Skip Berkmeyer (The Legends Country Club) soared to a 3-under 69 in Tuesday’s first round and then walked away with the Louis Cassett Trophy for the 2024 St. Louis District Golf Association (STLDGA) Senior Championship at Westwood Country Club on Wednesday, Aug. 21. In the Super Seniors tournament, Neil Vanleeuwen (Glen Echo Country Club) also finished at 3-under 69 to claim the first Tony Miller Trophy.
It’s the fourth different stroke play STLGA event that Berkmeyer has won in his illustrious career. He previously captured The Men’s Championship five times the Jim Jackson Invitational twice and the Bob Cochran Mid-Am (2016), He is the first competitor to claim all four titles.
Berkmeyer acknowledged the consistency necessary to compete at such a high level, “I work at it. The game of golf is so different than any other sport. It’s a lifetime or so many, may decades. It’s always a goal to keep going and keep trying to get better.
“This week was nice to see a lot of old friends and play in a senior event, the second one I’ve ever played in. It was a lot of fun.”
After his sterling first round, Berkmeyer discussed maintaining consistency as he fired a 1-under par second round to finish four under (140), four strokes ahead of runner-up Patrick Riordan (Meadowbrook Country Club). “I like the course, and you gotta keep the ball in play to have lot of short irons in,” Berkmeyer said. “I had a lot of short irons yesterday (Tuesday) and did enough right to shoot a round in the 60s.
“Today, I birdied my first hole, then kind of messed up three and four, then righted the ship and went back to the same strategy.”
All the golfers complimented the historic course and its challenges, and Berkmeyer concurred. “Greens are really fast and hole locations were difficult,” he said. “You gotta be careful. You can get out of position very easily, even though they’ve removed some trees, you’ve still got to maneuver the golf ball to make sure you’re hitting it in the right spot. Fortunately this week, I did a pretty good job of that.”
In the 46-player field, Brian Lovett (Bellerive Country Club) and Matt McGrath (Greenbriar Hills Country Club) each were plus-2 (146) to finish third and fourth, respectively. Brian Hall (Persimmon Woods Golf Club) rounded out the top five at plus-3 (147). Those five automatically qualify for the Jim Jackson Invitational at Algonquin Country Club in October.
Super Seniors
In the 33-player Super Seniors field, Vanleeuwen held off a charge from long-time friend Ken Rubin (Westwood Country Club) to grab the title. Rubin finished one-over (145). Both also automatically qualify for the Jim Jackson Invitational.
Vanleeuwen thought the key to winning was fairly simple, “Hitting it in the fairway and trying to make some putts … short term: short putts, long putts you just gotta keep it in play.
“There are some pins that you can go after, and then there’s some pins where you’re just trying to put it on the green, because you had a very odd lie on the fairway.”
After an opening round 74, Rubin charged out with four birdies in the first six holes of round two to tie Vanleeuwen at 2-under through six holes, but bogeys at Holes 15, 16 and 18 derailed his bid for the trophy.
Vanleeuwen welcomed the challenge from a long-time competitor, “We played high school golf together. So it was (Mike) Hartman, myself and Kenny, we all played high school golf together. There was a lot of high school guys we knew. It was fun!”
The Tony Miller Trophy was named in honor of the Kirkwood native, who has been a lifetime golfer and retired Director of Operations with the STLGDA.
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