek No. 1 Bob Royak has less than a 900 point lead on Doug Hanzel. No. 3 ranked Rusty Strawn, No. 6 Jon Lindstrom and No. 10 Mike Combs can all make a huge jump in the rankings this week with a strong finish or even a win.

Combs (1990 Public Links), Hanzel (2013 Senior Am), Royak (2019 Senior Am), Strawn (2022 Senior Am) and Mike McCoy (2013 Mid-Am) are the five USGA championship winners in the field this week with another near countless amount of USGA championship starts among them as well as their fellow competitors.

Play begins Thursday, Oct. 5 at 8 a.m. ET. Live scoring is available on Golf Genius (GGID: 23GWISI).

Packed leaderboards at 2022 International Mid-Am/Senior Championship after first round

Plenty of big names are near the top of the leaderboard after the first round.

A weekend of top tier mid-am and senior golf officially teed off in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, on Friday, and the competition got fierce fast. With both team and individual titles on the line, there’s no time to waste against the best. The 2022 International Mid-Amateur & Senior, Team and Individual Championship has yet to crown champions but has plenty of contenders vying for their shot at being crowned champion.

Rod Baronet and Jon Lindstrom are paving the way for the senior division. Both at 6 under, the duo matched each other shot for shot with seven birdies and a bogey. Leading the pack by three shots, the pair is being chased by Wes McNulty and John Wright at 3 under.

Behind them lurks Tony Wise at 2 under and a pack of five golfers at 1 under, led by Rusty Strawn and Doug Hanzel.

In the team portion, Lindstrom is once again leading the way. Team Colorado leads by two in large part because of Lindstrom. His round of 6 under, accompanied by Chris Carson’s 2-over 74, is good for a two stroke lead over Team Arkansas. Richard Bradsby fills out Colorado’s roster but was not counted in the team score with a 4-over 76.

Team St. George, Team Georgia (South), and North Carolina (East) trail by less than five heading into the second round.

In the mid-am competition, Marc Engellenger carded a bogey-free 5-under 67 to take a one-shot lead over the field.

Beginning the day on a hot steak, Engellenger coasted on the back nine with pars on eight of his final nine holes. Just one shot back, the trio of Philip Reale, Travis Woolf and Justin Young will all seek to stay in contention in the second round.

Reale has teamed up with Pat Carter, Cam Roam, and Sam O’Dell to form Team West Virginia. Combining for a team score of 6-under 210, they lead Team North Texas by a single stroke.

Team South Texas is the only other team under par at 2 under. Team Mississippi is six shots back at even par.

Saturday’s second round begins at 7:30 am on both of Pawleys Island’s premier courses: True Blue and Caledonia.

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