{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
Steve Maddalena survived gusting winds and glassy greens at the Meadow Club in Fairfax, California, to capture the Trans-Mississippi Senior title by one stroke on Thursday.
The 61-year-old from Jackson, Michigan, who won three Michigan Amateurs and played in six U.S. Amateurs, called it his first meaningful triumph on a national stage.
“I’ve always figured out a way to screw things up, and I almost tried to do it again today,” Maddalena told Global Golf Post. “But I just kept hitting everything close, trying to keep the ball below the hole and limiting my mistakes.”
Maddalena (above) began the final round of the 54-hole event up by one stroke, but incessant winds provided drama to the home stretch.
A triple bogey on the par-3 eighth hole and bogeys on Nos. 9 and 10 dropped Maddalena to 6 over for the championship, putting him a shot behind senior stalwart Randy Haag on a crowded leaderboard. However, Maddalena made birdie on five of his next six holes to take firm control. Despite a bogey on No. 17 and a double bogey on No. 18, he held off the challenge from Haag.
The reigning Michigan Senior Player of the Year clocked in at 4-over 217. The field was among the best in recent memory for a senior event as Gene Elliott, Mike McCoy, Tommy Brennan and John Derrick all finished in the top 15.
In the Mid-Master division, reserved for players age 40 and older who did not qualify for the Senior division, Jay Livsey of Lakewood, Colorado, rallied from an eight-stroke deficit and won with par on the second playoff hole to beat John Barrie and Brad Wilder.
Livsey, 40, called it the best win of his career, beating his previous top accomplishment of qualifying for the 2019 U.S. Mid-Am. The gym franchise owner mostly stopped playing once he got married, but he joined a local club in 2017 and has gotten back into competitive golf while raising two children, who are 5 and 3 years old.
After opening with 7-over 78, Livsey played the remainder of the event in even par. A 1-under 70 in the last round was the best score for any player on any day in that division, and it included a hole-out from the fairway for eagle on the par-4 10th.
“I figured everyone was pretty tired once we got to the playoff, and I was coming in fresh,” Livsey said. “I had a stress-free day. Having grown up on the Gulf Coast, I was comfortable playing in wind like this.”
RESULTS
Sean Fairholm