There’s a reason Greg Goode is the top-ranked super senior player in the Golfweek National Senior Amateur Rankings. On Tuesday, in the opening round of the Golfweek Super Senior National Championship, Goode, from Salina, Kansas, opened his day with two birdies at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta. He closed with one, too.
The first-round 1-under 71 he pieced together was enough to leave him tied with Mark Benefield of Peachtree Corners, Georgia. From here, Goode will look to add another title to what has been a head-turning year on the senior circuit.
Goode already has won the Moot Thomas and the National Senior Hall of Fame in 2025. He has a handful of other runner-up finishes, including at the Golfweek Senior National at Grandover Resort in Greensboro, North Carolina, last month and the Golfweek Senior Amateur in Palm Desert, California earlier in the spring.
Goode is a three-time Kansas Senior Player of the Year who has played a busy national senior schedule the past few years. He narrowly finished second to Jim Starnes in Golfweek’s Super Senior Player of the Year race in 2024.
Behind Goode and Benefield, a loaded Super Senior division features plenty of challengers. Three men are tied for third at even par: Doug Stiles, Marcus Beck and Richard Kerper. Defending champion Stevie Cannady, who lives in Pooler, Georgia, is in the four-man pack at 1 over.
For the first time this year, Golfweek’s event at the Golf Club of Georgia also features a limited-field senior invitational. Todd Doss of Mandeville, Louisiana, leads that division after a 2-under 70 in the opening round. Doss continues to find his place in senior golf after aging into senior competition last year. For Doss, winner of the Louisiana Senior Amateur the past two years, that place is usually near the top.
At the Golf Club of Georgia, Doss is two shots ahead of Greg Kennedy of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, and Allen Peake, of Macon, Georgia.
In the Legend division, Bill Byrne of Madison, Mississippi, is 2 over and leads Robert Allen II of John’s Creek, Georgia, by a shot.
Frank Polizzi of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, is 2 under and has a five-shot cushion in the Super Legend division. Polizzi won the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic to start the year.
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