21st NCGA Senior Four-Ball Championship | Poppy Hills GC | April 1-3, 2019

First played in 1999, the NCGA Senior Four-Ball Championship is a two-person, better-ball scratch event for senior golfers. The tournament expanded from two rounds to three rounds in 2006. Joe Dudley and Bob Pipkin won the inaugural event, while the team of Robert Berg and Rob Thompson have the most titles, three, winning in 2005, 2007 and 2008. Mark Miller has won the event three different times with three different partners: Herb Jensen (2006), Casey Boyns (2012) and Gary Vanier (2013).

Miller and Jensen hold the record for lowest 54-hole score, 196, set in 2006. Miller and Vanier hold the 36-hole record with a score of 128 at Silverado Resort in 2013. 2014 winners Frank Pieper and Mike Staskus hold the record for lowest round, a 10-under 62 the pair shot at Saddle Creek.In 2018, Mark Hill and James Hay tied that mark with a 62 at Poppy Hills.

In 2015, a Super Senior Four-Ball Division was added to the event.

ENTRIES CLOSE: March 17, 2019  ENTRY FEE: $340 per team. Field limited to the first 80 teams, which will include a Super Senior Flight (Both players must meet the Super Senior requirements).

ELIGIBILITY: Players must have reached their 55th or 65th birthday by April 1, 2019 and have a numeric handicap index on their club’s Master Report of 9.4 or less on the date of registration. Partners need not be members of the same club. One partner may represent the team for any part or all of a stipulated round.

EXEMPTIONS: Champion teams prior to 2004 have a lifetime exemption. Champion teams from 2004 and beyond are exempt for five years. Top 10 teams and ties from the preceding year. All exempt teams must consist of the same partners.

FORMAT: 54 holes four-ball stroke play (18 holes per day) over three days. After 36 holes the field will be cut to the low 30 teams and ties.

 

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Never played in an NCGA event before? Visit the Tournament Registration page for instructions on how to register.

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About Poppy Hills GC

Poppy Hills, which is owned by the NCGA, underwent an extensive renovation beginning in March of 2013 centered around water conservation, primarily by improving irrigation and drainage. Architect Robert Trent Jones II returned with his design firm, this time creating a firm, fast and fun course that unfolds seamlessly through the stunning Del Monte Forest.

Jones reinvented the course architecturally, restoring each hole to its natural elevation along the forest floor, softening doglegs and contours, rebuilding all 18 greens with bentgrass, eliminating rough and introducing native waste areas that reduce irrigated turf by nearly 25%.

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Tournament Recaps

Eat your hearts out, whippersnappers. Vanier and Anderson, who at age 68 and 64, respectively, combined to be the oldest team in the Senior field, shot a final round 3-under 68 Wednesday at par-71 Poppy Hills Golf Course to run away with a three-shot victory at the annual NCGA Senior Four-Ball Championship. Read Full 2019 Recap | View 2019 Photo Gallery 

Steve Donnelly and James Camaione were already aware of some of the big names on the NCGA Senior Four-Ball trophy. The duo will now have their own names engraved, having beaten one of the big names to earn it. Donnelly and Camaione, both members at Bayonet/Black Horse GC, shot a final round 2-under 69 and defeated Randy Haag and David Nelson on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff Friday at par-71 Poppy Hills Golf Course to win the 20th version of the championship. Read Full 2018 Recap | View 2018 Photo Gallery 

Randy Haag and Chip Lutz left no doubt this time around. A year after surviving a five-hole sudden death playoff to win, Haag and Lutz put an exclamation point on the 2017 NCGA Senior Four-Ball Championship at par-72 Bayonet Golf Course in Seaside. The duo, who first met at the Coleman Invitational at Seminole GC around 15 years ago, fired their second straight 65 in Wednesday’s final round to roll to a six-shot victory over runner-ups Scott Anderson and Gary Vanier. Read Full 2017 Recap | View 2017 Photo Gallery

Record six-time NCGA Player of the Year Randy Haag and world top-ranked senior amateur Chip Lutz are no strangers to the pressure cooker. On Wednesday at par-72 Bayonet Golf Course, the duo’s vast experience would carry them through again. Lutz, the defending U.S. Senior Amateur champion, drained a three-foot putt on the 5th hole of a sudden-death playoff to help him and Haag finally get by Doug and Jim Williams and win the annual NCGA Senior Four-Ball Championship. Lutz’ winning putt, which ended a long day of the two teams dueling back and forth, was set up by a nearly perfect 54-yard pitch shot from just beyond the greenside bunker on the par-4 hole. Read Full 2016 Recap | View 2016 Photo Gallery

