Western Pennsylvania is home to a ton of talented amateur players, young, old and everywhere in between. At 56, Rick Stimmel, who plays out of Connoquenessing Country Club, is one of those guys.
I first came across Stimmel in the pandemic summer of 2020 when he lost in the final of the R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship, a major on the Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) circuit, to Josh Ryan, the kid from Norristown who had still had a year of high school left.
It was a fascinating matchup between the cagey veteran from Pittsburgh who had never laid eyes on the highly-thought-of Donald Ross design at the Country Club of York and Ryan, who was quickly developing into one of the top young amateur players in Pennsylvania.
Ryan pulled out a 1-up victory, but both Ryan and Stimmel played terrific golf. Nobody lost this match, Ryan, who is a fixture in the starting lineup at Conference USA power Liberty these days, just won it.
Stimmel had put the sticks away at the end of a pretty spectacular summer of 2023 that saw him claim a Pennsylvania Senior Amateur Championship at The Club at Nevillewood, earn a spot in the match-play bracket in his first crack at the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship at the Martis Camp Club in the mountain pass town of Truckee, Calif. and a victory in the Senior Porter Cup at Niagara Falls Country Club in early September.
Stimmel prevailed in a playoff in that Pennsylvania Senior Am win over another pretty strong western Pennsylvania senior in Sean Knapp, winner of the 2017 U.S. Senior Amateur at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis.
The second weekend of December Stimmel dusted off his clubs and picked up right where he left off in the summer, cruising to a six-shot victory in the Senior Championship division of the Dixie Amateur at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla.
An eagle at the par-5 10th hole and a run of three straight birdies at 12, 13 and 14 (there were shotgun starts, so I’m not certain of the order), helped Stimmel open with a 2-under 70.
Stimmel offset four bogeys with two birdies while posting a 2-over 74 in the second round. Pretty sure he still took a one-shot lead going into the final round.
Stimmel started off the fifth tee in the final round Dec. 9th and started pulling away when he chipped for his second eagle of the week at the par-5 eighth hole.
After making a birdie at the 10th hole, Stimmel made a bogey at 13 and a birdie at 18. A birdie at the first hole got him to 4-under for the championship, which afforded him the luxury of bogeys at three and four. That gave him another 2-under 70 and left him with a 2-under 214 total.
Mike Combs of Roswell, Ga. earned runnerup honors as he closed with a 1-over 73 for a 4-over 220 total. Jeffrey Scott Ray of Central City, Ky., winner of the Dixie Senior Championship division in 2019, matched par in each of the final two rounds with a pair of 72s to finish a shot behind Combs in third place with a 5-over 221 total.
Trent Gregory of Wake Forest, N.C. was Stimmel’s closest pursuer through two rounds as he matched par in the second round with a 72 after opening with a 1-over 73. Gregory struggled to a 79 in the final round to finish in a tie for fourth place with Ken Kinkopf of Jupiter, Fla., each finishing three shots behind Ray at 8-over 224.
Stimmel got himself right back in the winner’s circle in Florida by capturing the title in the SOS Ralph Bogart Tournament, which wrapped up Dec. 19th at the difficult Copperhead Course at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla.
It was a chilly and windy Tuesday morning on Florida’s west coast and Stimmel found himself trailing Combs, the runnerup to Stimmel in the Dixie Senior, after Combs got off to a hot start in the final round.
But Combs came back to the field and a birdie at the tough 16th hole at the Copperhead Course and a pair of pars at 17 and 18 – the difficult final two holes dubbed the “Snake Pit” – gave Stimmel a final round of 2-over 73 and a 4-over 217 total.
Combs and Kevin VandenBerg of Pulaski, N.Y. shared runnerup honors, each finishing a shot behind Stimmel at 5-over 218.
The winner of the SOS Ralph Bogart Tournament’s Legend division was none other than White Manor Country Club’s Don Donatoni, winner of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Super Senior Player of the Year award for a ninth time this year.
Twice had the opportunity last summer to be looping in a group that included Donatoni at Stonewall and the 70-something guy is such an impressive player and as classy as they get. Watching Donatoni play is just a clinic in how to score, no matter your age. He’s hardly long at this point, but he has great control of his ball and a tremendous short game.
Donatoni closed with a 3-over 74 at the Copperhead Course after carding a pair of 2-over 73s in the first two rounds to cruise to a six-shot victory. Pete Allen of Southport, S.C. was the runnerup.
Pretty neat story on the Dixie Amateur Senior/Mid-Master/Super Senior weekend at Eagle Trace on AmateurGolf.com, always a great source of information on the amateur game.
Stimmel played a practice round with Tim Eckberg of Waynesville, N.C. and they realized they had a number of mutual friends. They hung out together the whole week in Coral Springs and Eckberg ended up joining Stimmel in the winner’s circle with a two-shot victory in the Mid-Master division.
Eckberg built a big lead as he matched par in the second round with a 72 after opening with a 2-under 70. He closed with a 3-over 75 that gave him a 1-over 217 total and a two-shot victory over Jason Lina of Alpharetta, Ga. Lina finished up with a solid 1-under 71, but it wasn’t enough to catch Eckberg as Lina ended up with a 3-over 219 total.
