A week ago, playing casual golf with his son Owen, Mark Burden’s game felt out of whack.
“I just played like a dog and I couldn’t figure it out,” said Burden, 68, a financial adviser for Northwestern Mutual who lives in Atlanta.
But the pendulum swings fast in this game. When Mark and Owen later went to the range to hit a few balls, Owen, who played college golf for Furman from 2018 to 2022, spotted something in a golf swing he knows better than maybe anyone.
“He said, ‘Your swing is too short, make a full swing,’” Burden said. “I made a full swing and I started hitting solid shots and that was it.”
A few days later, Mark Burden teed it up at the Golfweek Super Senior National Championship at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, roughly a half hour from his home. He spent 36 holes within sight of the lead and on Thursday, he had his breakthrough. Burden erased a three-shot deficit with a five-hole streak of birdies on his front nine, kept that momentum after the turn and won the tournament with a final-round 67.
At 2 under for the week, he finished three shots ahead of Mark Benefield of Peachtree Corners, Georgia.
Burden, who had written down the word “focused” as a guiding principle for his day, rolled in a 35-footer on the par-4 fourth for his first birdie.
“You go from, ‘Let’s just kind of get that down there,’ to, ‘OK, that’s a good sign,’” he said.
He stuck his approach to 6 feet on the next hole and dropped that for birdie, too. At the par-3 sixth, he felt like he was between clubs, but he chose the lesser club, a 6-iron, and committed to an aggressive shot.
That, Burden said, was a turning point: Choosing to commit to a shot rather than backing off and trying to feather something in.
After birdies at Nos. 7 and 8, Burden parred No. 9, prompting his playing competitors to joke that they could talk to him again without fear of pulling him out of whatever reverie he might be in. Burden stayed in it, with the back nine unfolding similarly albeit with a few missed opportunities for birdie – including at No. 10 where he hit it to three-and-a-half feet but missed the birdie putt.
As he made his way through his round, the first one in which he’s broken his age, he thought of his family. In 2017, Owen posted an opening 64 out of the blue at the Bubba Conlee, a top national junior tournament Memphis, on his way to a tie for first. As his own birdies piled up, Burden later told his son, he reminisced on that round.
Burden’s wife Maura hangs on live scoring when her husband competes, and Burden knew she’d be going nuts. The couple’s older son, Quinn, who ran track at the University of Georgia, was just pumped for his dad.
A year ago at this event, Burden joked to Golfweek that he was merely an interloper on this senior circuit and that is at least partly true. Burden does not play a national senior schedule but does tee it up in Georgia State Golf Association events throughout the year. He played college golf at Duke and has qualified for three USGA events in a long love affair with the sport that began in his hometown of Clinton, Iowa. Friends of Burden’s who played high-impact sports like basketball and football have long since left behind a feeling Burden relished as he made his way around the Golf Club of Georgia on Thursday.
“I just enjoy competing, I’m not trying to turn back the hands of time,” he said. “I have this great opportunity to still compete.”
The Golfweek Super Senior, Legends and Super Legends National Championship draws as strong a field of players 65 and older as any senior event on the calendar. Behind Burden and Benefield, Richard Kerper and Emile Vaughan tied for third at 2 over.
Greg Goode, the top-ranked super senior in the Golfweek Senior National Amateur Rankings, led for much of the week but dropped to a tie for fifth after a closing 75.
Robert Allen II of Johns Creek, Georgia, narrowly edged Robert Parmar of Ocala, Florida, in the Legend division. Allen was consistent with rounds of 75-74-74 and won his division at 7 over.
Notably, Bev Hargraves, the 2024 Golfweek Legend Division Player of the Year, finished tied for sixth in the division but holed out at the par-3 sixth for a major highlight in his day.
For Sam Robinson, winner of the Super Legend division by three shots, the final round at the Golf Club of Georgia provided an opportunity for three Virginia Tech golf team alumni to tee it up together. Robinson got to play the final round with fellow former Hokie golfers John Osborne (who finished second in the division) and Bill Engel.
On Thursday afternoon, Robinson, 75, was more interested in touting that performance and long friendship than anything he did individually on the course this week.
“This is probably the best field that the super legends has fielded this year from top to bottom and the fact that you had three Virginia Tech Hokies in the final group was pretty outstanding.”
Robinson’s victory is his third in national senior competition this year. He won two Society of Seniors tournaments in the spring: the Jack Hesler in January and the Spring Classic in February.
“Each win has its own little trauma that goes along with it,” said Robinson, although there was little of that for Robinson over the past 36 holes. He made only one bogey and 17 pars in a second-round 73 and had six birdies and one bogey in a final-round 67. He missed only one green on Thursday and had 31 putts.
“I hit the ball really well all three days and the difference was just I got more comfortable with the greens each day,” Robinson said.
Mostly, the experience factor came into play for Robinson in that the more he plays in events like this, the more he learns to play his own game.
“I’ve actually gotten to where if I’m playing good, I kind of do that and it helps,” he said. “Doesn’t necessarily help you win but it sure helps you stay calm out there and the fact that you know that you’re not looking so far ahead that you get ahead of your skis.”
For the first time this year, a senior invitational also took place. Greg Kennedy of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, defeated Todd Doss of Mandeville, Louisiana, on the second hole of a playoff after both finished 54 holes at 2 under.
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