Bob Royak (Jeff Haynes/USGA photo)
After a year of consistent high finishes and big wins,
Bob Royak of Alpharetta, Ga., is the 2023 AmateurGolf.com Senior Player of the Year.
The AmateurGolf.com Senior Player of the Year is awarded based on a point system earned through performance in major senior events throughout the course of the year. This year, the former U.S. Senior Amateur champion won the points race for the first time, and by a convincing margin.
The key to winning a points race is racking up consistently high finishes, and the 62-year-old Royak did just that. How good was his year? He played in ten national senior ranking events in 2023, and finished in the top 5 in all ten.
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He started his season at the Gasparilla Senior, finishing second by one shot, and followed it up with perhaps the highlight of his year at The Jones Cup Senior at Sea Island. There, he shot the lowest score in the final round to get into a playoff with
Jeff Knox, and rolled in a curling putt to
win the championship generally regarded as No. 2 in field strength behind the U.S. Senior. It was Royak's second Jones Cup Senior title.
It was the first of three major wins in 2023, all of which came at inspiring venues. After winning at Sea Island, Royak would win the Lupton Invitational in May by three shots at The Honors Course, and the North & South Senior in August by a shot over four players at Pinehurst.
In June, Royak finished as joint runner-up in the National Senior Hall of Fame tournament in High Point, N.C., and received the honor of being the Hall of Fame inductee for 2023.
It was one of four runner-up finishes for Royak, along with the Gasparilla, the Crump Cup Senior at Pine Valley, and the Huddleston Senior in Dallas. He had two other top-5s at the Chanticleer National Senior and the International Senior Invitational.
Royak's record in the U.S. Senior Amateur is right up there with anyone playing senior golf today. He won in 2019, has made match play every year he has been eligible, and this year at Martis Camp in California he ran his U.S. Senior match play record to 18-6, advancing to the semifinals for the second straight year.
The cherry on top of Royak's season was pairing up with longtime four-ball partner
Doug Hanzel for their fifth consecutive Georgia Senior Four-Ball title, shooting 24 under for a
9-shot win.
Final Senior POY Points Standings, 2022 | 1 | Bob Royak | Alpharetta, GA | 6100 | | 2 | Jon Lindstrom | W. Des Moines, IA | 4600 | | 3 | Doug Hanzel | Savannah, GA | 4125 | | 4 | Jack Hall | Savannah, GA | 4100 | | 5 | Mike Combs | Roswell, GA | 3850 | | 6 | Kevin VandenBerg | Pulaski, NY | 3800 | | 7 | Rusty Strawn | McDonough, GA | 3400 | | 8 | Dennis Martin | Los Angeles, CA | 3325 | | 9 | Randy Haag | Orinda, CA | 3250 | | 10 | Mike Finster | St. Petersburg, FL | 3050 |
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In his first full year as a senior competitor,
Jon Lindstrom (Broomfield, Colo.) finished as the runner-up in the points race, on the strength of winning the Trans-Mississippi Senior and the Heron Creek Senior. And for the third straight year, the 66-year-old Hanzel finished third, en route to repeating as the
AmateurGolf.com Super Senior Player of the Year.
Also for the third straight year, five of the top ten points earners were from the state of Georgia. Hanzel's fellow super senior (and Savannahian)
Jack Hall was fourth in the standings, while
Mike Combs (Roswell, Ga.) rounded out the top five.
Last year's Player of the Year,
Rusty Strawn, finished 7th in the standings.
Related: The 2022 AGC Senior Player of the Year: Rusty StrawnComplete 2023 Points List (529 players) |
AmateurGolf.com Senior Rankings (two-year aggregate)