There are some venerable former winners teeing it up this week at the 83rd Northern Kentucky Amateur Championships getting underway Tuesday with championship, senior and women’s division play at Triple Crown Country Club in Union.
These aren’t your everyday, garden-variety golfers. They are some of the best amateurs in the history of the sport in Northern Kentucky.
Jim Volpenhein, a 1978 Covington Catholic graduate, and Lance Lucas, a 1980 Boone County grad, have combined to win six Northern Kentucky Amateur championships. Volpenhein, 63, is playing in the senior division for the first time. He’s qualified for five of the last six U.S. Senior Amateurs.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Volpenhein said. “It’s still a lot of fun. It still gets the juices going. But I’m playing from the shorter tees now.”
Lucas, 61, is competing in the championship division. He won the 2018 Kentucky Senior Amateur before injuries derailed his game for a couple years.
“My goal is to make the cut into the championship round,” Lucas said. “Triple Crown is my home course, but it’s been 20 years since I’ve been in the winner’s circle.”
Volpenhein won Northern Kentucky Amateur Championships in 1979, 1980 and 2007. Lucas won in 1999, 2003 and 2004.
“I don’t have to play the young guys anymore,” Volpenhein said. “It’s getting too hard to beat them. I’m playing with the seniors now. I have a better chance.”
Volpenhein, the long-time owner and former chief executive officer at Computer Products Corporation in Cincinnati, and Lucas, the managing partner of the law firm of Lucas and Dietz in Union, have several things in common other than being three-time champs of the biggest local golf tournament. In addition to being home-gown prep players, both played golf at the University of Kentucky. They also have traveled together for British Senior Open qualifying.
Lucas is a five-time Triple Crown club champion. He knows the 7,111-yard course as well as anybody, so navigating challenging holes such as 10, 12 and 18 won’t be as daunting to him as most other players.
Hole No. 10 is a mammoth high risk-high reward, 516-yard, par 5. The 446-yard, par 4 No. 12 has a creek running along most of the left side of a thin green with a tree line to the right. It squeezes golfers and severely penalizes errant drives. Number 18 is a stout 454-yard, par-4 with water on the left that requires two good shots and two good putts to make par. At Triple Crown, a poorly played front nine can doom the best players because golfers can’t expect to cruise to the finish on the back nine, and Lucas is well aware of that.
“I’m old and injured. I don’t have the game I used to,” Lucas said. “But I do feel comfortable at Triple Crown.”
Volpenhein, a member at Traditions Golf Club, is regarded by many as the greatest amateur golfer the area has produced. He’s also won seven Tony Blom Cincinnati Metropolitan Amateur Championships, the most in the 114-year history of the tournament. A Legends of Cincinnati Golf honoree and a member of the Kentucky Golf and Northern Kentucky Golf halls of fame, Volpenhein qualified for the British Senior Open in 2013. He won a pair of U.S. Open Sectional medalist crowns and back-to-back Kentucky Tournament of Champions events among his numerous titles.
Over a 47-year span, Volpenhein has won a record 18 Greater Cincinnati Golf Association championships. He also has three Met Four-Ball crowns, three Met Mid-Amateur titles, the 1977 Met Junior Boys championship and the 2021 Met Senior Men’s Championship. He won the first three GCGA Player of the Year honors 2006-08. He was the 2020 GCGA Senior Player of the Year. He was the Northern Kentucky Golf Association Player of the Year in 1980, 1990 and 2007.
“Most of the guys I was playing against in the Met and the Northern Kentucky Amateur, we’ve all moved to the senior events now,” Volpenhein said. “It’s just as exciting.”
There will be two new champions. The 2022 championship winner at Traditions, former Cooper standout Rylan Wotherspoon, did not return. Fred Geraci, fifth last year, is the highest finishing returnee. There are 63 golfers in the championship field, including two others who call Triple Crown home: Jason Aspelund, a golfer with multiple championships in the state of Washington, and 2022 Ryle graduate Christopher Harpum, now golfing at the University of Cincinnati.
Reigning ladies champion, Allison Gonring, has not returned, making 2022 runner-up Ali Green a favorite in a field of 10 after finishing just three shots behind Gonring last year.
A total of 32 players will tee it up in the senior event, including six of last year’s top seven. Tim McLaughlin is back to defend. Runner-up Tim Sorrows also returns. McLaughlin and Sorrows were tied after regulation, forcing a sudden death playoff. McLaughlin prevailed after four playoff holes.
Tournament format is 54-hole, individual stroke play in the championship and women’s divisions, and 36-hole, stroke play for seniors. Championship and women’s divisions play 18 holes each of three days. There will be a cut after 36 holes for the championship division (low 30 plus ties). Seniors play 36 holes, 18 each day, the first two days of the event.