The fourth annual Georgia Super Senior Championship begins today and concludes Wednesday. The field of 78 players is divided into eight flights by handicap index (Championship, Flights 1-7) and will play 18 holes of stroke play each day.
Darren Faddis, Cartersville CC assistant golf pro, said the event is a "big event for the guys that are over 65."
Faddis said the local country club had to apply for the rights to host the event. It will be the second event hosted at Cartersville CC in the past few years.
"We had the Mid-Am Championship three or four years ago," he said. "We basically wanted to host another GSGA event, and this is the one that came available so we went ahead and picked it up."
Cartersville CC is hosting its third GSGA event, a list that includes the Georgia Junior Championship in 1997 and the Georgia Mid-Amateur in 2006.
The Georgia Super Senior Championship is the only GSGA competition for super seniors. It replaced the Senior Tournament, a Stableford-format event for seniors age 55 and over that was conducted from 2004-07.
Entries were open to male amateur golfers who are GSGA members and age 65 and older as of the first day of the tournament.
Faddis said Dr. Ralph Martin and Mike Granato, both of Cartersville, will be amongst the field of competitors.
Spencer Sappington of Milton and Matt O'Brien of Decatur also are in the field. The two are both former winners of the competition. Sappington, a member of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame and a five-time Georgia Senior Champion (2003-05, '07, '10), won the event in 2008 and 2010 while O'Brien won it in 2009. O'Brien also won the now-defunct GSGA Senior Tournament in 2005.
Sappington shot a final-round, even par 72 to hold on to the lead and win the third annual Super Senior Championship at Polo Golf Club in Cumming. He outlasted his close friend Don Marsh of Johns Creek, who fired a 1-under-par 71 to finish two strokes back.
The fourth annual Georgia Super Senior Championship tees off this morning with Flight 3 contenders Earl Johnson of Lawrenceville, Daniel Shalongo of Jesup and Dick Martin of Johns Creek at Hole 1, and Flight 7 entries Jack Sullivan of Marietta, Robert Carroll of Alpharetta and Roy Thompson of Stone Mountain at Hole 10.
-- Information from the GSGA was used in this article.