Beginning Saturday, Sept. 26, 156 players will tee it up in the 61st U.S. Senior Amateur Championship, at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. Competitors will play 36 holes of stroke play before the field is cut to 64 for match play. Here are some of the notable stroke-play groupings:
Saturday, 12:10 p.m., Hole No. 1; Sunday, 7:20 a.m., Hole No. 10: Tim Jackson, Michael Podolak, Ramiro Romo
Two are USGA champions, while the other is a USGA championship rookie who will undoubtedly garner his fair share of interest. Jackson, the 1994 and 2001 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and a two-time USA Walker Cup Team member, has earned low-amateur honors in the U.S. Senior Open three times. Podolak won the U.S. Mid-Amateur title in 1984 and represented the USA in the Walker Cup the following year. Romo, who took up the game in his early 30s and has seen success in his home state of Wisconsin, is the father of Tony Romo, the star quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys.
Saturday, 1 p.m., Hole No. 1; Sunday, 8:10 a.m., Hole No. 10: George “Buddy” Marucci, Matthew Horwitch, Steve Bogan
Marucci, the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, has twice played on the USA Walker Cup Team, and he served as captain twice, in 2007 and 2009. He may be best known, however, for his showdown with 19-year-old Tiger Woods in the 1995 U.S. Amateur at Newport (R.I.) Country Club, where he took the eventual champion to the 36th hole of the championship match. Bogan and Horwitch have both played in a handful of USGA championships, including Bogan’s start in the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.
Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Hole No. 1; Sunday, 7:40 a.m., Hole No. 10: Patrick Tallent, Mike Heffner, Dave Clement
Tallent, the defending champion, arrives at Hidden Creek with even more recent success, having captured the Seniors Amateur Championship, conducted by The R&A, at Royal County Down in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, in August. A sixth-round draft pick of the NBA’s Washington Bullets in 1976, Tallent will tee it up with Heffner and Clement, who have both competed in one previous U.S. Senior Amateur. Clement advanced to match play in his debut last year.
Saturday, 7:20 a.m., Hole No. 10; Sunday, 12:10 p.m., Hole No. 1: Douglas Williams, George Zahringer, Mike Rice
USGA champions Zahringer and Rice are joined by Williams, a two-time U.S. Senior Open competitor who defeated 11-year-old Michelle Wie in the first round of the 2001 Hawaii State Amateur Championship. Zahringer, the 2002 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, finished runner-up to Buddy Marucci in the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur and played on the 2003 USA Walker Cup Team. Rice, the 2005 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, is the oldest player in the field at 75.
Saturday, 7:30 a.m., Hole No. 1; Sunday, 12:20 p.m., Hole No. 10: Paul Simson, Stanley Kinsey, Martin West
Simson, the 2010 and 2012 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, competed in the 1998 U.S. Open at The Olympic Club and has made seven starts in the U.S. Senior Open. West, who competed in the 1976 U.S. Open at Atlanta Athletic Club and played on two USA Walker Cup Teams, will be making his 11th U.S. Senior Amateur start. Kinsey, who will be making his second appearance in the U.S. Senior Amateur, advanced to match play in his debut in 2012.
Scott Lipsky is the manager of websites and digital platforms for the USGA. Email him at slipsky@usga.org.
