Qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open that The Broadmoor Golf Club will host in Colorado Springs June 28-July 1 continues through Monday, but already several notable players have earned spots in the senior major.
The most recognizable person to advance through an 18-hole qualifier this spring has been Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz.
The former Atlanta Braves standout shot a 3-under-par 69 on Thursday in Peachtree City, Ga., and landed the third and final available national berth there by prevailing in a playoff that lasted three holes.
The 1996 National League Cy Young Award winner played his final eight holes of regulation in 4 under par after being 1 over previously. Smoltz, 51, then prevailed in the playoff despite double bogeys on the second and third extra holes, overcoming Brian Ferris. Brian Tennyson had been eliminated on the first playoff hole with a bogey. Smoltz and Ferris birdied that first extra hole, but both double bogeyed the second and continued to struggle on the third, with Smoltz doing so slightly less.
Smoltz (pictured) has long been a devoted golfer, even playing regularly even during the season, often with teammates Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. Smoltz, who won 213 games, notched 154 saves and struck out 3,084 in his big-league career, serves as a baseball analyst for Fox, which will televise the U.S. Senior Open, with Smoltz’s partner Jack Buck calling the action.
“I’m not kidding you, it’s been more texts about this than the Hall of Fame,” Smoltz told the Detroit Free Press. “Tiger (Woods) texted me while he was getting ready to play in the Memorial. Everybody you can imagine who’s been blown away by it has been so congratulatory.”
Smoltz is an amateur who plays to about a plus-2 Handicap Index and has made eight holes-in-one.
“My first (baseball) victory, I didn’t think it could get much better with the excitement of family and friends who were there in Shea Stadium,” Smoltz said. “But I was by myself and did this myself and nobody handed it to me.
“And the feeling I had was such a sense of first, I can’t believe this. And then I got in the car and I yelled. I called my wife (Kathryn) and started yelling, basically screaming. She said she’s never seen me so happy.
“… I know this. I going to have the time of my life. No one handed me this. No sponsor’s exemption. This is something I can feel good about.”
Others who have qualified for the U.S. Senior Open are Joey Sindelar, who counts the 1988 International at Castle Pines among his seven PGA Tour victories, and former University of Colorado golfer Mikael Hogberg.
Sindelar qualified with a 72 in Telford, Pa., on Monday. Hogberg made the grade by earning medalist honors with a 66 in Fayetteville, N.C., also on Monday. Hogberg was a CU teammate of 1996 U.S. Open champion Steve Jones in the early 1980s. Jones is among the exempt players for this U.S. Senior Open.
Colorado PGA professionals Doug Rohrbaugh of Carbondale and Chris Jones of Castle Rock qualified for the Senior Open at The Broadmoor on Memorial Day.
(Updated June 14: Also qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open, on June 11, were major champions Larry Mize (1987 Masters) and Todd Hamilton (2004 British Open), along with 2017 CoBank Colorado Senior Open winner Jeff Gallagher. Hamilton and Mize finished second and third, respectively, in qualifying at Ankeny, Iowa, while Gallagher was the medalist in Portland, Ore.)
To see results from U.S. Senior Open qualifying around the country, CLICK HERE.
