Senior Amateur Golf – Syndication Server

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

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

Looking back on a week of brutally windy tournament conditions, Brady Exber admits there were holes at Las Vegas’ Paiute Golf Resort on which he didn’t even try to make par.

“I just didn’t want to make more than a bogey,” said Exber, a Las Vegas local who knows that fall weather in the desert can sometimes bring whipping winds. “I had probably two or three times, just chips from just off the green, that I knew I couldn’t get the ball to stay on the green from chipping.”

Being a Southern Nevada native, Exber is hardened to desert golf in all conditions. That, and he’s exceptionally experienced at the highest level of the game, having won countless Southern Nevada golf titles as well as the British Senior Amateur in 2014 and the Canadian Senior Amateur in 2018.

He added another title on Nov. 8 as he managed the course and the conditions to win the Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown by one shot over Matthew Avril of Vero Beach, Florida. Exber, who won with rounds of 81-79-71 for a 15-over total, dedicated his latest victory to his daughter, Jordan.

Scores: Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown

“I like the course management aspect of golf,” Exber said when asked how he felt about a week that had forced him to get creative. “Whether it’s good weather, bad weather, I like to kind of map out how I would manage the course depending on the weather so I generally – it’s hard to say I enjoyed it because it’s not really enjoyable. I understand it, I can deal with it.”

Exber, 68, barely managed to get in a practice round at Paiute after having come directly from the East West Matches on Nov. 1-3 at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas. The biannual matches pit the 18 best U.S. amateurs from east of the Mississippi with those from west of it in a mix of fourball, foursomes and singles matches.

Exber captained the victorious West team, and left Maridoe high on the concept. His team was highlighted by three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad plus numerous other top amateurs such as Drew Kittleson and Trip Kuehne.

“It was a thrill for me to get to watch those guys play,” he said. “I just can’t believe – I really pinched myself that they even asked me to be the captain. It was just great.”

It was his first time in the captain’s position, however, and he found that part of it nerve-wracking – especially when the score was so close.

“To just be out there watching the matches and not being able to do anything other than come on guys, let’s go, you know root for your guys, it was tough,” Exber said. “It was nerve-wracking.

“I will say that our team, they played so hard and especially down the stretch, it was tight right down to the end and our guys just kind of played, out-toughed them. They were gritty.”

While Exber, back in Las Vegas this week, might have benefited from some local feel in the howling desert wind at Paiute, the top two players in the Super Senior division hailed from Kansas. Despite living in a Plains state, division winner Greg Goode noted “we don’t play in this kind of weather back in Kansas.”

Goode, from Salina, opened with 87 when the conditions were toughest, but rallied with a remarkable second-round 77 and capped it off with a closing 75 for a one-shot victory over fellow Kansan Kevin Belknap.

This was Belknap’s first national senior event, and Goode had only recently talked him into competing. It ended up being a very tough test.

“I’ve never played golf where you never had an easy shot,” Goode said, “because of the wind and the speed of the greens, you just couldn’t stop the ball from rolling when it got on the green, the wind would push it around. It really did help you live in the moment, I will say that. It helped you play one shot at a time – you weren’t thinking about anything else.”

After the first round, Goode had felt so discouraged he didn’t even look at the scoreboard until an email from the tournament director that evening that gave the day’s average score: 85.

“I looked at the scores and I thought, I shot an 87, I’m still in it,” Goode said. “I just played really solid golf the last two days.”

And ultimately, as Goode pointed out, “that’s golf.”

With the victory, Goode gained considerable ground in the Super Senior Player of the Year race. He began the week trailing Jim Starnes by roughly 1,200 points.

Neil Spitalny of Chattanooga, Tennessee, won the Legends division at the Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown with consistent rounds of 77-81-81. He was two shots ahead of Michael Paulsen of Fort Worth, Texas.

Richard Hunt of Bixby, Oklahoma, won the Super Legends division by a three-shot margins after rounds of 81-82-77.

