Write-Up Provided by the Rick Pledl (pledl@mailbag.com) and Wisconsin.Golf
The field at this week’s Senior PGA Championship will number 156 players, including some mostly unknown professionals from across America as well as big names from around the golf globe.
The Badger State will be well represented as usual with eight players in the field – four PGA of America golf professionals and four touring professionals – but the odds of winning are hardly the same among the two categories. And for the 36 golf professionals in the former group – known informally and somewhat inaccurately as “club pros” – the Senior PGA can be the pinnacle of their careers.
The odds of winning this championship are long for those who don’t actually play golf for a living. But that’s not the point.
The Senior PGA Championship starts Thursday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesfa, Maryland, just outside Washington D.C., and lots of players in the field have competed in major championships before – players like Madison natives Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly, who have dozens of majors under their belts. (More on them later.)
But for others, including our state’s local pros, this can be as big as it gets.
Mick Smith of Summit, who operates Mick Smith Golf, has been one of Wisconsin’s top players for years. This week, the Australia native will play in his second consecutive Senior PGA Championship after tying for 75th last year.
Smith won player of the year honors in Wisconsin PGA play in 2021 and ’24 and senior POY honors in 2023 and ’24.
Smith also won the 2024 Wisconsin State Senior Open and the last two Wisconsin PGA Senior Stroke Play titles.
Michael Crowley, the head PGA professional at Morningstar GC, has been one of Smith’s primary competitors in senior Wisconsin PGA play recently. Crowley will also make his second Senior PGA Championship start on Thursday.
Crowley won WPGA player of the year honors in 2022 and ’23, and the 2022 Senior Player of the Year Award. His tournament titles include the 2020 Wisconsin State Senior Open – with a birdie-birdie finish in a brutal, cold rain at Nakoma GC – and the 2023 Wisconsin PGA Stroke Play Championship.
Crowley finished runner-up to Smith at the last two WPGA Senior Stroke Plays (2023 and ’24).
Aside from his duties at Morningstar, Crowley also serves on the Wisconsin PGA’s Board of Directors and Tournament Policy Board.
Two players in the field, Derek Stendahl and Tim Cantwell, are Wisconsin natives who work in other states.
Stendahl, a Middleton native who has worked for years at Rush Creek GC in Maple Grove, Minn., was the hard-luck runner-up at the 2023 Wisconsin State Senior Open at Maple Bluff CC. Stendahl led for the majority of the tournament in his first appearance in the event, but he eventually finished one shot behind Tony Rohlik.
Stendahl, who won the 2022 Minnesota State Senior Open, tied for 35th place at last year’s Senior PGA Professional Championship last September.
Tim Cantwell, a native of Brookfield who won the 1993 Wisconsin State Amateur Championship at Blackhawk CC, learned the game and worked at Westmoor CC when he was young. Cantwell now plies his trade in Florida.
Cantwell had a terrific season last year, sweeping the 2024 South Florida Open and Senior Open titles. He also tied for 17th place at last year’s Senior PGA Professional Championship.
On the other side of the pro golf game – where the touring professionals reside – Stricker and Kelly have led the Wisconsin charge for years.
Stricker joined the PGA Tour Champions in 2018, and has won 18 titles on the circuit, but the 2025 season has been a struggle for him as he’s trying to return from a neck and back issue that sidelined him for several months.
Thus, his 2025 stats look extremely un-Stricker-like – no victories, no top-10s and sitting 78th on the Charles Schwab Cup points list.
In 2023, Stricker had a record-setting season on the PGA Tour Champions with more than $3.9 million in earnings. He won six tournament titles that season, including the Senior PGA Championship.
Stricker will serve as host again this year as the American Family Insurance Championship moves to TPC Wisconsin in Madison, a course Stricker redesigned. For the first time, the event will be played under a two-man partners format. The tournament dates are June 6-8, but events are planned all week.
Stricker also won 12 PGA Tour events and captained the United States to victory at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
Kelly has 13 Champions Tour wins since 2017, including this spring’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship, to go along with his three career wins on the PGA Tour. Those 13 titles include American Family Insurance Championship wins at University Ridge in 2019 and ’20.
Known on tour as an exceptional ball-striker, Kelly came so close to winning last week at the Regions Tradition in a tournament that was forced to finish on Monday. Kelly ultimately lost by a stroke to Angel Cabrera.
Kelly currently sits in sixth place in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
Mark Wilson, a native of Menomonee Falls, is just 50, so he’s a PGA Tour Champions rookie this season. So far, he’s played seven events and ranks 64th on the Charles Schwab Cup list.
Wilson won five tournaments on the PGA Tour after joining the circuit in 2003.
Wilson won numerous championships in Wisconsin during his amateur and early professional years, including the State Open (2001), State Amateur (1996), State Junior Boys (1992) and State Match Play (1995).
Mario Tiziani, Stricker’s brother-in-law has played the PGA Tour Champions the last few seasons. He’s currently ranked 70th in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
A Madison native, Tiziani has lived in Minnesota for several years.
In addition to his own playing career, Tiziani is Stricker’s agent and sometimes caddie. He will also serve as Stricker’s partner at the American family Insurance Championship in June.
Tiziani won State Senior Open Championships in both Wisconsin and Minnesota during the 2021 season.
The 2025 Senior PGA Championship, the second of five senior majors on the PGA Tour Champions schedule, will be broadcast live on NBC and Golf Channel, Thursday through Sunday. The field will be cut after 36 holes, and the purse is $3.5 million.
Richard Bland is the defending champion.