Partners Casey Boyns and Terry Foreman were stunned. So too was the team of brothers Jim and Douglas Williams, and everyone else who saw it for that matter. Staring directly at what appeared to be an inevitable sudden-death playoff, Boyns and Foreman instead escaped with a win at the annual NCGA Senior Four-Ball Championship on Friday when Jim Williams missed a putt from less than a foot for birdie on the 18th hole at par-71 Poppy Hills golf Course.Doug Williams also had a 7-foot birdie putt on the 18th to tie Boyns and Foreman in regulation, but his putt stopped short of the cup. Golf is known to have its ups and downs, but in this case it was simply cruel. Read Full 2015 Recap | View 2015 Photo Gallery

Longtime friends Mike Staskus and Frank Pieper have been playing golf together for decades, but this was a first. In what was the first time playing together as a team, the pair shot  4-under 68 Friday at par-72 Saddle Creek Golf Club in Copperopolis to win the annual NCGA Senior Four-Ball Championship, defeating runner-ups Ralph Costanzo and Greg O’Malley by two shots. While Pieper and Staskus, who finished with a three-day total of 19-under 197, have won tournaments in Northern California, it’s the first time that they’ve ever won an NCGA tournament. Pieper’s father, Ernie Jr., is an amateur legend in the Golden State, having won among other events the California State Amateur Championship (both in 1941 and 1944). The duo’s 54-hole total of 197 was one shy of the tournament record (196) set by Mark Miller and Herb Jensen in 2006…Read Full 2014 Recap | View 2014 Photo Gallery

After nine holes of the final round of the NCGA Senior Four-Ball Championship at Silverado Resort, Gary Vanier and Mark Miller’s four-stroke lead had vanished. What looked to be a mere formality going into the final round to get their names etched in tournament history turned out to be a lot harder than anticipated as Gary Ramsden and Dennis Younglove fired a 31 on the front-nine par 35 of Silverado’s South Course, while Vanier and Miller shot a one-over par 36. Still, Vanier and Miller got going on back-nine, while Ramsden and Younglove cooled off, giving Vanier and Miller a two-shot victory. Their final round 71, one-under par was good enough to total 199, 17-under par… Read Full 2013 Recap | View 2013 Photo Gallery

Past  Senior Four-Ball Champions

1999	Joe Dudley and Bob Pipkin	65-68-133
2000	Jim McMurtrey and William Celli	65-68-133
2001	Cliff Davis and Robert Olds	63-68-131
2002	Carl Selkirk and Dave Parsons	65-67-132
2003	Lou Alvarez and Richard Michel	68-66-134
2004	Mike Butler and Earl Stewart	68-67-135
2005	Robert Berg and Rob Thompson	66-70-136
2006	Mark Miller and Herb Jensen	67-63-66-196
2007	Robert Berg and Rob Thompson	65-68-66-199
2008	Robert Berg and Rob Thompson	71-67-67-205
2009	Doug Johnson and Rob Adolph	66-69-69-204
2010	Peter Moren and Ron Johnson	65-70-66-201
2011	Jim Knoll and Jeff Burda	68-66-67-201
2012	Casey Boyns and Mark Miller	67-67-65-199
2013	Gary Vanier and Mark Miller at Silverado Resort	63-65-71-199
2014	Frank Pieper and Mike Staskus at Greenhorn/SaddleCreek	67-62-68-197
2015	Casey Boyns and Terry Foreman at Poppy Hills	69-65-70-204
2016	Chip Lutz and Randy Haag at Bayonet	69-66-68-203
2017	Chip Lutz and Randy Haag at Bayonet	70-65-65-200
2018	James Camaione and Steve Donnelly at Poppy Hills	70-63-69-202
2019	Scott Anderson and Gary Vanier at Poppy Hills	66-65-68-199

Past  Super Senior Four-Ball Champions

2015	Kemp Richardson and James Myers at Poppy Hills	69-69-72-210
2016	Dave Sheff and Bruce Loman at Bayonet	70-69-68-207
2017	Chuck Richesin and Bob Thomason at Bayonet	74-72-70-216
2018	Kemp Richardson and Jim Knoll at Poppy Hills	70-69-63-202
2019	Bruce Loman and Dave Sheff at Poppy Hills	70-72-66-208