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

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

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

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

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

Scores: Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scores: Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It would be a commitment, for sure.

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

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

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

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

Golfweek National Senior Amateur Rankings

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

“If I need to, I’ll do it.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kansas City Golf Hall of Famer Don Kuehn, 77, knocked two colossal goals off his list in senior golf this year

When Don Kuehn set out on the senior circuit at the start of 2024, he had two goals in mind: to shoot his age or better for the 500th time and to win his 50th championship title.

The first time Don Kuehn shot his age, he was playing in a senior team event in Louisville, Kentucky. A teammate told Kuehn to make a note of it because shooting his age, he said, was the only stat he was keeping track of in his game.

“So I wrote it down,” said the now-77-year-old Kuehn, who was 66 at the time and had just fired a 65. “And then I wrote some more down, and I’ve been writing them down ever since.”

Shooting your age (or beating it) is a common currency in golf, so mouths will drop at the next part of the story. When Kuehn, of Kansas City, set out on the senior circuit at the start of 2024, he had two goals in mind: to shoot his age or better for the 500th time and to win his 50th championship title.

Kuehn hit the latter when he won the Legends division of the Kansas City Amateur in late July, but the former?

“I had a good feeling that I might be able to get to No. 500 at Pinehurst, and it worked out,” he said.

When Kuehn played the North & South Senior Amateur at the North Carolina resort earlier this month, he shot rounds of 74-73-74, meeting his goal in the final round.

The statistics surrounding Kuehn’s golf game are at once totally remarkable and unsurprising. Kuehn, retired from a career with the American Federation of Teachers, figures he plays just over 200 recordable rounds a year these days. Kuehn, can be found at Paradise Pointe Golf Complex, a country-run in Smithville, Missouri, on most days. There are two 18-hole golf courses there, and Kuehn likes to tee off first most mornings and get in 18 holes in under three hours. Maybe practice a little after that.

Like most players Kuehn’s age, it hasn’t always been like this. During his professional career, Kuehn traveled extensively, and had little time for golf. But several years into the gig, he found himself sitting at the bargaining table one day in Los Angeles with a man who had attended Ohio State right after the Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf era. To kill time, they started talking about golf – namely where Kuehn might be able to play in the city.

“I found out that I was kind of a better person when I got away from the tension and the stress of negotiating a contract for 58,000 people,” he said. “…I played a few times out there and then I started playing a little bit on weekends, on a limited basis.”

Eventually, Kuehn was scheduling his vacation days around golf tournaments. He won his first serious tournament in 1998 – a club championship – and won the Kansas Senior Amateur in 2001.

As the years went on, Kuehn became the only player to win the “Kansas Senior Slam,” which includes the Senior Amateur, the Senior Four-Ball, the Senior Match Play and “The Railer” Stroke Play Championship. He also played the U.S. Senior Amateur twice (in 2005 and 2009) and began traveling extensively for national senior tournaments in 2011.

Kuehn is embedded Kansas City golf lore. He’s also been a member of the Board of Directors for Central Links Golf (the Allied Golf Association formed when the Kansas City and Kansas Golf Associations merged) since 2006. One of his most significant contributions was the first-person history Kuehn wrote about golf in Kansas City, albeit with his own quirky spin.

After being appointed to the chair of the centennial committee in 2012 for what was then the Kansas City Golf Association, Kuehn hatched the idea of creating a character to tell the story in a more compelling way. That became Jimmy the Caddie.

Kuehn imagined Jimmy as a mix between Forest Gump and Zelig, an omnipresent character created in 1983 by Woody Allen.

“Jimmy told the story from a first-person point of view of how golf developed in the Kansas City area,” Kuehn said.

That Kuehn would choose a caddie for his alter ego is not that surprising given that his roots in the game are as a bagman in his native Chicago. He got his first job caddying at the age of 12 at a (since closed) course called Thorngate, which was located in the suburb of Deerfield. Being under the legal age to work, he would either hide when the lady from Department of Labor came around to check work permits or spend his day shining shoes in the men’s locker room, where she couldn’t find him.

