Senior POY races on the line at Golfweek Tournament of Champions
- Top senior amateur golfers are competing in the Golfweek Tournament of Champions at PGA National's Champion Course.
- The course is known for its difficulty, particularly the three-hole stretch called the "Bear Trap" and newly overseeded rough.
- Several Golfweek National Senior Amateur Player of the Year titles will be decided at this final event of the season.
- Notable players in the field include past U.S. Senior Amateur champions Mike McCoy and Gene Elliott.
Senior amateur golf and PGA Tour venues do not often align. This week, however, the top senior amateurs in the game must navigate the Bear Trap, the famous three-hole stretch from Nos. 15 to 17 at PGA National’s Champion Course for the Golfweek Tournament of Champions.
Paul Gallo, director of tournament operations at PGA National, points out the rarity of the venue, which hosts the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches and in the past has been one of the toughest tests on Tour. Winter conditions, specifically a recent overseeding of the rough with rye grass, have the potential to make the golf course particularly difficult for the 54-hole event, to be played Dec. 13-15.
“That completely changed the golf course in terms of difficulty,” Gallo said. “If you miss the fairway, you’re one, looking to find your golf ball and, two, trying to figure out how to get it out of there, so it’s definitely one of the tougher golf courses that they play.”
When it comes to the Bear Trap, Gallo notes that some people say those three get tougher given the prevailing wind. But any wind ratchets up the difficulty on that gauntlet in the closing stretch of the golf course.
The TOC winner in each of four age divisions will need to maintain control of his golf ball to come out on top.
“I would say the winner would need to lose very few golf balls,” Gallo said. “With a lot of water out there, you can definitely lose a handful of balls during the round. I think if you keep it dry, the greens aren’t too tricked out, it’s not like you’re going to have a lot of three-putts really so if you can keep the ball dry, I think that’s definitely the number one goal as far as being able to keep the score low on the card.”
Before the tournament begins on the Champion Course on Dec. 13, a skins game will take place on the Fazio course on Dec. 12. Expect No. 18, a challenging par 4, to be the most difficult skin to take.
“It doesn’t look crazy off the tee, but once you get out there, that left side really cuts in, there’s water all the way down the left,” he said. “Eighteen, it’s a super difficult par 4.”
Given the timing of the TOC 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 positioned to win that title for the third year in a row. VandenBerg, who began the year with a victory at the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic, is in the field at PGA National along with his closest pursuer, Bryan Hoops of Scottsdale, Arizona. Hoops, 56, has come on strong this season, and won five WAGR-ranked tournaments in a row earlier this spring – including back-to-back Golfweek titles in the California desert and the Trans-Mississippi Senior Championship.
Todd Doss of Mandeville, Louisiana, is in third place in the POY race but trails VandenBerg by more than 7,000 points. Doss is also fairly new to this circuit but hit it hard this past year. He was runner-up at this event last year and returns this week.
Other notable players in the senior division include Mike McCoy, winner of this year’s U.S. Senior Amateur and a former winner of the U.S. Mid-Amateur (he is the only player to ever win both titles). Jerry Gunthorpe, winner of the recent Golfweek Senior Desert Showdown, will also tee it up along with Gene Elliott, a senior amateur legend who defeated Gunthorpe in 2021 to win the U.S. Senior Amateur.
Super Senior division
Greg Goode of Salina, Kansas, leads the Super Senior rankings after coming very close to winning the POY title a year ago. Goode will not tee it up at PGA National this week, and neither will the man in second place in those rankings, 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 the TOC. Kerper won the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic at the start of the year.
Legends division
Legends points leader Greg Osborne of Lititz, Pennsylvania, highlights the Legends division and interestingly, his brother John will compete in the Super Legends division. The Super Legends division points race is the most closely contested, with John Osborne trailing leader Sam Robinson by only 895 points. Robinson is also in the TOC field.