Gritty Bryan Hoops wins Golfweek Senior National Championship by eight shots

USA Today

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Gritty Bryan Hoops wins Golfweek Senior National Championship by eight shots
Bryan Hoops is navigating his way around the senior circuit largely by word of mouth. Hoops, a gritty competitor, has long tested his game against national competition, it's just that for the past year, the 56-year-old has found himself in a new realm: senior amateur golf.
Hoops, of Tempe, Arizona, added to his win column on June 11 with an eight-shot victory at the Golfweek Senior National Championship at Grandover Resort in Greensboro, North Carolina. He piggy-backed this start on top of last week's National Senior Hall of Fame Tournament at High Point (North Carolina) Country Club.
'A bunch of the guys that were in Florida stated that one of the events on the East Coast that they do make it to is either the Hall of Fame or this event. It happened to be back-to-back, it worked for me,' he said of this cross-country trip.
Hoops finished one shot out of a playoff at High Point but he resumed his winning ways – he has won five other tournaments since the start of April – at Grandover.
As always, there's more to the story than simply the score. Hoops came right from High Point and because of a rain-out weekend, didn't get a chance to play a practice round at Grandover. Normally, that would be a methodical day for Hoops as he carefully constructed a plan of attack for the golf course. Instead, he went into the first round on June 9 blind. Add rainy, muddy conditions and Hoops' uncharacteristic opening 75 .
Hoops guesses the conditions added seven to eight shots to competitors' scores across the board. He ended the day three shots off the pace.
Rain continued to fall throughout the week and the lift, clean and replace rules went into effect for the final two rounds.
'Everybody had it, I'm just lucky to stay close enough to the lead with all the things that happened,' said Hoops, who was pleased with his ballstriking all three days.
Hoops closed with rounds of 66-68 – making a total of nine birdies in those final 36 holes and an eagle in each round – and at 7 under for the tournament, ultimately put eight shots between himself and runner-up Kevin VandenBerg, the two-time reigning Golfweek Senior Player of the Year.
The battle between Hoops and VandenBerg for the title over the last two days could become a familiar storyline in senior golf for the next few years. VandenBerg is famous for teeing it up nearly every week – something for which he draws respect from Hoops and other competitors.
Hoops' previous two victories came at the Huddleston Cup and the Trans-Mississippi Senior Championship. In April, he won three consecutive senior events – two Golfweek and one Society of Seniors – in the California desert.
As the summer amateur calendar intensifies, here's a mind-blowing stat to consider: In more than 100 competitive rounds since December, Hoops has only posted two rounds over par. That makes him a very intriguing character to watch as the summer schedule plays out.
Hoops said an email mix-up regarding an exemption into the second round of U.S. Senior Open qualifying will leave him on the outside looking in when that tournament is played at the end of the month, but in July, he will play the British Senior Amateur at Walton Heath Golf Club in England. While there, he will also try to qualify for the British Senior Open.
Hoops has a competitive leg up in the latter department because of relationships he has built with pros on various tours who also play at his home course, Whisper Rock Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
'Ken Tanigawa is a real close friend of mine and he goes over two weeks early, plays a bunch of the old places and gets into a lot of stuff,' Hoops said. 'Brings some friends of his – whether it's Tim Herron, whether it's Scott McCarron – all these guys that they play with every week and I'll jump in with those guys and enjoy a week of golf over there, relaxing.'
Back home in the U.S., Hoops has several other starts lined up between exemptions, invitationals and USGA qualifiers.
'I filled out a lot of paperwork and I might have tournaments overlapping each other because of late confirmations and so forth so now I have to make a decision – whether I'm going to L.A. or whether I'm going to Seattle,' he said. 'I have to pick and withdraw from one, so the schedule gets a little crazy and it's really a full-time job just to keep up on the schedule.'
Once he gets there, Hoops nearly always takes care of business.
Super Senior division
The Super Senior division was a much tighter race at Grandover than the Senior division. Randy King of Horseshoe Bay, Texas and Greg Goode of Salina, Kansas, both finished 54 holes at 9 over and returned to the course for a playoff. King won on the first extra hole.
King finished in the top 5 at the Society of Seniors Senior Masters in April. Goode, meanwhile, is the top super senior player in Golfweek's National Senior Amateur Rankings.
Legends division
Stephen Fox of Pinehurst, North Carolina, won the Legends title at 2 over. That was five shots better than Bob MacWhinnie of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Super Legends division
Pete Allen of Southport, North Carolina, pulled off a runaway victory in the Super Legends division, finishing at 5 over and eight shots ahead of runners-up Frank Polizzi of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, and John Blank of Frostburg, Maryland.