John Turk and Mac McGee (Qualifier) fired even-par 72s and survived a three-man playoff to earn spots in the 2024 U.S. Senior Amateur. The 2024 U.S. Senior Amateur Qualifier was held July 22, 2024, at Red Rock Country Club. The two players will now tee it up in the national event which will be held Aug. 24-29, 2024, at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, TN. –by Bill Bowman, Las Vegas Golf Insider
The one-day qualifier wound up going to extra holes as three players, Turk, McGee and Scott Hunter, were tied after 18 holes. According to USGA policies, each will be awarded a medalist honor, but the playoff determined the qualifiers/alternates.
All three players parred the first playoff hole before Turk parred the second playoff hole, the 18th hole, to earn medalist honors. A bogey was good enough for McGee to earn the second qualifier spot.
Hunter will now be the first alternate while Ken Sampson will be the second alternate.
In earning a spot in the national event, Turk, a Las Vegan for 15 years, said no one was more surprised than him to be that competitive.
“Wow and OMG,” Turk said with a laugh. “Good gracious, can you believe it? I’m dumbfounded.”
To say he was shocked would be an understatement.
“I’m 72 years old,” he said. “I had no expectations. These young guys were just pounding it past me. I just kept plugging along in the heat and somehow it all worked out.”
This will be his second journey to the nationals in the Senior Amateur Division as he also qualified in 2018. In that finale, he made it to match play which earned him a spot in the following year’s Senior British Amateur.
“I can’t tell you how much this means,” he said. “I had no idea I could qualify for this thing. After 2018, I said…well, I’ll probably never do that again. And yet, here I am.”
He’s also surprised he qualified as he’s been battling injuries including to his neck, shoulder, back and a heart problem.
“It’s nice to be back,” he said. “I spent 17 months on the couch doing nothing but going to doctor appointments. It wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”
But through the work of the doctors and his time spent rehabbing, he’s back.
“It gave me a chance to see if I could even play,” he said of his efforts. “And now here I am. This is just crazy.”
In the end, he also credited his equipment.
“I got new irons and started hitting them well maybe 10 or 11 days ago,” he said. “And I got a new driver which helped me keep it in play. I really did try to stay in the moment and it worked out well.”
2024 U.S. Senior Amateur Quailfier
x-John Turk, 72
x-Mac McGee, 72
Scott Hunter, 72
x-Qualified in playoff with Turk winning medalist honors.
