LOUISVILLE, KY (August 10, 2021) - The last two recipients of the Kentucky PGA’s ROLEX Senior Player of the Year honors share the lead after the opening round of the Section’s Senior Professional Championship. Bruce Oldendick and Steve Cox, who have each been the top Senior in the Section at least once since 2018, share the lead at Hurstbourne Country Club after the first of two rounds.

Both players shot 74 (+2) on a Tuesday that featured all sorts of elements, from sunshine to rain to wind. Tim Reeves is one stroke behind them in solo third after a round of 75 (+3) while Carmello Benassi, Greg Basham and Ralph Landrum are each T4 following rounds of 76 (+4).

The top-three finishers from this Championship will qualify for the PGA Senior Professional Championship later this year, a tournament that brings the best PGA Members across the country together to compete for the honor of being the top playing professional aged at least 50 years. This year’s edition of that tournament is scheduled to take place October 21-24 at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Those three automatic exemptions plus four alternate spots will be determined in Wednesday’s final round from Hurstbourne. Oldendick will be pursuing his fourth consecutive title in this event whereas Cox, who won the 2019 Kentucky Senior Open, is seeking his breakthrough victory in this tournament. Reeves, Benassi and Basham are also vying for their first Kentucky Senior PGA Professional Championship victory, while Landrum captured this trophy in 2009.

With those six players all within two strokes of the lead entering the final round, an exciting day to crown the first Section Championship of 2021 within Kentucky should be in store on Wednesday.

NOTES & STATS

• The day’s hardest hole was the par-four 12th, logging a stroke-to-par average of +0.94. Basham was the sole player to record a birdie on this hole in round one.
• The par-four 6th was the easiest hole which averaged exactly at even-par. There were four birdies, four bogeys and eight pars.
• The back nine was the tougher of the two sides to open the event, as players needed an average of 39.81 strokes to get around holes 10-18 compared to 38.56 on the outward nine.
• The round scoring average added up to 78.37.

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