By Stan Olenik, Editor-Publisher, The Golf Club

When Rob Hrubala finished his round in the Spartanburg County Senior Amateur championship one of the first golfers to congratulate him was Brian Kennedy.

The former Spartanburg Amateur and Senior Amateur champion didn’t offer a “well done or great playing” instead his way of congratulating Hrubala was by simply saying “welcome to the club.”

Kennedy was referring to the large number of former Spartanburg County Amateur or Senior Amateur champions who all were on the leader board after the first round at Three Pines Country Club.

“It is great, wonderful to have my name on the trophy with so many other fine players” said the new Senior Amateur champion. “When I got off to a hot start early I had to make sure I didn’t get ahead of myself thinking about winning instead of the next shot,”he said.

Hrubala broke out of the three way tie after the first round with Kennedy and defending champion Max Fain with his “hot start.”

He matched Fain’s birdie on the first hole and then added two more in the next three holes to open a two shot lead.

The defending champion battled back matching Hrubala’s birdie on seven and added another one on the eighth hole.

The two golfers made the turn with Hrubala holding a one shot lead.

It stayed that way until the 12th hole when Hrubala took a double-bogey, giving Fain the lead, but just for a very short time.

On the next hole, Hrubala got back on track with a birdie and added another one on number 15.

Fain’s string of pars ended on the 16th hole with a bogey and Hrubala’s lead was back to two shots which he kept to the finish.

“Everything came together for me this week for the first time in a long time. I had been playing good for a few weeks and felt good about this tournament and just tried to play within myself,” he said.

Hrubala posted the low round of the tournament with a 4 under par 68. Fain finished in second, two shots back, while former champion Stan Sill shot a final round 3-under par 69 to move up to third place. Kennedy fell back to fourth place and Josh McMillan rounded out the top-five.

“I had a good group today, I play a lot of golf with these guys and in this tournament almost everyone knows each other, we are all friends. It was fun to get out there and compete with them today,” added the newest member of “the club.”.

In the Super-Senior division Gene Wetmore shot a final round 4-under par 68 to hold off Rick Hudson and claim a one-shot win. Roger Page, Rob Gravley and Frank Edwards finished in the top-five.

All Spartanburg County Amateur championships are conducted by First Tee Upstate. Some of the proceeds from the tournaments are used to further the mission of First Tee Upstate, character development through golf.

Additional information about First Tee Upstate is available at https://firstteeupstate.org/

Scores from the Spartanburg County Senior Amateur at Three Pines Country Club https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/10636982969148951314