Jim Starnes earns his Golfweek breakthrough at the Mountain Man

Over the past 30 days, Jim Starnes has put roughly 4,000 miles on his car, all in the name of senior golf. This past week, in the mountains of North Carolina, Starnes found a breakthrough at the Golfweek Mountain Man, and now it’s on to the Home of American Golf to try to extend it.

Unbelievably, by winning the Super Senior division in the event at Mountain Glen Golf Club in Newland, North Carolina, on Aug. 5, Starnes checked a box that had so far remained unchecked. The tournament marked his first Golfweek tournament victory, even though his resume is overflowing with victories, top-5 finishes and even Golfweek Player of the Year honors on two separate occasions (as the top senior in 2016 and the top super senior in 2024).

Advertisement

By his count, Starnes, who retired in 2021 from the software and data company Pitney Bowes, has teed it up in 184 national senior amateur events since 2015. Since aging into the Super Senior division in 2022, he has made 98 Super Senior starts, and 19 of those were in Golfweek events. While a Golfweek victory eluded him for years, Starnes, now 69, won five other national Super Senior titles, the Senior Porter Cup and Florida Azalea Senior among them.

Elite senior golf is a labor of love for Starnes and, as he joked, now his full-time job. He calls his partner Debi Cassis, who attends to live scoring, the vice president of Golf Genius, and speaks fondly of their adventures on the road together, driving to golf tournaments.

Their current trip began nearly a month ago, when Starnes and Cassis drove from Ft. Myers to Maine, then came back through Virginia for the Dave King Senior Invitational. From there it was on to the Mountain Man and on Aug. 10, Starnes will tee it up at Pinehurst for the North & South Senior.

“We go home, wash clothes, and then fly to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, for the Sunnehanna Senior and then I’ve got another probably eight or nine events for the rest of the year,” he said. “. . . Probably will end up playing 21, 22 national events this year.”

His commitment to competing so many times as well as the state of his game make Starnes a threat for yet another Player of the Year nod. He trails the current top-ranked player, Stevie Cannady, by about 3,000 points.

Advertisement

Starnes’ breakthrough at the Golfweek Mountain Man came largely on the greens. Two years ago at the Golfweek Senior Amateur in Palm Desert, California, Starnes five-putted from eight feet during the final round and ended up losing the tournament by one shot – even though a day earlier, he had posted a round of 65 to break his age by a shot.

“I really have had putting woes and I shifted to the long putter in the middle of ’24 and it’s really taking me a couple of years to get synced up with it,” he said. “The short putters, a lot of people abandon it in later years when it’s not working and the dreaded yips show up.

“I made that shift just about two years ago and finally getting really comfortable with it. But it’s really been a two-year slump where I’ve had some top 5s but really have not started to compete really well again until lately.”

Starnes spent several months searching for the right flatstick, and as a result, his putter collection is something to behold. He found success at Mountain Glen with a Bobby Grace F22 long putter.

Over the past week, Starnes felt his ballstriking was strong and though he didn’t putt great on very challenging greens, he rolled it well enough to set himself up with the victory. Starnes had rounds of 74-76-76 and at 10 over, was three ahead of runner-up Bob Easterlin.

Advertisement

Starnes went into the final round tied for the lead and put considerable effort into staying present. That worked for a good portion of the round, but eventually he got out of rhythm and double-bogeyed the 13th hole, going from one shot up to two shots down.

At the 14th, however, competitor Keith Waters, who finished an eventual third, lost a ball and made a triple, giving Starnes the advantage again.

“My biggest challenge over the last number of years are these holes where I compound one problem with another problem and make a double bogey or even worse, without any penalty shots so it’s try to just get out of jail and stop compounding mistake with another mistake,” he said. “Even though I did that a couple times this week, I recovered and was able to bounce back.”

While Starnes owned the Super Senior division, Kevin VandenBerg, the three-time defending Golfweek Senior Player of the year, owned the Senior division. VandenBerg, of Pulaski, New York, finished the week at 5 under, which was three shots better than Steve Mitchell.

Advertisement

John Fritz of Mint Hill, North Carolina, finished at 4 under to win the Legend division over Terry Tyson, tops in the Golfweek National Senior Amateur Rankings for his division.

The Super Legend title went to Don Russell of Jupiter, Florida, who finished at 2 under, and Jack Marin went wire-to-wire in the Masters division for players 80 and over. He was six over and 10 shots ahead of his closest pursuer.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jim Starnes earns his Golfweek breakthrough at the Mountain Man