Celebrating its fourth year, the Golfweek Senior Tournament of Champions tees off this week, Dec. 1-3, at The Forest Country Club in Ft. Myers, Florida.
Being the year end finale for the 2021 Golfweek Elite Senior Series, it’s only right for some of the top players over 50 to come out and tee it up one last time this season.
With over 80 players in the field, six are ranked inside the top 25 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking over 50 years old. Among those six? No. 1 senior amateur Gene Elliot, 5th ranked Rusty Strawn, top Canadian and 7th ranked Dave Bunker, No. 8 Michael McCoy, 20th ranked Kevin VandenBerg, and No. 21 Paul Royak.
Elliott holds both the 2021 British and U.S. Senior Amateur trophies while the 2021 U.S. Senior Am runner-up, Jerry Gunthorpe will also be in the field. Elliot, a native Iowan, has held the senior title in this event twice (2018 & 2020) and is looking for back-to-back ownership of the senior division.
Other past champions in the field include Super-Seniors Doug Hopton-Jones (2020), Steve Fox (2019), and Paul Schlachter (2018), 2020 Legends division winner Jim Rollefson and 2020 Super Legend winner Charlie Busbee.
Winners will be crowned on December 3rd and will return home with a nice piece of hardware to accompany their stocking on the mantle.
Past champions
2020 The Forest Country Club (Bear Course)
Senior – Gene Elliott
Super Senior – Doug Hopton-Jones
Legends – Jim Rollefson
Super Legends – Charlie Busbee
2019 PGA National (Palmer Course)
Senior – Rich Buckner
Super Senior – Steve Fox
Legends – Jack Martin
2018 Black Diamond (The Quarry)
Senior – Gene Elliot
Super Senior – Paul Schlachter
Legends – Bill Engel