Last September, the heartbreak was real for Jerry Gunthorpe, who let a late lead slip away in the championship match of the US Senior Amateur at Country Club of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Farms.
That sting, surely, has subsided now, as he begins to enjoy the spoils of that impressive run.
For finishing runner-up at the US Senior Amateur, Gunthorpe, of Ovid near Lansing, is among the 156 players in the field for this week’s US Senior Open at Saucon Valley Country Club in Pennsylvania. It’s the biggest tournament Gunthorpe, 59, has ever played in — one of the five major championships on the Champions Tour schedule.
“This is the biggest stage I’ve ever been a part of, the biggest tournament,” Gunthorpe said Monday after a practice round. “Everywhere I walk, I recognize a pro golfer. … I’ve never been on a range before with Darren Clarke, or Stuart Appleby, or Padraig Harrington, and all the other guys. That part right there, I can’t get over the awe of the guys that are there that you watched play on TV forever.
“I just need to keep my head down and stick to what I know in golf and not worry about all that.”
“I’ve played a lot of tournaments. Nothing that is of this grandeur,” Gunthorpe said of the US Senior Amateur, where he lost to Gene Elliott, of West Des Moines, Iowa.
Gunthorpe, one of 24 amateurs in this week’s field, has continued playing well since his run to the US Senior Amateur final, where he lost to Gene Elliott, of West Des Moines, Iowa, 1-up
Last month, he won the Golfweek Senior Division National Championship in California in March. He’s seventh in Golfweek’s senior amateur rankings.
This is all new for Gunthorpe, who before last year never played a ton of high-level golf. He won the Michigan Medal Play at Detroit Golf Club in 2004, and plays tournaments at his home course, Owosso Country Club.
This week, he’ll be teeing it up with honest-to-goodness major champions and World Golf Hall of Famers.
“It’s crazy, being 59 years old and experiencing things like this for the first time,” said Gunthorpe, who will use a local caddy this week, with his US Senior Amateur caddy, son Nathan, busy with family obligations. “I’m looking forward to this week, for sure.”
His immediate goal for the week is to make the cut, then it’s to be under par. He said the old-style course has similarities to Country Club of Detroit, but said the rough is “like Country Club of Detroit on steroids.”
Gunthorpe, who also is exempt into the US Amateur in August in New Jersey, is one of a few players with Michigan ties who are in the US Senior Open field, and all are making their US Senior Open debut.
That includes Champions Tour player Tom Gillis, 53, of Lake Orion, who qualified with a 65 at his home course, The Bear’s Club, in Jupiter, Florida, in May. Gillis has one top-10 and two top-20 showings on the Champions Tour this year, and has played in one of the season’s other two majors, missing the cut at the Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbor last month.
This will be Gillis’ 10th senior major since he became eligible for the tour at age 50 in 2018. His best showing was a tie for 10th at the Senior Players Championship in 2020.
Also in the field is Andrew Sapp, 50, who was head coach at Michigan from 2002-11, before leaving for North Carolina. Sapp, of Muncie, Indiana, earned his spot in a qualifier in Fort Wayne.
Jim Furyk is the reigning champion.
USSenior Open
When: Thursday through Sunday
Where: Saucon Valley Country Club (Old Course), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; 7,028 yards, par 71
TV: Thursday-Friday — 2-7 p.m. on Peacock; Saturday-Sunday — 2-3 on Peacock, 3-7 on Golf Channel
purse: $4 million (winner: $720,000)
defending champion: Jim Furyck
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tpaul@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tonypaul1984