Hingtgen holds on to claim C.R. Senior Am title

CEDAR RAPIDS - On a day that featured a long rain delay and conditions tough for a golfer of any skill level, Todd Hingtgen persevered to win the Cedar Rapids Men's Senior Amateur.

The tournament started Saturday with 127 players competing under sunny conditions at Twin Pines Golf Course. Sunday was a completely different story. Mother Nature did not cooperate. Rain fell over Cedar Rapids for most of the morning pushing tee times back several hours.

This made golfers and those working the tournament stressed out. Eight golfers dropped out of the tourney. Finally, Mother Nature relented and allowed golf to continue.

'Yesterday was fine. The long delay hurt a lot of guys. Bodies were tightening up the more we sat around,” Hingtgen said.

The wet greens and fairways made the course tough to play.

'The conditions made everything tough. It was hard to predict yardage. All of the grass was wet, which made the ball run really fast. It was also tough to control my irons. It was all around hard today. We had to stay patient, which was hard,” Hingtgen said. 'I shot a 35 on the front nine, which was nice.

'I knew what I needed to do. But I was on edge the whole round.”

This was Hingtgens second time winning the Senior Amateur. He also took home the crown in 2013.

After the day was done, there was four divisions with four winners. The winner from each bracket took home $150. Second place took home $75 and third place took home $50.

Vern Boenish and Perry Smith finished tied for second behind Hingtgen. Both were two strokes back of the winner, with Boenish firing a 1-under on Sunday.

Colin Williams, Randy Van Horn and Eddie Mercado took top honors in the Presidents Flight of the Open Division.

Tony Foss won the Senior Division, 7-over for the two rounds.

Scott Benson won the Super Senior, at 3-over.

Jack Peacock won the Silver Senior class at 1-over.

As the golfers finished, each gave thanks to the staff at Ellis Golf Course for being so patient and working with the course. The respect level was present from golfer to course worker.

'It was fun winning today” Hingtgen said.