Inaugural edition of tournament honors Kansas icon
Salina Country Club and Central Links Golf are pleased to announce a new tournament for senior golfers age 70 and older. The new Legends of Kansas Championship will offer "seasoned" players a chance to compete on one of North Central Kansas' premier courses against a field expected to include players from across the state and nation.
An annual feature of the championship will be the opportunity to honor a renowned player from Kansas' rich golf history. The tournament committee has named Wichita's Johnny Stevens as the inaugural honoree.
In 1959, the 16 year-old Mr. Stevens captured his first Wichita city match play championship and the Texas State Junior Amateur. At 17 he added the Kansas Junior, Amateur and Stroke play titles. He never looked back, amassing titles over five decades.
Mr. Stevens is the only Kansas golfer to have won the trifecta of championships: the Kansas Junior (1960), the Kansas Amateur (1960 and '61) and the Kansas Senior Amateur (1993 and 2008). He was runner-up in the 1990 Amateur losing in the final match to three-time winner Clay Devers. He also won four major state team competitions with partner Nick Onofrio: the Kansas Four-ball (1993 and 1997), the Mid-Am Team championship (1986) and the Senior Four-ball (1993).
In 1964 he was individual champion in the Missouri Valley Conference playing for Wichita State. He also qualified for the US Amateur in 1962 and was the low amateur in the US Senior Open in 1994. In 1997 he won the Open division of the Trans-Mississippi Championship against a field of players 25 years of age and older. He was twice honored as Kansas Senior Player of the Year and is a 2000 inductee into the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame.
Stevens hails from a family of great golfers starting with his uncle, former Wichita Country Club professional Willie Lewis; his mother, Annie, won the Wichita city and two state senior titles; his father, Nick, also a winner at the city and state levels; a brother, Jack, a Kansas Amateur champion in his own right (1974); his daughter, Cathy, winner of a record seven city- and four state- titles in addition to the Big Eight Conference championship playing for the University of Oklahoma; and his son, Charlie, who followed in his father's footsteps winning the Junior Championship (1986) and the state Amateur (2010).
The latest branch of the family tree of champions includes his grandson, Sam, who won the Junior in 2014 and was runner-up in the Kansas Amateur in 2013 and 2014 before winning it all in 2015; and granddaughter Kate Tilma, winner of the Kansas Girl's Junior and the Women's Amateur in 2020 at the age of 16.
Probably no other family in the country has amassed as many championship titles as the Stevens family of Wichita.
Salina Country Club will serve as the permanent host of the Legends of Kansas Championship. Each year a Kansas golfer who has distinguished him/her self on, or off, the golf course will be recognized as the honoree. The committee hopes to create a lasting memorial to these great contributors to the history of the game.
The championship will be conducted over 36 holes of stroke play for golfers 70 years of age and older with a GHIN handicap index of 12.5 or lower. There will be two flights: Legends for players age 70+ and Super Legends for players 75 and older. Both flights will have gross and net scoring, affording opportunities for more players to earn tournament gift certificates.
Interested players may go to the Central Links Golf web page to enter.
# # #
For more information contact:
Central Links Golf
8330 Melrose Dr.
Lenexa, KS 66214
Doug Habel, Executive Director
(913) 649-5242 -or-
Casey Old , Director of Competitions - Kansas
(785)842-4833
Greg Goode
Tournament Director
(303) 550-4210
goodegr2003@yahoo.com