Chris Hall isn’t your typical elite senior amateur golfer.
The 65-year-old golf course arborist isn’t able to play in a lot of the big events throughout the year because of his job. Assisting in jobs across the country, Hall most recently completed a project at the Honors course in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is starting another at East Lake soon.
That hasn’t stopped him from completing one of the hardest achievements to accomplish in the senior amateur game – qualifying for the U.S. Senior Amateur.
In what will be his sixth U.S. Senior Amateur later this summer, Hall was able to forego qualifying for the event, earning an exemption into the event as a top-25 senior golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
“I’m not a ‘professional amateur’,” Hall said. “They get to play nearly every week somewhere. I don’t get to do that.”
Despite not teeing it up regularly, Hall not only qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur but finds himself atop the leaderboard early on at the Golfweek Super Senior National Championship held at The Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta.
Hall carded a bogey-free 3-under 69 in the opening round.
“This is my first super senior event, and I’m still pretty long,” he said. “(The course) takes the longer clubs out of my bag. I’m hitting a lot of 3-wood and rescue off of the tee.”
Feeling his way through the golf course, Hall stuck to his game plan of keeping his ball in the short stuff, resulting in hitting 14 greens in regulation and just 30 putts. Not too bad for a guy new to the 65-70 age division.
So what’s the mentality for Hall the rest of the way? Well, it’s simple.
“Play smart golf.”
Three shots back from Hall is Georgia’s Robert Allen II who looks to piece together another solid round following a first-round 72. Mike Arter (1 over) is in third and will look to close the gap during Wednesday’s second round.
Five more players are tied at 2 over, including Hall’s Central Alabama Community College teammate Emile Vaughan.
Legends (70-74)
Don Kuehn paces the legends age division, shooting a 73. Kuehn takes a one-shot lead into moving day. Three players are tied at 2 over. and five more are within five shots of Kuehn.
Super Legends (75+)
Alabama’s Wayne Gardner bested his age to take command of a one-shot lead in the Super Legends division. With three birdies on his scorecard, Gardner could have flirted with a sub-70 score had it not been for an eight on the par-5 11th hole.
Gardner leads the way with Florida’s Bill Engel just one shot back (3 over) and eight more golfers within five strokes of his lead.
