On December 7, 1991 several prominent local golfers (Phil Antibus, John Churchward, Gordon Ewing, Bill Hayden, Jim Kelley, Terry Kitch, Ken Rodewald, Ron vonBurg, and Bob Younger) were invited to attend a meeting at the Orchard Ridge Country Club. The purpose of this meeting was to have an initial discussion regarding the establishment of a Greater Fort Wayne Senior Men’s Golf Tournament.

These gentlemen felt that golfers 50 years of age or older still had the competitive drive, even though their games may not be as sharp as in their younger years. However, there were not many tournaments they could enter and be competitive. As a result, Senior Golf Tournaments began in Fort Wayne, with the first tournament being a Senior City Championship.

It was decided the Senior City Championships should be held exclusively at Country Clubs in the Fort Wayne area. At that time the courses were the Elks C.C., Fort Wayne C.C., Orchard Ridge C.C., Pine Valley C.C., and Sycamore Hills G.C. The tournament format would consist of 36 hole stroke play and be contested over 2 days in 4 age groups, 50–54, 55–59, 60–64, and 65-Over. Since the initial tournament and its great success the tournament has expanded to 6 age groups by adding age groups 65-69, 70-74 and 75-Over.

In addition, it was decided that following the final days play a banquet will be held to honor the winners in each age group as well as the overall winner. The committee has always encouraged the golfers to invite a guest to the banquet. The addition of the ladies is not only welcomed but encouraged as it adds a family flavor to our festivities.

The first Senior City Championship was held at Pine Valley Country Club who graciously donated their beautiful facility for our use on August 30 & September 1, 1992. The initial tournament had a total of 105 golfers and the overall winner in a one hole playoff was Ron vonBurg over Bob Younger, with a winning score of 148. The tournament has been held annually since that time. Visit our web site WWW.FWSRGOLF.COM for a list of all past champions of the Senior City Championship.

Due to the success and increase of golfer participation it was necessary to initiate a qualification round for the 1995 tournament. It was deemed necessary to limit the tournament field to 120 golfers in order to complete the tournament rounds in adequate time. However, golfers who finished the previous year in the top 50% of their respective age groups were exempt from the qualification round.

In succeeding years the Senior Committee has added addition tournaments throughout the year in other forms of play, such as 2-Man partner tournaments. Visit our web site for final results of all our past tournaments in the “Archives”.

We all owe the original organizers a respectful thank-you for starting a great tradition in the Fort Wayne community; however, the success of any of our tournaments is only possible by golfers like you who enter our different events. So, the Senior Committee thanks you, the golfer.