When the school year began, Kuehn would ride the bus past his house to the golf course and clean clubs for the assistant pro. At the end of a workday, Kuehn would either receive a few dollars or permission to climb up on the bag rack and pick out a golf club for himself from a stack of trade-ins. He assembled his first set that way and used them when caddies got playing privileges on Mondays.

“I just kind of fell in love with the game,” Kuehn said of that part of his life. “From 12 years old until now, that’s a long time.”

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.

Golfweek Pacific Northwest Senior Championship headed to Wine Valley GC on the heels of PNGA Men’s Amateur

Days after the best college players clear out of Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington, the top seniors move in.

Days after the best college players clear out of Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington, the top seniors move in. Tyler Sweet, Director of Golf at Wine Valley, praises the golf course’s versatility, and that will be particularly apparent in the two-week stretch encompassing the Pacific Northwest Golf Association Men’s Amateur and the Golfweek Pacific Northwest Senior Amateur.

“It’s such a great layout,” Sweet said of the golf course. “You can do so many different things with it.”

Wine Valley, which opened in 2009, has twice before hosted the PNGA Amateur, a top-50 event in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (based on strength of field) that is filled with Division I college players. The course also frequently hosts U.S. Golf Association qualifiers and Washington state amateur and open championships.

On July 16-18, Wine Valley will host the Golfweek Pacific Northwest Senior Amateur for the third time. Players will compete across four divisions: Senior (age 55-64), Super Senior (Age 65-69), Legends (age 70-74) and Super Legends (age 75 and over).

Wine Valley is a Dan Hixson design nestled into the Blue Mountains in Central Washington. It is ranked No. 3 in the state of Washington on the Golfweek’s Best Public Courses list and also appears on the Golfweek’s Best Top 200 Modern Courses list.

Sweet goes back to the panoramic mountain views.

“They did not move much dirt to build this golf course,” he said. “You’ve got rolling hills through there, it used to be farm fields – whether it was hay fields or alfalfa fields. Just a rolling golf course. It’s just so natural that people just want to come play.”

Picturesque though it may be, Wine Valley has teeth, and players generally feel them around the greens. The course features exceptionally large greens – some as deep as 40 to 50 yards from front to back – which can mean a several club difference depending on hole location (of which there are many). Sweet calls the greenside bunkering rugged and natural and notes that “if you short-side yourself in a bunker, you’re really going to have to work to make par.”

A strong Senior division field includes Kevin VandenBerg of Syracuse, New York, who claimed last year’s Golfweek Senior Player of the Year honors. Jack Larkin, the No. 3-ranked senior in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, is also in the field. So is Doug Hanzel, also among the top 10 seniors in the WAGR and winner of the 2013 U.S. Senior Amateur.

The Senior division also includes Jim Pliska, owner of Wine Valley Golf Club. Pliska, who also owns Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell, Oregon, has built his career in the golf business while also keeping his game sharp. Pliska played for the University of Oregon in the 1970s, and continues to compete in Oregon Golf Association events. He won the OGA Tournament of Champions in 1986,1988 and 2000.

Jim Starnes, the top-ranked player in Golfweek’s Super Senior Rankings, highlights the Super Senior field. Starnes, of Ft. Myers, Florida, won the Florida Azalea Senior earlier in the year and tied for second at the Golfweek Senior Amateur at Desert Willow in Palm Desert, California.

Golfweek top-25 player Dan Parkinson of Lehi, Utah, is among the Legends field.

Stevie Cannady prevails at Golfweek Super Senior National Championship for a senior golf milestone

Stevie Cannady’s first national senior victory had a redemptive element.

Stevie Cannady’s first national senior victory had a redemptive element. For much of the back nine at the Golfweek Super Senior, Legends and Super Legends National Championship, it looked like Cannady would easily bag the Super Senior title.

Then came the double bogey at No. 17, and his three-shot lead shrunk to one.

