2025 Senior Open Preview

Familiar Names in Familiar Places

Tee Times

In its first four seasons, the Pennsylvania Senior Open Championship has not had a repeat winner. But if there was ever an appropriate theme for the event ‘familiar names in familiar places’ might be it. When the fifth edition of the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s (PAGA) Senior Open Championship takes place May 12-13 at Gulph Mills Golf Club all the previous four years’ champions and runners-up will be in the field. DICK’S Sporting Goods is sponsoring the event.

Defending champion Kevin Kraft (2nd Swing Golf) was the only player to finish under par and bested three players by a stroke to historically win the 2024 title. Kraft dropped a birdie putt on his final hole for a one-under-par 143 to become the first player to hold the Pennsylvania Senior Open and the Pennsylvania Open crown, which he won in 2023, at the same time.

His total narrowly edged 2022 champion Kevin Shields (The Club at Nevillewood), 2021 titlist John Pillar, Sr. (Woodloch Springs Resort) and top amateur finisher Jeff Frazier (Carlisle Country Club), all who finished at even par over the 36 holes.

They will all compete in the 2025 event along with 2023 winner Rich Steinmetz (Spring Ford Country Club), Brian Kelly (Titleist Fit Crew) and amateur Oscar Mestre (Overbrook Golf Club), the latter two who finished as runner-up in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Kraft also won the 2018 PAGA Open, while Pillar captured the 2014 Open Championship and the duo is joined in this year’s senior event by the 2011 open champion Mark Sheftic (Sunnybrook Golf Club) and 2000 and 2003 winner Terry Hertzog (Bent Creek Country Club).

Several other professionals may contend for the top prize of with a total professional purse of $15,000. But there are also plenty of top amateurs with a shot at the overall championship as well. Frazier missed by just a stroke last year. He annually appears in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) and has many national and regional successes on his resume topped by his appearance in the 2022 US Senior Amateur semi-finals.

Frazier is the reigning Pennsylvania Senior Amateur champion and was the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) Player of the Year in 2022 and again last season, winning two of GAP’s major senior events with wins in the Francis B. Warner Cup and Frank H. Chapman Memorial Cup and has been in the top three players for the PAGA Senior Player of the Year finishing as runner-up a year ago.

Another player annually on the WAGR points list, Rick Stimmel (Connoquenessing Country Club) was the only player to finish ahead of Frazier in last year’s PAGA Player of the Year race. Stimmel has vast national experience, including reaching the round of 16 in match play at the US Senior Amateur in 2024 and for many weeks last season held the top position in the WAGR poll. He has won back-to-back PAGA player-of-the-year honors and won the senior title in PAGA’s season-opening event, the Dressler Memorial a few weeks ago, for the third-consecutive year. Stimmel was the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association’s (WPGA) Senior Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024 and was also that organization’s overall player of the year in 2023.

Another former WPGA player of the year in the field, Sean Knapp (Hannastown Golf Club), has a long list of past successes in national and regional events.  His name is all over trophies and winners’ boards in both the WPGA and PAGA. Knapp won six-straight PAGA Senior Player of the Year honors from 2017-22 and has won nine WPGA Amateur championships.

Mestre and Arnie Cutrell (Greensburg Country Club) also bring plenty of experience near the top of leaderboards into the event at Gulph Mills. Mestre was the GAP Senior Player of the Year in 2019 and again in 2021. He is a past winner of GAP’s Warner and Chapman cups. Cutrell has many PAGA and WPGA wins in his pocket and is a past WPGA Player of the Year. He is a three-time winner of the R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship. Both he and Mestre have appeared in past WAGR rankings.

Multiple winners of past recent PAGA events including Clay Davidson (West Shore Country Club, Colin Sanderson (Jericho National Golf Club), Dan Brown (Manada Golf Club and Eric Williams (Glenmaura National Golf Club) will be lurking on the tee sheet as well when the two-day, 36-hole event gets underway.