It’s a big week for the local Oldendick/Eberle clan, arguably Northern Kentucky’s first family of golf.
Bruce Oldendick competed in the Kentucky Professional Golf Association 2×2 Pro-Am Championship on Tuesday at Traditions Golf Club in Hebron. A four-time Northern Kentucky Men’s Amateur champion and winner of five KPGA Senior events, Oldendick finished second among seniors in the 2×2 Pro Am. The 2009 Kentucky PGA Match Play champ scored 3-over-par 75 Tuesday. That was two shots behind low senior Dan Utley (73).
Oldendick, from Florence, is fourth in the 2023 KPGA senior player of the year standings. A four-time KPGA senior player of the year, Oldendick had 845.5 points through May 29. He has one first-place senior finish, at the 2023 Pro-Lady Championship. He tied for third among seniors at the 2023 Pro-Am Championship.
Oldendick’s sister, former Beechwood golf coach Lori Eberle, is playing in the 108th Cincinnati Metropolitan Women’s Amateur Championship, held Wednesday and Thursday at Blue Ash Golf Course in Cincinnati. The event features a 54-hole, stroke-play championship division and a 36-hole, stroke-play senior division.
Oldendick and Eberle are children of local fixture Tom Oldendick. A Bellevue grad, Tom Oldendick is a long-time Northern Kentucky player, rules official and Kentucky Golf Association board member. He’s also a member of the Kentucky Golf Hall of Fame.
Eberle, an eight-time Northern Kentucky Women’s Amateur champion representing Highland Country Club, is competing in the 15-player Women’s Met senior division this week. She’s going up against some formidable competition including defending champion Carolyn Mendl from Little Miami Golf Center and Eberle’s multiple championship-winning counterpart in Cincinnati, Lynn Thompson.
Thompson, a Golf Legend of Cincinnati honoree from O’Bannon Creek Golf Club, won the 2002 NCAA Division III women’s national championship as a working adult attending college classes at Thomas More. She is a two-time Women’s Metropolitan champion and a seven-time Women’s Met senior champ. She once won six Women’s Ohio State Golf Association Senior Amateur titles in a nine-year span.
Eberle won her eighth Northern Kentucky Women’s Amateur in 2014 two weeks before leading the Beechwood girls golf team to its first-ever All “A” Classic regional crown. After 41 years of championship-winning golf, it was her first title as a coach.
A Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame member following a championship career at Boone County High School, Western Kentucky University and the local links, Eberle has yet to win a Women’s Metropolitan event. She played in her first Northern Kentucky Amateur as a 14-year-old in 1979. She started winning titles as a teenager at Boone County. Eberle was the 1984 Kentucky high school individual girls state champion for the Rebels, giving the family a rare brother-sister accomplishment. Bruce Oldendick won the boys state crown for Boone County in 1982.
KPGA: Two more golfers with area ties were among 2023 KPGA points race leaders through May 29. Andrew Stephens from Union was third in the Larry Gilbert Player of the Year standings. Stephens, co-founder and director of instruction at The Academy at the Stephens Golf Center in Burlington, totaled 944.33 points after four events. He has a high finish of tied for third at the KPGA Pro-Am Championship. He has three top-10 finishes and has not finished worse than 11th. Stephens was the Larry Gilbert KPGA Player of the Year in 2020 and 2021. The award is named after Larry Gilbert, who was KPGA player of the year a record 12 times from 1975-1991.
Former Northern Kentucky University golfer Jeremy Martin topped the KPGA Assistant/Associate player of the year standings. Martin, head pro under director of golf operations Vincent Prather at Griffin Gate Golf Resort in Lexington, totaled 1,501.2 points through May 29. Martin has a pair of co-leader finishes. He tied for first at both the KPGA Pro-Senior Championship and the KPGA Pro-Lady Championship. Martin won the 2009 Northern Kentucky Amateur Championship.
Elsewhere around the KPGA, Ralph Landrum of Crestview Hills and Aaron Eldridge of Union are among area golfers helping Team Osbourne to the top of the 2023 Pro-Pro Series points-awarded race through May 29. Team Osbourne has accrued 308.2 points.
Eldridge was ninth in the 2023 KPGA Assistant/Associate player of the year standings. Landrum, 10th in this year’s senior player of the year standings, is a three-time KPGA player of the year (1986-88). It was Landrum who ended Larry Gilbert’s eight-year run as player of the year from 1978-85. Landrum won the 1987 Kentucky Open.