By Tim Rogers, NOPGA Media
AKRON: Will it be a hectic mad dash free-for-all involving as many as nine — or perhaps even 10 players — or will the 41st Ohio Senior Open Championship emerge as a chiseled two-horse race between a pair of men familiar with winning open championships in Northern Ohio?
Tune into the Fazio Course at Firestone Country Club today to find out as the first major event of the Northern Ohio Professional Golfers Association season concludes during the final 18 holes, barring a playoff, of course.
If six-time champion Bob Sowards and first-time participant Stephen Gangluff, who have won a combined 11 major championships in Ohio, play as well as they did during Wednesday’s opening round the remainder of the field might as well retreat to the North Course and begin preparing for the 105th Ohio Open in July.
If Sowards, 58, and the 50-year-old Gangluff should somehow stumble over Firestone’s slick greens or get trapped in its mushy rough, which of the 11 who are within six shots of the lead will rally like some kind of Arnold Palmer – remember the 1960 U.S. Open – can become the winner of the NOPGA’s first major of 2026?
Gangluff, who turned 50 in September, equaled the tournament record with a bogey-free, seven-under 63 in his first Senior Open appearance. The man from Bellefontaine made just about every putt he looked at in going 31-32.
“That was the first time all season that I have putted well,” said Gangluff, a two-time winner (2018-19) of the Ohio Open when it was played at Weymouth and Fox Meadow. “I probably missed four or five fairways but putted it well to make up for it.”
That was one shot better than Dublin’s Sowards, who equaled the record set by Gary Trivisonno in 2011 when he won in 2019, the start of a five-year winning streak that ended in 2024. Sowards blistered the back nine in five-under 30 and went the final 15 holes bogey-free.
“I was really happy with my iron play,” said Sowards, the winner of three Ohio Open to go with his six Senior triumphs. “The course just sets up perfectly for me. I see the same targets every year and that gets you to a certain comfort level.”
No one has been more comfortable in the Senior Open.
There are nine players within five shots of the lead, three of whom fashioned a four-under 66 and another five who came in sat 68.
Those who got their kicks with their 66 were Firestone Director of Instruction, 58-year-old Steve Parker (33-33), who has never won this event; Sam Arnold, the General Manager of The Vineyard in Cincinnati, who lost in a playoff to Sowards in 2022; and NorthStar Director of Instruction Chris Casto – the youngest of the trio at 52 — who finished T34 in his only Senior Open appearance.
Stow amateur Mark Borlin got off to a solid start in quest of a second straight Senior Plus championship with a two-under 68 and will take a two-shot lead over former two-time champion (2012 and 2003) Larry King, owner of the Tri County Golf Ranch in Cincinnati.
Eight players are within five shots of the lead as amateurs were dominant with 16 of the best 26 scores.
Gangluff, who played at Ohio State, made five putts of 10 or more feet, including a 35-footer on the fifth hole for the first of his seven birdies and a 30-footer for birdie on the 15th. He also had testy, but successful, two-putt efforts from more than 50 feet on the par-5 ninth and about 25-feet for birdie on the penultimate par-5 17th.
Sowards hit the ball close to the hole most of the day. He made up for his lone bogey with a birdie from three feet on the par-3 seventh and followed by making a nine-footer for birdie on the ninth. Another three-footer fell on the 421-yard 11th before he came with three inches of a hole-in-one on the 12th.
“I have no idea how that didn’t go in the hole,” he said. A two-putt from 30 feet produced the fifth of his seven birdies and he added two more from two feet on 15 and a 15-footer on 17.
Five players came in at two-under 68, including 2014 winner Tony Milam and two-time NOPGA Senior Player-of-the-Year Mike Stone.
Miami View Golf Club Head Pro Brad Loomis had one of the day’s sporadic rounds with an event-leading seven birdies, three bogeys and one double-bogey enroute to a two-under 68. At one stretch on his back nine Loomis, 52, birdied five holes in a row to close in 31. Starting on the back nine, Loomis made three birdies, two bogeys and the double. His final nine consisted of four birdies and one bogey.
Brian Unk, who grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, starred at John Carroll and now is the Director of Instruction at Wedgewood Golf and Country Club near Columbus, finished at one-under 69, as did former Ohio Open Champion Dennis Miller to cap the number of par-busters at 12.
Play resumes at 8 a.m. today at 8 a.m. with the leaders scheduled for at 2:20 start.