John O'Brien Wins 64th Carolinas Senior Amateur
Event: 64th Carolinas Senior Amateur Championship
Host Site: Highland Country Club, Fayetteville, N.C.
Playing Dates: September 16-18, 2025
Social Media: @CGAgolf1909
Related: Championship Website | Scoring | History | Photos
Fayetteville, N.C. (September 19, 2015) -- In an eerily similar fashion to the recent N.C. Mid-Amateur Championship, John O’Brien of Columbia, S.C., shot the low round of the day to tie Joe Jaspers of Huntersville, N.C., and then made par on the fourth playoff hole to win the 64th Carolinas Senior Amateur Championship.
Round 1 started off cloudy and windy with an almost fall chill in the air. Preston Edmondson of Morrisville, N.C., a past champion (2017, 2016), took the lead in the morning wave, shooting a 2-under, 70. In the afternoon, the sun came peeking out of the clouds to warm up the day as all 120 golfers took to the course.
It was Paul Simson of Raleigh, N.C., the winningest CGA player of all time and past champion of this event in 2007 and 2008 who posted a 5-under, 67 to take a solo first place lead at the end of Round 1.
Simson said after his round, “Pretty solid round. Hit a lot of fairways—you’ve got to keep it out of the rough around here. Made a few good putts for birdies… I hit a few wedge shots close that I was able to convert… one bogey and six birdies, so all around was a good day.”
Top Scores after Round 1:
1 - Paul Simson (-5)
2 - Joe Jaspers (-4)
T3 - Preston Edmondson, Trent Gregory, Tee Burton, Keith Kepley, & Grant Williams (-2)
T8 - Steve Harwell & Jack Brown (-1)
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64th Carolinas Senior Amateur Preview
In Round 2, Highland Country Club gave the players a bit of a challenge. Scores across both waves were a little higher on Wednesday than on Tuesday. Can you pull the stats from Golf Genius? Teeing off in the morning, Jaspers took the solo lead at 5-under total score after shooting a 1-under, 71, he said, “Today was more of a grind it out day. Yesterday seemed a lot easier, today I started off a little slow and made a couple birdies coming in.”
Round 2 Top Scores:
1 - Joe Jaspers (-5)
T2 - Tee Burton & Paul Simson (-2)
4 - Rick Cloninger (-1)
5 - Trent Gregory (E)
T6 - Preston Edmondson & Geno Berchiatti (+1)
T8 - Robert Andrews, Jeffrey Lankford, Keith Kepley, Steve Harwell, Tim Teaster, & Jack Brown (+2)
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Thursday morning came around with a warmer morning and the excitement to crown a champion. Rick Cloninger of Rock Hill, S.C., the 2012 and 2013 champion, was leading with just four holes to go at -4, however he made a double bogey on No. 17 to allow Jaspers (two holes to play) and O’Brien (who had finished already) to take the lead.
Jaspers, who carded a 68-71-74-213 made par on No. 18 to go into a playoff against O’Brien. The pair played four playoff holes: No. 10 where they both made par, No. 18 where they both made bogey, No. 10 where they again made par, and then No. 18 to finish where O’Brien made par to win and Jaspers made bogey. O’Brien said his competitive mindset going into the playoff was, “I was running pretty well, I was hot before we went into the playoff. I just felt comfortable.”
Our newest champion, John O’Brien, carded 75-73-65-213 to finish 3-under par after three rounds. His final round was a fantastic 7-under par, with four birdies in a row on the front, and another four on the back with only one bogey on his card for the whole round. O’Brien said after his round, “[My] whole game is putting. My putting seemed to be working really well today. And luck. A lot of luck [today]… It feels really good [to win]. I feel accomplished and I put a lot of hard work and it seems to be working really well.”
INSERT GOLF GENIUS SCORING HERE
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The Carolinas Golf Association would like to thank Director of Golf, Micah Vugrinec, and the rest of the staff and the members of Highland Country Club for making us feel welcome and providing a fantastic week for championship golf.