2024 Senior Amateur Preview
Stimmel Set to Defend against Top Field of Senior Players
If you like playing the odds, a good bet could be that Hannastown Golf Club’s Sean Knapp will be in the hunt when the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Senior Amateur Championship takes place August 5-6. The 36-hole event contested at Llanerch Country Club in Havertown, Pa. is presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods. Championships will be decided in the Senior (55-64 years of age) and Super Senior (65+ years of age) divisions.
Knapp, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association (WPGA) Player of the Year an amazing 14 times, won the PAGA senior title back-to-back in 2017 and 2018 and has been the runner-up in each of the last four seasons. Six straight top two finishes for the PAGA Player of the Year in consecutive years from 2017-22 and the second-place finisher for the award a year ago, well, the credentials speak for themselves.
His fellow WPGA competitor and, arguably, one of the hottest amateur seniors in the country over the last two years, Rick Stimmel of Connoquenessing Country Club, will have something to say about who ends up on the podium as well. Stimmel is currently ranked as the top-rated senior in the latest World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) and is the reigning PAGA player of the Year unseating Knapp, who is rated 31st in those same WAGR rankings. Stimmel and Knapp were the only two players under par a year ago at The Club at Nevillewood and it took three birdies in the final four holes for Stimmel to catch Knapp and force the playoff.
Stimmel finished second for the overall title in PAGA’s season-opening Dressler Memorial at LedgeRock Golf Club and won the senior crown in that event by four shots over the host club duo of Chip Lutz and Will Smith. He followed that up with a win in the Pennsylvania Senior Match Play at Northampton Country Club overcoming Chris Fieger, Sr. (Heidelberg Country Club) in 20 holes and later in July he posted a third-place showing in the Senior Open at Sewickley Heights Golf Club finishing behind Carlisle Country Club’s Jeff Frazier and Colin Sanderson of Jericho National Golf Club.
After those two, the field doesn’t weaken….to say the least! Lutz is ranked 15th in the WAGR rankings and has national and international experience beyond almost everybody in the field. Smith has competed in USGA events in the past as has Fieger and Frazier and Sanderson was the winner of another of the PAGA “majors” as he was victorious in the 2023 Art Wall Memorial. In addition, Dave Blichar (Olde Homestead Golf Club), David Brown (St Clair Country Club), the WPGA 2023 Amateur champion, and Glenn Smeraglio (LuLu Country Club) are among past winners in the field. Lutz, Fieger and Smeraglio are all former Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) senior amateur champions as well.
In the Super Senior division, defending champion Brian Rothaus (Five Ponds Golf Club) is seeking his second straight title after finishing second in 2021 and 2022. The lone man he couldn’t catch in those years was Sunnehanna Country Club’s Duke Delcher, who won both those titles and has a significant list of past successes throughout his amateur career nationally. Three-time champion Don Donatoni (White Manor Country Club, who last won in 2019, is among other contenders on another strong draw. Also, Tom White (Elmhurst Country Club), the winner of the PAGA Super Senior Match Play Championship earlier this season and Greg Osborne (Overlook Golf Club), the GAP Super Senior Player of the Year in 2022 are contending.