Tag: Senior Amateur Golf

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.

Kirk Maynord hits the gas and pulls away at Golfweek Senior Division National Championship

With one round left to play at Desert Willow, Oklahoman Kirk Maynord is the guy to catch.

Kirk Maynord hit reverse out of the gate Tuesday at the Golfweek Senior Division National Championship, but only briefly. Now, with one round left to play, Maynord is the guy to catch.

Maynord, from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, trailed by a shot after the first round at Desert Willow’s Mountain View Course in Palm Desert, California. A bogey on the par-4 opening hole Tuesday afternoon didn’t help matters. After that, however, Maynord found a different gear. He reeled off birdies at Nos. 6, 8 and 9, then made the turn and birdied Nos. 12 and 14 for a 4-under 68.

At 6 under for the tournament, Maynord leads Jon Lindstrom of Denver by three shots.

A year ago, Maynord tied for 35th in this event, then turned around and competed in the Golfweek Senior Amateur, also at Desert Willow, and finished runner-up in the senior division. He’s in the field for the follow-up event once again this year.

Scores: Golfweek Senior Division National Championship

The early frontrunner on Tuesday was Craig Hurlbert, a Hamilton, Montana, native who competes frequently on the senior amateur circuit while also juggling a career in business. Most notably, Hurlbert co-founded in 2017 an agricultural company called Local Bounti, which produces sustainable and non-GMO greens year-round and is headquartered in Hamilton. It went public at the New York Stock Exchange in 2021.

Hurlbert, who has twice captained a team at the Golfweek Senior Challenge Cup, went out in the first group at 7 a.m. His day had its highs and lows. There were the two birdies, at Nos. 8 and 15, but also a triple-bogey at the par-4 17th.

Remarkably, Hurlbert followed that up with an eagle at the par-5 closing hole to take back some ground. He has posted back-to-back rounds of 71 on the Mountain View Course, and at 2 under and four off the lead, will play in Wednesday’s final group.

Grady Brame, also at 2 under, will complete that foursome. Brame, of Hammond, Louisiana, was the solo leader after an opening 3-under 69. He was bogey-free in the first round and gave himself a stress-free day by leaving the ball in all the right places, which produced several birdie looks.

On Tuesday, Brame bogeyed three of the first five holes but recovered with three birdies over the next seven. A bogey at No. 17 left him with a 73.

John Brellenthin of Dallas and Kevin VandenBerg of Pulaski, New York, are tied for fifth at 1 under. VandenBerg was a favorite entering the tournament, having won Golfweek Senior Player of the Year honors in 2023. He has made 10 birdies in two days at Desert Willow, but also seven bogeys and a double.

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.”

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

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

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

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

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

Scores: Golfweek POY Classic

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

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

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

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

“Keeps me busy,” he said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carlos Aranda, Matthew Avril top packed leaderboard at Golfweek Senior POY Classic

At the top of the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic leaderboard, consistency is the key.

At the top of the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic leaderboard, consistency is the key. After two rounds at the Omni Orlando (Florida) Resort at ChampionsGate, Carlos Aranda and Matthew Avril are tied for first in the senior division. Both men opened with 2-over 74 then backed it up with a round of 1-over 73 in Wednesday’s second round.

Aranda and Avril, at 3-over for the tournament, have a one-shot cushion on two chasers, and it’s a packed leaderboard after that. Avril, of Vero Beach, Florida, birdied the par-5 18th hole to find his way to the top of the leaderboard. Notably, Avril won the Florida Azalea Senior in 2023.

Aranda’s two birdies came at the first and eighth holes, and the Springfield, Virginia, native sprinkled in three bogeys, too.

With one round to go, a pair of U.S. Senior Amateur champions are also still in the hunt. Bob Royak, the winner in 2019, and Doug Hanzel, the 2013 winner, are both at 6 over.

Kevin VandenBerg, Golfweek’s Senior Player of the Year for 2023, is at 9 over.

Scores: Golfweek POY Classic

The Super Senior division features a little more separation. First-round leader Marcus Beck, who also took Golfweek Player of the Year honors for 2023 in his division, backed up from a 73 to a 78 on Wednesday, and Steve Sharpe took advantage with a round of 1-under 71. At 1 over total, Sharpe, of Greensboro, North Carolina, now has a six-shot lead on Beck and Doug Harris.

Sharpe was one of only two players in all four divisions who went under par on Wednesday.

Bev Hargraves of Little Rock, Arkansas, remains in a tie for the top spot in the Legends division, but now it’s Jeffrey Knox who shares the spot. Both men are at 5 over, while Peter Van Ingen, the other first-round co-leader, dropped a spot to 6 over.

The first-round leader in the Super Legend division, Bill Engel of St. Augustine, Florida, maintained his solo lead and at 7 over, now has a two-shot cushion on Frank Costanzo and John Osborne.