2 Las Vegas golfers to play US Senior Open

Jeff Gallagher, a Revere Golf Club teaching professional and longtime tour player, and Tommy Armour III, a PGA Tour Champions player and Las Vegas resident, are in this week’s U.S. Senior Open field at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Also playing is Stephen Sear, the 2015 and 2016 Nevada State Amateur champion.

It marks the third-straight time Gallagher has earned a spot through sectional qualifying. He finished tied for 40th a year ago and tied for 18th in 2016.

Armour III missed the cut last year but has earned $118,826 on the PGA Tour Champions this season. He grew up in Las Vegas and moved back to the city a couple years ago.

“I am excited and looking forward to another major,” Gallagher said. “What a beautiful setting here. I’m living the dream and I will work hard this week.”

Made in the shade

Summer is here and playing tree-lined courses is a welcome respite. The historic Las Vegas National Golf Club located in the heart of the city opened in 1961 and has hundreds of mature pines and golfers are never more than a few feet from shade, which knocks several degrees off the thermometer.

The course is also home to the cool — in more ways than one — Golfboards that allow players to “surf the earth” while playing. They are like surf boards for golf, easy to ride and allow players to “surf” near tee boxes and greens, thus saving steps and effort.

Historical Southern Nevada Amateur

For the first time that I know of, major amateur tournaments for both the Women’s Southern Nevada Golf Association and the Southern Nevada Golf Association were played on the same course on the same weekend. The Southern Nevada Amateur was held at Legacy Golf Club last weekend.

Kimberli Tottori, a rising sophomore at Seattle University, won the women’s gross Division by 6 strokes over Amy Ruelas with rounds of 69-72—141. Margie Cashwell won the net division with adjusted rounds of 71-62—133.

Qualifiers for the Silver Cup were Connie Isler, Britany Whatley, Diane Booth, Monica Kaili, Ronda Henderson, Christina Brandt, Debbie Love, Rusty Beckel (co-captain), Margie Cashwell, Karen Schroeder, Christine Soscia, Ruby Biehl, Julia Choi, Nancy Dunn, Masako Brown, Shana Pederson, Gabriel Buonacorsi and Laura Smith. Alternates are Sherry Jackson, Brittney Brooks, Nicole Nolan and Monica Fairbanks.

Two picks by co-captains Karen Herness and Rusty Beckel will be added at a later date. The South is scheduled to play Northern Nevada Nov. 12-14 at Chimera Golf Club.

For the men, Josh Goldstein shot rounds of 8-under 136 to defeat reigning SNGA player of the year Edward Fryatt by four shots. Kenny Ebalo and Grant McKay tied for third at 1-under 143.

Other SNGA winners were Frank Acker (senior), Frank Abbott (silver), Daniel Rinaldi (senior net), Randy Burton (senior net) and Larry Keever (silver net).

Weekly deal

The GolfVantage membership at Rhodes Ranch offers best rates guaranteed, two drinks per round, daily range balls and more.

Stars on, off course

Former UNLV women’s All-American Dana Finkelstein made a hole-in-one during the third round of the Symetra LPGA Tour Island Resorts Championship.

The golf notebook appears Wednesdays. Freelance writer Brian Hurlburt is a two-time author who has covered golf in Las Vegas for more than two decades. He can be reached at bhurlburt5@gmail.com or @LVGolfInsider on Twitter.