Marty Arnzen captured the Highland Country Club golf championship so often he forgot how my times he won.
“Four, maybe five times I’ve won it,” said Arnzen in more of a question than an answer. “I’m not really sure how many. Definitely more than three.”
The former Highlands High School golfer has never won the Northern Kentucky Amateur. That he is sure about. But he’s in the hunt after the first day of play Monday on par-70 Highland in Fort Thomas.
It’s the 84th installment of the annual tournament. The 54-hole stroke-play event continues Tuesday and concludes Wednesday on the 6,190-yard layout. Arnzen enjoys home course advantage. He’s been on Highland since he was a pre-teen. Even after he golfed at Georgetown College and Thomas More, Arnzen always returned to Highland to play golf.
“It’s home,” he said. “I grew up on this course.”
Arnzen, a Fort Thomas resident, is one of seven Highland club members in the championship flight. He shot 2-under par for a first-round score of 68. He’s in a four-way tie for sixth place heading into today’s second round. Arnzen is four shots behind leader Luke Coyle, who shot 6-under 64. Coyle, a rising sophomore at Alabama, played in high school at Taylor County in Campbellsville. A two-time Kentucky Mr. Golf, Coyle is 19 years old. Arnzen turned 38 in April.
“It’s tough competing against young guys,” said Arnzen, who operates Four Seasons Golf Club & Driving Range in Cincinnati. “All the kids nowadays hit it so well. I’m just trying to keep up with them.”
All five golfers ahead of Arnzen and the three players he is even with are nearly half his age. Second-place Timmy Hollenbeck is 19. He shot 65 Monday. Third-place Adam Horn, the defending champ, is 19. Horn shot 66. It was his first time on Highland.
“The course is nice,” said Horn a former Milford High School golfer now at Wright State. “I like it, obviously. I just need to keep myself on the fairway and stick with the game plan with a conservative approach.”
Mason Butler and Kannon Tucker, in a tie for fourth at 67, are 21 years old. The golfers in a tie for sixth with Arnzen, are 20, 21 and 21. Arnzen is the only golfer among Monday’s top 23 scorers in the championship flight who is older than 24. Everybody else is age 18-24. Former Cooper standout Rylan Wotherspoon, in 10th place with a score of 69, is a 20-year-old University of Cincinnati golfer.
Hank Shick, a Highlands High School golfer who calls the Highland course home, is 17. He’s in a tie for 24th. The top 30 players make the cut for Wednesday’s final round.
SENIOR MEN
Pete Betzold leads the Senior Men’s flight by three strokes over second-place David Foster. Betzold, the reigning Greater Cincinnati Golf Association senior co-player of the year, shot 1-over-par 71. Foster, a Highland Country Club member, finished the round at 4-over 74. Betzold, one of the best senior players in the Dayton, Ohio area, carded two birdies and 13 pars. Betzold, 56, has won the Miami Valley Golf Association Metropolitan Senior Amateur championship three times in the last six years.
There is a three-way tie for third at 76 including Jim Sweeney and Ed Steiber. Sweeney is defending champion. Steiber tied for third last year. Steiber is a four-time champion of the Cincinnati Metropolitan Senior Amateur. He’s also a five-time Greater Cincinnati Golf Association senior player of the year.
There are three players in a tie at 78. Union golfer Lance Lucas, a three-time Northern Kentucky Amateur champion, is in his first Senior Men’s outing. He birdied the second hole and shot 10-over 80. The senior winner is crowned today after 36 holes.
WOMEN
Defending champion Megan Yoder has a three-shot lead over former Ohio high school golfer Riley Johnson in the women’s flight. Yoder, a rising junior at the University of Dayton, shot 8-over 78. Johnson came in at 11-over 81. The former Lebanon High School standout birdied No. 14. Johnson, a 2024 Lebanon graduate, is a four-time GCGA junior girls player of the year. She is a two-time Eastern Cincinnati Conference player of the year.
SENIOR WOMEN
Carolyn Mindel is threatening to run away with the inaugural Senior Women’s event. Mindel shot 14-over-par 84 Monday for a commanding 13-shot lead. She made par on five of the first six holes to take charge. Mindel is a one-time Cincinnati Metropolitan Senior Women’s Amateur champion. She won the tournament in 2021. She’s in a flight of four. Deb Fritz is in second with a score of 90. The winner is crowned today.