Stimmel picks up another summer win at Senior Series #2
By Josh Rowntree, Director of Communications  • July 2, 2025

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LATROBE – Rick Stimmel is once again putting together a nice summer of golf.

Stimmel shot a score of 67 Wednesday at Latrobe Country Club, racking up 41 Stableford points to take the Senior Division of the second WPGA Senior Series competition of the season.

Don Erickson won the Super-Super Division, carding a score of 76 and scoring 31 Stableford points. The Net Division was claimed by Joe Barch with 39 points. He shot a score of 83, good for 39 Stableford points.

“I feel like I hit it pretty good,” said Stimmel, a member at Connoquenessing Country Club. “I’ve only played here in the Palmer Cup Matches, about 12 of them. The greens then roll at about 13 (on the Stimpmeter).

“I had a tendency, like everyone else in the field, to not hit my putts hard enough. But tee to green, it was pretty good today.”

Following heavy rain showers Tuesday afternoon, Latrobe’s course was left saturated, enhancing the feel of the layout’s playing distance, but slowing those greens a bit beyond their normally quick pace.

Stimmel did not show many issues from the start, posting birdies on two of his first three holes, jumping out to an early advantage in the Stableford event that attributes point values to the results of holes.

“I wasn’t sure how the points worked,” said Stimmel, who cared just one bogey on the day and had an eagle on the 14th hole to bolster his impressive round. “I just thought, well, I’ll try to play as hard as I can and then add them up at the end. I really didn’t know how I was doing.

And he needed those points. Bob Crnjarich had the lead with 36 points until Stimmel’s last couple of holes, when he surged into the lead. Arnold Cutrell earned 35 points to finish third in a field full of numerous strong senior players and past WPGA major champions.

“This is the first Senior Series I’ve played in,” said Stimmel, one of the nation’s top-ranked senior amateur players. “It’s just never seemed to fit into my schedule. This one worked out perfectly. Plus, it’s always a treat to come out to Latrobe and check the place out.

The win added onto an already strong summer for Stimmel, who won the Pennsylvania Golf Association Dressler Senior Championship and Senior Open Championship this year.

“Listen, if you win once a year, you feel like you’ve done pretty well,” said Stimmel, who finished runner-up at the WPGA Senior Amateur Championship last year and was the WPGA Senior Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024. “I have a ton of stuff to play in the rest of the summer. Everything is just starting now.

“I’ve kind of carved out a new chapter in my life with senior golf. I still like to play with the young kids. They keep you on your toes. But I know my place. At 57 years old, I have a harder time competing against 20-year-olds who hit it 50 yards past me. But senior golf is now my new window of opportunity.”

On Wednesday, however, Stimmel seized the opportunity in that open window, adding to a growing list of victories in 2025.

“It was fun,” he said. “It’s nice of the WPGA to set aside and block off some events for the seniors. Sometimes we don’t get as many to play as the kids do."

For all results, please click here. (GGID: 25WPGASS2)