a day ago
Top seniors head to Grandover for Golfweek Senior National Championship
Top seniors head to Grandover for Golfweek Senior National Championship
Grandover Resort has a rich history when it comes to hosting college golf events. The Greensboro, North Carolina, resort has welcomed everything from the NCAA Division III National Championship to NCAA Division I Men's Regionals to the ACC Women's Golf Championship.
And now, once again, it's the seniors' turn. Two years after extensive course renovations, Grandover will welcome a national field of senior amateurs for the Golfweek Senior National Championship. The 54-hole tournament will be played June 9-11 and players will compete in the usual four age divisions: Senior (ages 55-64), Super Senior (65-69), Legends (70-74) and Super Legends (75 and over).
The tournament will take place on Grandover's East Course, which features many tree-lined fairways as well as several holes that have a 'stadium-type effect.' The East, as well as Grandover's neighboring West Course, was designed by David Graham and Gary Panks.
A year ago, Trent Gregory won the senior division title after making birdie on the first extra hole against Michael Arasin. But neither Gregory nor Arasin will not be in the field this week, clearing the way for a new Senior Division winner.
Undoubtedly, the favorite entering the event is Bryan Hoops, a Tempe, Arizona, resident who turned 56 in February and made his debut on the Golfweek senior circuit the same month. Hoops lost to Bob Royak, a former U.S. Senior Amateur champion, after a lengthy playoff at the Golfweek Pirates Classic but then won back-to-back Golfweek senior events in the Southern California desert in April. After that he just kept on winning, claiming the Society of Seniors' Senior Masters trophy days after his Golfweek wins.
Hoops also won the Trans-Mississippi Senior Championship in Rancho Mirage, California, and the Huddleston Cup in Carrollton, Texas, earlier this year.
The senior division, however, also includes two-time defending Golfweek Senior Player of the Year Kevin VandenBerg, who won this event in 2022. VandenBerg and Hoops are Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the Golfweek National Senior Amateur Rankings.
In the Super Senior division, the top four players in the Golfweek rankings will all tee it up: Marcus Beck, Greg Goode, James Starnes and Stevie Cannady. That division also includes 2023 champion Bob Edens.
Golfweek's top-ranked Legends player, Greg Osborne, is among the field in that division at Grandover and so is No. 2-ranked Jeff Knox. Defending champion George Owens is back in the Super Legends division.
