BARDSTOWN, KY (June 3, 2020) – It took a couple months longer to happen than expected, but the first golf tournament overseen by Golf House Kentucky in the new decade concluded on Tuesday at Bardstown Country Club. The Kentucky Golf Association’s Senior Team Championship featured thirty teams composed of two players per team with one round of modified alternate shot and a round of four-ball. With significant modifications to a typical tournament in order to meet CDC guidelines and social distancing in place, it was a surreal but successful beginning to the tournament season in Bardstown.

Scott Ray and Buddy Bryant recorded the low total score across all divisions by taking the Senior Division’s (players aged 50-59) gross score title with a mark of 133 (-11). Ray and Bryant found themselves in a duel throughout the final round with day one leaders Tom Campbell and Tony Wise, who came up a shot shy to Ray and Bryant by finishing with 134 (-10). Both teams fired at all cylinders on Tuesday, with Ray and Bryant posting 66 (-6) in the four-ball format while Campbell and Wise recorded a solid 68 (-4) themselves. The net portion of the Senior Division was claimed by Kevin Auton and Rusty Dyer, who recorded an adjusted score of 127 (-17) to power them to a five-stroke victory.

The Masters Division (players aged 60-69) was dominated by the team of Gary Backlund and Tom Scheuerman who distanced themselves to an eight-stroke victory via their score of 135 (-9). Backlund and Scheuerman were only two strokes up on multiple teams following Monday’s play, but a round of 65 (-7) in four-ball bettered the next best score in their division by six strokes. The teams of Scott Pottinger and Bill Leavell plus Dennis Long and Michael Tipton each finished in a tie for second place while Tom Baggett and Jay Dietrich won the net title in the Masters Division through a score of 127 (-17).

The first playoff of 2020 was required in the Legends Division (players aged 70+) in which Rick Cain and Terry Bowman defeated Mike Lenox and Keen Shackleford on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. Both teams finished the Championship with scores of 140 (-4), but a par from Cain on Bardstown Country Club’s first hole was all that was needed to secure the gross score title. Vernon Denham and Jerry Edwards recorded a net score of 130 (-14) to earn the final first-place prize in the tournament.

NOTES & STATS

• Tom Campbell and Tony Wise’s Monday 66 was the low score across all divisions in modified alternate shot. Their back nine featured an impressive six birdies on their way to a score of 30 (-6) on that side.
• John Kernohan and Mike Newton had the low round of four-ball by virtue of a round of 64 (-8). Kernohan, on his own ball, went out in 31 (-5) and came in with 34 (-2). It was a bogey-free round from him that also included an eagle on the par-five sixth. The team would finish in a tie for third place in the gross portion of the Senior Division and second place in the net portion.
• Six total eagles were made in the tournament, but only one came on a hole that was not a par-five. Jerry Mayes of the Senior Division holed out on the par-four 11^th during Tuesday’s play. Mayes and his partner Mark Adams finished in fifth place in the gross portion and in a tie for fifth place in the net portion.

The Kentucky Golf Association would like to extend its thanks to Bardstown Country Club for hosting the year’s inaugural tournament and each player who followed the adjusted policies and procedures in place due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The next KGA competition will be held on Monday, June 22 at Summit Hills Country Club in Crestview Hills with the season’s first Amateur Series tournament. Click here for more information and sign-up details for that event.

Click here for final results of the Kentucky Senior Team Championship.