Desert Willow Golf Club’s Firecliff Course in Palm Desert, California, is hosting 84 of the top senior amateur players in the country for the 2022 Golfweek Senior Division National Championship.
The 54-hole event concluded its first round of play with one man on top of the leaderboard. Jerry Gunthorpe, a 58-year old mechanical contractor from Ovid, Michigan, leads by one shot following his opening 4-under 68.
A bogey-free day, Gunthorpe kept his card clean with birdies on Nos. 7 and 13 before closing with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 despite his lack of green control and what he described as an “abomination of ball striking”. Overcoming his struggles, Gunthorpe buckled down and got it right when he needed to.
