The CGA championship season will begin next week, with the Senior Four-Ball being the first of a dozen amateur championships on the 2017 schedule.
The CGA Senior Four-Ball will be contested for the 36th time when Broadlands Golf Course in Broomfield hosts the 54-hole two-man scratch best-ball stroke-play event Monday through Wednesday (May 1-3).
In all, 47 teams are scheduled to compete.
Robert Polk of Colorado Golf Club and former CGA president Bill Fowler of The Club at Rolling Hills (pictured together last year) are set to defend their title. Polk has won the Senior Four-Ball three times with three different partners.
The team champions from five Senior Four-Balls since 2009 return intact for this year’s tournament. In addition to Polk/Fowler (2016), there’s David Delich and Bruce Hogg (2014), Kelly Crone and Larry Netherton (2009 and 2013), and John Applegate and Keith Masters (2011). Other former champions who are entered this year are Sean Forey (2003 and ’08, with Kevin Ott) and Bob Beiersdorf (2015, with Ed Spenner).
Among the other teams in the field are Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kent Moore and Stephen Bell, 2016 CGA Senior Match Play champion Jeff Oneth and Tim Kneen, 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifier Tom Krystyn and Michael Larson, former CGA Senior Match Play champ Guy Mertz and Tony Workman, and 2016 U.S. Senior Amateur match-play qualifier Robin Bradbury and Owen Ellis,
One wrinkle for this year’s CGA Senior Four-Ball is that no one under 51 will be in the field. In an effort to eventually match the age criteria for the U.S. Senior Amateur, which is limited to players 55 and older, each year beginning in 2017 the eligibility for CGA senior events will rise one year. So next year, for instance, the minimum age will be 52. From 2021 and beyond, competitors must be at least 55.
Meanwhile, CGA super-senior tournaments will similarly feature age adjustments, going to 61 and older in 2017 before leveling off at 65 and up in 2021.
For pairings for the Senior Four-Ball, CLICK HERE.
