Stimmel finishes fourth in another strong showing in the Dixie Senior at Eagle Trace

 

   The Dixie Amateur will tee off this week at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla. I’m going to try to round up the Dixie Senior and Mid-Master, which was played earlier this month, and the Women’s Dixie Amateur, which wrapped up Friday, in one post.

   Rick Stimmel, who plays out of Connoquenessing Country Club in Ellwood City, outside of Pittsburgh, was the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Senior Player of the Year in 2025.

   Stimmel has been eligible to compete in the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship for the last three summers and for the third straight time he earned a spot in the match-play bracket, this time at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, Texas.

   For the last three Decembers, Stimmel has added a trip to Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla. to tee it up in the Dixie Senior and Mid-Master to a schedule that had mostly been a spring and summer campaign.

   Stimmel captured the title in the Dixie Senior in his first try two years ago and was the runnerup a year ago.

   He finished in fourth place in this year’s Dixie Senior, which was played from Dec. 3^rd to 5^th.

   Chad Branton of Cartersville, Ga. cruised to a three-shot victory in the Senior division, which includes players ages 55 to 64, on the strength of a sparkling final round of 5-under-par 67 that gave him a 7-under 209 total.

   Branton had posted a pair of 1-under 71s in the first two rounds and shared the lead with John Wright of Fairhope, Ala. and Scott Stevens of Encinitis, Calif. going into the final round at 2-under.

   Branton got off to a solid start in the final round with back-to-back birdies at the first and second holes. He stumbled briefly with a bogey at the fourth hole, but birdies at eight and 10 got him back on track.

   A bogey at the 12^th hole dropped Branton back to 4-under for the tournament, but he then put it away by rattling off birdies at 14, 16 and 17 that got him to the house at 7-under.

   Wright had opened with a 2-under 70 and matched par in the second round with a 72. He closed with a 2-under 70 to finish three shots behind Branton with a 4-under 212.

   Mike Combs of Savannah, Ga. finished two shots behind Wright in third place with a 2-under 214 total. After opening with a 1-under 71, Combs recorded a 1-over 73 in the second round before closing with a 2-under 70.

   The Eagle Trace layout obviously fits Stimmel’s game and he got off to a good start with a 1-under 71. A 1-over 73 in the second round left Stimmel two shots off the lead going into the  final round and he closed with another 1-under 71 that left him alone in fourth place with a 1-under 215 total.

   Only four players finished in red figures over three days at Eagle Trace.

   Kristoffer Marshall, a two-time state amateur champion in Arizona out of Scottsdale, ran away with Mid-Master division, for players ages 40 to 54, by seven shots.

   Marshall took command of the tournament by following up an opening round of 4-under 68 with a 3-under 69. He closed with a solid 1-under 71 for an 8-under 208 total.

   Playing with a big lead, Marshall got off to a good start in the final round with birdies at the second and fourth holes. After a bogey at the sixth hole, Marshall made another birdie at eight and was 2-under for the outgoing nine at Eagle Trace.

   After a bogey at the 12^th hole, Marshall made a birdie at 16 before closing with a bogey at 18.

   Marshall’s closest pursuer was defending champion Haymes Snedeker, the older brother of nine-time PGA Tour winner Brandt Snedeker who finished seven shots behind the winner in second place with a 1-under 215 total.

   Snedeker, another Fairhope, Ala. guy, got off to a good start with a 3-under 68, matched par in the second round with a 72 and finished up with a 2-over 74.

   Dustin Sloat of Charleston, Ill. was another shot behind Snedeker in third place with an even-par 216 total.

   After matching par in the opening round with a 72, Sloat tallied a 1-over 73 in the second round before closing with a solid 1-under 71.

   The Scarpettas, a legendary name in northeastern Pennsylvania golf circles, made the trip to Coral Springs and Vince Scarpetta III finished in a tie for 23^rd place in the Mid-Master division with a 244 total.

   Vince Scarpetta III bounced back from an opening-round 84 with a 5-over 77 in the second round before finishing up with an 83.

   Steve Humphrey of Ocala, Fla. ran away with the Super Senior division title by six shots as he was the only player in the 65-and-over set to finish in red figures with a 2-under 214 total.

   After opening with a 1-under 71, Humphrey matched par in the second round with a 72 before closing with another 71.

   With a comfortable lead going into the final round, Humphrey opened with a birdie at the second hole. He made bogeys at the sixth and ninth holes to make the turn at 1-over for his round.