“After making double bogey I got a little nervous,” Cannady admitted.

Cannady had been trying to play to the front of the green at the Golf Club of Georgia’s par-3 17th but pull-hooked his tee shot into the pond there. When he stepped up the 18th tee, he refound his confidence. Playing with his three closest pursuers, Cannady put his approach inside 20 feet, the closest to the hole in the group, and left himself an easy one-and-a-half footer for par.

Scores: Golfweek Super Senior, Legends and Super Legends National Championship

“I’ve had seconds and I’ve had thirds and I’ve never won, so this is the first,” Cannady said of finally scoring a title. Shortly after the victory, as he drove from Alpharetta back home to Pooler, Georgia, near Savannah, he looked forward to sharing the news with his local golf buddies.

Cannady had consistent rounds of 73-72-70 for a 1-under 54-hole total. That left him one ahead of Todd Brown and two ahead of Chris Hall on a tight leaderboard.

Cannady turned 65 in early January, making 2024 his first year in the super senior division. Given that change of division, he decided to ramp up his schedule a little. It had been a few years since he had played much on the senior circuit as work – Cannady owns a logistics company that specializes in trucking, warehousing and some commercial real estate – prevented him for teeing it up very many weeks.

Before arriving at the Golf Club of Georgia, his best finish of 2024 had been a top 5 at the Lowcountry Senior Invitational in May.

It was the one that got away.

“I was one off the lead there and made a double bogey on 16, which cost me that tournament,” he said. “Didn’t know it at the time but the guy that won it actually double-bogeyed 17 and then bogeyed 18. If I had just parred the 16th hole, I would have won outright.”

Originally, Cannady was scheduled to play in a U.S. Senior Amateur qualifier early week, but decided not to play that round so that he could get a look at the Golf Club of Georgia, a course he hadn’t seen in 30 years.

“I definitely needed the practice round to refamiliarize myself,” he said. “It’s a fabulous facility, beautiful layout around the lakes and everything, in phenomenal good shape, too.”

On his very last driver swing of that practice-round day, Cannady cracked his driver head, which sent him to closest PGA Tour Superstore to find a replacement before the tournament started. Cannady ended up putting a new TaylorMade in the bag. He could fade or hook his old, familiar driver on demand, but found himself fighting a bit of a fade bias with the new club.

“I kind of had to play a little left to right all week,” he said. “Hit a few straight ones but most of them were fades, going left to right.”

In a final-round 70, his best score of the week, Cannady hit 86% of fairways and 89% of greens. He had 30 putts and aside from the double on No. 17, nothing but pars and four birdies – which all came on the front nine and helped him leapfrog first- and second-round leader Emile Vaughan, who ended up fourth after a final-round 75.

The momentum from Cannady’s Super Senior National Championship win could translate into something bigger down the road – the opportunities are certainly there this summer and fall. Cannady ticked off a solid tournament schedule coming up, which includes Society of Senior events at Turning Stone Resort in New York and Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon, as well as the Golfweek Senior National Match Play at Tot Hill Farm in Asheboro, North Carolina, and the North & South Senior Amateur at Pinehurst (North Carolina) Resort.

In the Legends division, Neil Spitalny of Chattanooga, Tennessee, clipped Charley Yandell by a shot as Yandell, who had led for much of the day, double-bogeyed the closing par 5. Spitalny put together a tidy final-round 70 which included three birdies and a single bogey at No. 16. He finished at 3 over for the tournament.

Phil Pavoni tied Yandell at 4 over for runner-up honors in the division.

Don Kuehn of Kansas City, Missouri, won the Super Legends division after rounds of 77-71-73 left him at 5 over for the tournament. Notably, Kuehn, who is in the Kansas City Golf Hall of Fame, claimed the 49th victory of his senior career. He has the distinction of having won the Kansas Senior Slam, which includes the Senior Amateur, Senior Four-Ball and Senior Match Play titles and “The Railer” Stroke Play Championship, and has done much to promote the game in his hometown.