The sites for senior amateur golf and the PGA Tour don’t often align. This week, however, the game’s top senior amateurs must navigate the Bear Trap, the famous three-hole stretch from Nos. 15 to 17 of PGA National’s Champion Course for Golfweek’s Tournament of Champions.
Paul Gallo, director of tournament operations at PGA National, highlights the rarity of the venue, which hosts the Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches and has in the past been one of the toughest tests on the Tour. Winter conditions, particularly the recent overseeding of the rough with ryegrass, could make the golf course particularly challenging for the 54-hole event, which will be played Dec. 13-15.
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“It completely changed the golf course in terms of difficulty,” Gallo said. “If you miss the fairway, you’re one, you’re looking for your golf ball and, two, you’re trying to figure out how to get it out of there, so it’s definitely one of the toughest golf courses they play.”
As for the bear trap, Gallo notes that some people say these three traps become stronger given the prevailing wind. But any wind increases the difficulty of this challenge in the final part of the golf course.
The winner of the TOC in each of the four age divisions will have to maintain control of their golf ball to win.
“I would say the winner should lose very few golf balls,” Gallo said. “With a lot of water, you can definitely lose a handful of balls during the round. I think if you keep it dry, the greens aren’t too tricked, it’s not like you’re really going to take a lot of three-putts, so if you can keep the ball dry, I think that’s definitely the number one goal to be able to keep the score down on the card.”
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Before the tournament begins on the Champion course on December 13, a skins game will take place on the Fazio course on December 12. Expect #18, a challenging par 4, to be the toughest skin to take.
“It doesn’t look crazy off the tee, but once you get out that left side really comes into play, there’s water all the way down to the left,” he said. “Eighteen is a super difficult par 4.”
Given the TOC schedule at the end of the year, several Golfweek National Senior Amateur Player of the Year races will be on the line.
Senior Division
In the senior division, Kevin VandenBerg of Syracuse, New York, is in a good position to win this title for the third year in a row. VandenBerg, who started the year with a victory at the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic, is in the field at PGA National with his closest pursuer, Bryan Hoops of Scottsdale, Arizona. Hoops, 56, had a strong season this season and won five straight WAGR-rated tournaments earlier this spring – including back-to-back Golfweek titles in the California Desert and the Trans-Mississippi Senior Championship.
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Todd Doss of Mandeville, Louisiana, sits third in the POY race but trails VandenBerg by more than 7,000 points. Doss is also relatively new to this circuit, but he hit it big last year. He was a finalist at this event last year and returns this week.
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Other notable players in the senior division include Mike McCoy, winner of this year’s US Senior Amateur and former winner of the US Mid-Amateur (he is the only player to have won both titles). Jerry Gunthorpe, winner of the recent Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown, will also play with Gene Elliott, a Senior Amateur legend who beat Gunthorpe in 2021 to win the US Senior Amateur.
Super Senior Division
Greg Goode of Salina, Kansas, leads the Super Senior standings after coming very close to winning the POY title a year ago. Goode won’t play at PGA National this week, and neither will the man in second place in that standings, Marcus Beck of Tallahassee, Florida. Beck won the POY title two years ago.
Steve Cannady of Pooler, Georgia, and Richard Kerper of Oldsmar, Florida, highlight the Super Senior division at TOC. Kerper won Golfweek Classic Player of the Year earlier this year.
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Legends Division
Legends points leader Greg Osborne of Lititz, Pa. is highlighting the Legends division and, interestingly, his brother John will be competing in the Super Legends division. The Super Legends division points race is the most hotly contested, with John Osborne trailing leader Sam Robinson by just 895 points. Robinson is also in the OCD area.
This article was originally published on Golfweek: Senior POY races in play at Golfweek Tournament of Champions
