Cedar Rapids senior golfers top Iowa City

MARION — As the golfers competing in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Senior Challenge slowly made their way into the Hunters Ridge Golf Course clubhouse, a jovial mood started to take over.

Unlike the rest of the golf course, it was warm inside the walls, a place where the wind — or, as on Saturday, the rain — couldn't reach.

Cedar Rapids team captain Mike Thomsen was hunched over a piece of paper with the pairings of his team, a putter clutched in his hand, calculating out the 13-11 win over Iowa City in the two-day event, which includes alternate shot, four-ball and match play.

Thomsen couldn't use that putter this year. He's recovering from surgery, but it didn't keep him from hanging around during the event.

He's only recently up and moving around again — which he said has aided his recovery immensely. Sunday, however, the focus was on his team winning a close battle with their southern rivals.

'I enjoy golf and I enjoy a very good event,' Thomsen said. 'Anyone who says they don't like competition wouldn't be here.'

At another table, the Iowa City contingent was huddled, laughing among themselves. Several Cedar Rapids players were intermixed, giving the feeling of the type of companionship that comes with sharing a deep-set passion for a game. There's ribbing, of course, some pointed and not so much, which only adds to the rivalry.

Many of the players on both sides (25, in all) compete in tournaments throughout the year and this competition branched off from the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids Ryder Cup, one of the best area golf events.

There's no money, only bragging rights and the satisfaction of being part of the team.

'I want to win, but it's not life and death,' Iowa City captain Ron Huckfeldt said. 'It's life.'

Huckfeldt knows a thing or two about life. As a 35-year old he paid for two years of tuition and books at Johnson County Community College (Kansas), playing golf for the school's team.

The University of Iowa alumnus wanted to get into physical therapy and change his career, so he started that process at JCCC. As he tells it, he walked into the coaches office asking if he could find some work.

The coach told him to come to a six-round tryout, which he did. The younger kids thought he was their coach. Huckfeldt got the spot.

These types of stories populate the clubhouse at day's end. Scott Carnes, one of the best and oldest players on the Cedar Rapids roster, recounts how the event got started in 2000, two years after the I.C./C.R. Ryder Cup got started.

Then there's the question of whether there will be a new trophy, ever. The old one was destroyed two years ago when the Amana Golf Course clubhouse burned to the ground.

'This is for guys that compete,' Carnes said. 'Just maybe not at a consistent level all the time.'

l Comments: jordan.hansen@thegazette.com