   Humphrey, however, got things straightened out on Eagle Trace's incoming nine, making a birdie at the 11^th hole and going back-to-back with birdie at 14 and 15. A bogey at the 17^th hole dropped Humphrey back to 1-under for the round, more than good enough to capture the title.

   Jeffrey Scott Ray of Central City, Ky. was Humphrey’s closest pursuer as he earned runnerup honors with a 4-over 220 total.

   Ray matched Humphrey’s opening round of 1-under 71, but fell off the pace with a 4-over 76 before closing with a 1-over 73.

   Victor Leoni of Miami Springs, Fla. finished two shots behind Ray in third place with a 6-over 222 total.

   After opening with a 4-over 76, Leoni added a 2-over 74 in the second round before matching par in the final round with a 72.

   The patriarch of the Scarpetta clan, Vince Scarpetta Jr., who plays out of Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosic, earned a top-10 finish as he ended up in a tie for ninth place in the Super Senior division with a 233 total.

   Vince Scarpetta Jr. opened with a 78 and added a solid 1-over 73 in the second round before closing with an 82.

   In the Women’s Dixie Amateur at Coral Springs, which wrapped up Friday, Ein Kim, a talented youngster from Irvine, Calif., capped a solid week with a 3-under 69 to claim the title by two shots with a 12-under 276 total.

   Kim is a Class of 2028 kid, the equivalent of a high school sophomore, and she opened with a 2-under 70, added a 4-under 68 in the second round and a 3-under 69 in the third round to take a commanding four-shot lead over Gianna Singh of Elk Grove, Calif. into Friday’s final round.

   After making a bogey at the first hole, Kim, who lost in the first round of match play in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Ga. in July, put the field away by making birdies at two, five, eight and 10 to get it to 12-under.

   She made a bogey at the 12^th hole and added one more birdie, at 15, to complete her final-round 69.

   Scarlett Schremmer of Birmingham, Ala., one of the most highly-sought recruits in junior golf a year ago, closed with a sparkling 6-under 66, but had to settle for a runnerup finish with a 10-under 278 total.

   Schremmer, No. 60 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, had joined the program at Southeastern Conference power Texas A&M, but had a change of heart during her first semester in College Station.

   Schremmer will join the program at Miami in the Atlantic Coast Conference at the end of next summer.

   Schremmer earned a spot in the match-play bracket in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Bandon Dunes Resort on Oregon’s rugged coastline in August, but was ousted in the first round.

   Schremmer had opened with a 1-under 71 at Eagle Trace and added a 1-over 73 in the second round. A 3-under 68 in the third round enabled Schremmer to get within five shots of Kim, but, even with her furious final-round rally, Schremmer never really threatened Kim.

   After matching par in the opening round with a 72, Singh, who will join the program at Grand Canyon University next summer, unleashed the round of the tournament, a sizzling 7-under 65 that gave her a one-shot edge over Kim at the halfway point of the tournament.

   Singh blitzed the outgoing nine at Eagle Trace with four birdies at the first, fourth, fifth and seventh holes for a 4-under 32. Singh made a birdie at the 10^th hole and then eagled the par-5 15^th to complete her stellar round.

   Singh fell back with a 2-over 74 in the third round before closing with a 2-under 70 that left her three shots behind Schremmer in third place with a 7-under 281 total.

   Vidhi Lakhawala of Kendall Park, N.J. and Maria Isabella Errichetto of Norfolk, N.C. finished in a tie for fourth place, each landing on 2-under 286, five shots behind Singh.

   Lakhawala, who will join the program at ACC power Wake Forest at the end of next summer, opened with a solid 4-under 68, carded a 1-over 73 in the second round, matched par in the third round with a 72 and finished up with another 73.

   Errichetto, a Class of ’27 competitor, was steady at Eagle Trace, posting back-to-back 1-under 71s in the first two rounds and matching par in each of the final two rounds with a pair of 72s.

   Archmere Academy junior Hannah Webb, the winner of the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) Championship last spring at the St. Anne’s Golf Links in Middletown, Del., played three rounds in the Dixie Women’s Amateur, failing to survive the 54-hole cut.

   Webb, a Woolwich, N.J. resident who qualified for last summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at the Atlanta Athletic Club, opened with an 83 at Eagle Trace, added an 82 in the second round and registered an 80 in the third round for a 245 total for three rounds.