The tip of the mountain in Kentucky senior golf is the property of Mark Knecht. On Tuesday, Knecht won the 21st Kentucky Senior Open at Frankfort Country Club with a resounding four-shot victory. Knecht finished the competition with a score of 136 (-8) to complete the “Kentucky Senior Slam” as champion of the year’s Senior Open and Senior Amateur, the first person to do it since 2004 when Gary Herfel completed the feat. The latter portion of the slam came two weeks ago when Knecht won at Danville Country Club.

Entering the final round, Knecht shared the lead with Jim Volpenhein. It did not take long for the tournament to sway into Knecht’s hands, as he made two birdies in the first two holes while Volpenhein bogeyed the same holes for a quick four-shot swing. Knecht would make four birdies the rest of the round and was perfect in greens in regulation through 15 holes. His only mistake of the day was his tee shot on the 16th that went out of bounds which led to a double bogey, but his cushion was large enough where the hole’s impact was negligible. Tom Campbell would finish runner-up after shooting the low round of the day, a 67 (-5), while Volpenhein finished in third place two strokes behind Campbell.

“I had no idea it had been so long since the last time someone won both the Senior Am and Senior Open in the same year,” Knecht said. “I’m thrilled to be able to pull it off. The ball-striking really helped with that; I struck it very well and I switched putters three weeks ago. It changed me from having some ‘really nice’ scores to ‘really great’ scores and that’s been a big difference in my game these last few weeks.”

Knecht’s victory also assured him of the year’s low amateur honors. He’s the first amateur to win the championship outright since 2015. Bruce Oldendick is the low professional by virtue of a score of 143 (-1) which finished fourth place in the tournament. For the Super Senior Division, past overall champion of the event Craig RauvolaBouta came out on top by two strokes over Steve Rogers with a winning total of 141 (-3).

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