2025 Senior Match Play Day 2 Recap

Scores

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. – For the fourth time this summer, Connoquenessing Country Club’s Rick Stimmel has won a Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) title. He claimed the 18^th Men’s Senior Amateur Match Play Championship, his second in a row, with a 1-up win over Chris Fieger Sr. (Heidelberg Country Club), who was also his opponent in the 2024 finals. His semifinal earlier on Tuesday against 2022 champion Jeff Frazier (Carlisle Country Club) was also a tough one, which Stimmel won 2-up.

“In the finals I got off to a good start but fell asleep a little bit during the middle of the round,” said Stimmel. “And you can’t do that against Chris or he’ll jump on you, and he did. I finally woke up on the last couple of holes. I told Chris maybe he and I can pencil in another finals for next year and make it three in a row, he’s a great guy and a great player. I had to play really well to win all my matches, it just shows that you can’t skate through any of these.  If you end up beating such a good player like Chris you feel like you did something special and it’s been another nice finish to the season.”

Fieger Sr., the No. 6 seed in the bracket, won his semifinal earlier in the day, 1-up, over No. 2 seed Arnie Cutrell (Greensburg Country Club.) Fieger trailed Stimmel by as many as three in the final match but won back-to-back holes on 11 and 12 to bring the match even. He went 1-up after the 15^th hole but Stimmel took holes 16 and 17 to go back in front.

“I hit the ball pretty good,” said Feiger Sr. “I could have hit a few more putts but Rick’s tough and you have to play so well to beat him. He played great on 16 and 17 and then on 18 I tried to hit a hard 54-degree to make sure I could get it there in case it sucked back and it just jumped on me. But I’m just happy to make the finals and sorry I didn’t do it this year but it was a good two days of golf.”

Over in the Super-Senior Division final match, it was a battle between the two frontrunners for the 2025 PAGA Super-Senior Player of the Year honor: LuLu Country Club’s Glenn Smeraglio and Wyoming Valley CC’s Joseph Weiscarger. It was a back-and-forth match, with Weiscarger twice having to come from behind to tie things up, including after Smeraglio went 2-up after winning holes 12 and 13. Weiscarger responded with wins on 14 and 15 to bring everything back square, then went 1-up after hole 17, which held up for the victory.

“It was a great match and Glenn is a great player,” said Weiscarger. “Both of us hit the ball in play most of the time and seemed to have good yardages to holes. We both were accurate, hit a lot of greens, but there was a lot of two-putting. We didn’t make many putts until the very end.”

The 5^th Women’s Senior Division Championship match featured a pair of members from RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve: No. 3 seed Suzi Spotleson and No. 5 seed Lisa Klein. Spotleson continued her torrid pace from Monday’s rounds and was 5-up after the first eight holes on Tuesday. She also won hole No. 10 and 13 to close it out, 6 & 5, to become the 2025 champion.

The Pennsylvania Golf Association would like to thank the staff and membership of Chambersburg Country Club for the hospitality shown during this week’s Championship. Additional thanks go to DICK’S Sporting Goods for sponsorship of the event as the title sponsor of the PAGA.