Steve Harwell (Carolinas Golf Association photo)
Steve Harwell (Mooresville, N.C.) shot a final-round 74 to hold off four-time champion
Paul Simson (Raleigh, N.C.) and win the National Senior Hall of Fame (NSHOF) golf tournament at High Point (N.C.) Country Club.
Harwell is playing his second full year of senior golf after turning 55 in late 2017, and it has been somewhat of a breakout year for him. In April he won the prestigious Coleman Senior at Seminole in Florida, edging Jeff Knox (perhaps best known as the non-playing marker at the Masters) and Chip Lutz by one stroke.
Today, he got his second big national senior win, finishing at 3-under 213, two shots ahead of Simson. The lead was four at the start of the final round, but while Simson was able to shoot the low final round (an even-par 72), he could not catch the winner and had to settle for solo second.
The 68-year-old Simson, winner of the NSHOF in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013, shot his age in the first round to take a one-shot lead over Harwell, but a second-round 75 set him back.
They left the rest of the field in their wake. The defending champion
Jack Hall (Savannah, Ga.) finished third, but a full eight shots out of the lead.
Todd Hendley (Greer, S.C.) was another shot back in fourth, with a trio of players --
David Pulk (Williamsburg, Va.),
Mike Arnold (Ft. Myers, Fla.), and
Walter Todd (Laurens, S.C.) -- tied for fifth.
The Super Senior division winner was Frank Wrenn (Greenville, S.C.), while the Legends division winner was Arlis Pike (Kernersville, N.C.).
The National Senior Hall of Fame inductee for 2019 was
Doug Hanzel of Savannah, Ga., the 2016 and 2017 NSHOF champion who finished in a tie for eighth this year at 8-over 224.
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Doug Hanzel
(NSHOF photo) |
2019 National Senior Hall Fame Inductee: Doug Hanzel
1) Winner United States Senior Amateur 2013
2) Qualified for US Amateur in 5 different decades from 1978 – 2015
3) Only player in history to qualify for match play in U.S. Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur and Senior Amateur in same year
4) Low Amateur U.S. Senior Open 2012 & 2013
5) Winner National Senior Amateur Hall of Fame 2016 & 2017
6) Winner Senior Coleman Invitational 2017
7) Winner Senior Florida Azalea 2015, 2016 and 2017
8) Winner Senior Timuquana Cup 2015 & 2016
9) Additional Wins: Senior Dixie 2013 & 2014, Senior Porter Cup 2015 and Senior Lupton Invitational 2012 & 2016
10) Georgia State Golf Association Mid-Amateur Champion, 3 time State Senior Amateur Champion and 5 times Senior Player of the Year
11) Inducted into the Kent State Sports Hall of Fame
12) Played in 33 USGA events
ABOUT THE National Senior Hall of Fame
54 hole invitational started in honor of Dale
Morey
(a member at Willow Creek) typically draws one
of the strongest fields of the year. The tournament
organizers desire to create and maintain a true and
meaningful Hall of Fame that recognizes the best in
amateur golf of national and international acclaim.
Their list of previous inductees and champions attest
to our success in these efforts, most have won
either
the U.S. or the British Senior Amateur Championship
or innumerable other prestigious championships
such
as the U.S. Amateur.
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