Michael Anderson of Novi, Mich. and Matt Giovannelli of Ocala, Fla. finished in a tie for third place, each landing on 6-over 222, three shots behind Lina.
Steve Humphrey, another Ocala resident, ran away with the title in the Super Senior division, closing with a sparkling 4-under 68 to claim an eight-shot victory. Humphrey matched par in the opening round with a 72 and added a 1-under 71 in the second round. His strong finish gave him a 5-under 211 total.
Tim Vigotsky of Palm City, Fla. was right there with Humphrey going into the final round as he added a 1-over 73 in the second round after opening with a solid 2-under 70. Vigotsky struggled to a 76 in the final round, but still earned runnerup honors with a 3-over 219 total.
Jeffrey Knox of Jupiter, Fla. and Terry Tyson of Perrysburg, Ohio were another five shots behind Vigotsky in a tie for third place, each ending up at 8-over 224.
The Women’s Dixie Amateur and the Men’s Dixie Amateur were contested a week after the Senior/Mid-Master/Super Senior weekend under less than ideal weather conditions in central Florida. The women got in four rounds at Palm Aire Country Club in Boynton Beach, Fla. while relentless rain and wind limited the guys to 54 holes at Eagle Trace.
On the women’s side, it was another strong Florida outing for Tower Hill junior Avery McCrery, winner of the Delaware state girls crown last spring at Baywood Greens in Long Neck, Del., as she finished in a tie for seventh place at Palm Aire with a 15-over 299 total in the difficult conditions.
McCrery had been steadily improving, but really stepped it up early in 2023 when she finished in third place in the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship, The Sally as its better known, an event with a long and prestigious history at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla.
Not sure if the Women’s Dixie Amateur counts as part of the Orange Blossom Tour, a collection of amateur events for women each winter in South Florida of which The Sally is definitely a part.
But McCrery, who plans to join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke in the summer of 2025, certainly used her showing in The Sally as a jumping-off point for a solid 2023 that included a spot in the match-play bracket in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Club’s Blue Course in July in Colorado Springs, Colo.
After opening with a 5-over 76 at Palm Aire, McCrery posted a pair of 4-over 75s in the second and third rounds. She saved her best for last, a solid 2-over 73 in a final round that featured off-and-on rain and winds gusting from 25 to 30 mph.
McCrery offset a bogey at the third hole with a birdie at five. She was just 2-over the rest of the way with bogeys at the sixth and 18th holes. Pretty sure the conditions forced Dixie Amateur officials to go with shotgun starts in the final two rounds, so I’m not certain of the exact order of McCrery’s round, but she made 14 pars in the wind and rain.
The Women’s Dixie Amateur title went to Molly Brown Davidson of Springville, Ala. as she held off one of the most talented youngsters in junior golf in Angela Zhang of Bellevue, Wash. by a shot.
Davidson made a birdie at the 13th hole to draw even with Zhang at 4-over and then parred the final five holes while Zhang blinked with a bogey at the par-5 16th.
Davidson will join the program at Alabama next summer after reclassifying from being a Class of 2025 recruit to the Class of ’24.
Davidson closed with a 1-over 72 in the rain and wind for a 4-over 288 total. She had opened with a pair of 3-over 74s and then ripped off the low round of the tournament with a 3-under 68 in the third round.
Zhang teed it up in the U.S. Women’s Open at the Pebble Beach Golf Links as a 14-year-old last summer. After opening with a 2-over 73, Zhang posted a 1-under 70 in the second round and a 3-over 74 in the third round that left her just a shot behind Davidson going into the final round. She matched Davidson’s 1-over 72 in the final round to finish alone in second place with a 5-over 289 total.
Yeji Kwon of China finished five shots behind Zhang in third place as she closed with a 1-over 72 in the difficult conditions for a 10-over 294 total.
Kwon reached the round of 16 in last summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at the Air Force Academy, pulling off a stunning upset of defending champion and qualifying medalist Yana Wilson on the 20th hole in a second-round match.
The Men’s Dixie Amateur at Eagle Trace was limited to 54 holes with Evan Myers, a senior at Nebraska from Northbrook, Ill. capturing the title with a 4-over 220 total.
Myers was at Texas A&M for four years, but only used up two years of eligibility with a redshirt year and the ill-fated coronavirus season of 2019-’20 mixed in there. He has played well at Eagle Trace, capturing the Dixie Amateur title in 2021 and finishing in a tie for fourth place a year ago.
The Men’s Dixie Amateur was, like the women’s tournament, plagued with wind and rain pretty much the entire way.
Myers got off to a good start with a 2-under 70 and then battled the conditions for back-to-back 3-over 75s for a 4-over 220 total that gave him a three-shot victory.
Parker Severs of Bradenton, Fla. closed with a 2-over 74 to earn runnerup honors with a 7-over 223 total.
Augusto Oliva of Kissimmee, Fla. via Argentina was another three shots behind Severs in third place with a 10-over 226 total as he finished up with a 3-over 75. Looks like Oliva was a standout at Division II Clayton State.
Kaleb Palm, a junior at Florida Atlantic, also closed with a 3-over 75 to finish a shot behind Oliva in fourth place with an 11-over 227 total.
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