Sean Kenily & Emily Liptak Capture Titles at Senior & Women’s Championships at Union CC

By Tim Rogers, NOPGA Media

DOVER: Pressure comes in all forms, shapes and sizes and it’s as real as income taxes.

You can feel pressure. It can come at you, either by self-infliction or by one’s peers. It can creep up on you like a lion stalking lunch or hit you with the suddenness of a lightning bolt. You can feel it, fight it, curse it, succumb to it or beat. There is big pressure, medium pressure and minimal pressure. 

 How it is handled depends on mettle.

Sean Kenily and Emily Liptak dealt with different types of pressure on Tuesday during the final round of the 42nd Northern Ohio Professional Golfers Association’s Senior Professional Championship and the sixth NOPGA Women’s Professional Championship at Union Country Club.

Kenily dealt with the pressure of playing for a major championship on his home course. Liptak dealt with the pressure of making her first appearance as a professional in a major championship against older, more experienced players.

Different types of pressure but pressure just the same.

The crux of the story is that both won their respective titles for the first time.

Here are their stories:

TWO SECTIONS, TWO TITLES: Kenily, 57, put together two rounds of one-under 71. He had four birdies and three bogeys each day. He birdied the first hole and the 14th each day. He bogeyed the fourth – the number one handicap hole – both days. What he didn’t do was make a single double-bogey, which can kill a round faster than inadvertently driving your cart into pond.

Still, the presence of playing on the course where he works was on his mind.

“I think the expectation level is there, for sure” he said. “You know, people will say that you should do well. That you know the golf course really well. I mean, that’s realistic. You kind of put that on yourself as well. On the other hand, it kind of throws you off your routine. Normally, I show up about 90 minutes before my tee time. Do some stretching, hit some balls, hit some putts and all that good stuff. I was here at six this morning, pulling up carts. It was four and a half hours before my tee time. I was just trying to kill time just to get to that 90-minute window.”

He trailed first-round leader Rick Sargent by one shot at the start of the day but quickly pulled into a tie by making a birdie putt from 10 feet on the first hole while most of the field made par. 

“It’s funny,” Kenily said, “I don’t play here a lot, but I can count on one hand how many times I’ve birdied one and I birdied it both days. To get off to that start was good.”

Throughout the day most others fell out of contention, but a couple remained on the fringes for at least 12 or 13 holes.

At the end of the day, 2023 champion Mike Stone, two-time champion Gary Rusnak and former Ohio Open champion Dennis Miller tied for second at 2-over 146.

Stone, 54, climbed over 10 players after a disheartening opening 77 with a 3-under 69 – the lowest round of the event – but it was too little, too late and consecutive bogeys on the ninth and 10th crossed-checked his eagle on the 13th and birdie on 14. 

Rusnak, champion in 2025 and 2021, was in contention until three birdies on the first six holes on the closing nine did him in.

Basically, it came down to 56-year-old Miller and Kenily, at least until the 430-yard 16th hole. The two took turns at the top of the leaderboard. At one point late in the game there were two-shot swings on three consecutive holes, two of which went in Kenily’s favor.

Kenily, a Zanesville native and former Rosecrans High teammate of NOPGA member Dave Dinan, had a one-shot lead standing on the 16th tee after he had bogeyed 15 and Miller had birdied.

The 16th is a slight dogleg left with a smattering of trees but thick, ugly, deep, junk on the left. Kenily pulled his drive slightly but safely short of the thick, ugly, deep junk with 188 yards to the pin.

Miller, who played the front nine in 2-under, pulled his ball farther and more left, smack dab into the thick, ugly, deep junk.

A search party of nine combed that junk for the allotted three minutes but the ball was never found. Miller re-teed fine but found some unfortunate and unlucky trouble on the treacherous green, just one of many that provide the Union Club’s biggest defense. The result was a double-bogey and a 3-shot deficit.

The moment was not lost on Kenily.

“I was actually, literally upset when we couldn’t find his ball on 16,” said Kenily. “I just love that feeling of a close match. Our match was close. We went back-and-forth and when that happened the air kind of went out of the balloon. I was just as upset that we couldn’t find it as he was. I wanted that head-to-head stuff to continue. It was fun, one of the reasons we play.”

Both men parred the 131-yard 17th and Kenily closed with a par to Miller’s bogey to account for the four-shot difference and give Kenily his first NOPGA Section title. In 2009 when he was the head pro at Longaberger Golf Club – now the Virtues Gol Club in Nashport — he won the Southern Ohio PGA Section title, interrupting a string of wins by Bob Sowards, regarded as one of the top players in Ohio.

“Bob says there should be an asterisk beside my name because he was on tour at the time,” Kenily laughed. “But this event was one that I had earmarked, one that I really wanted to win. It’s nice to have wins in two different Sections. This one will be good for the members, too. They have been very supportive so this will go a long way toward telling stories and having some fun.”

One of the stories will no doubt be about the time Kenily told pressure to take a hike.

WELCOME TO THE NOPGA WINNER’S CIRCLE: Six months ago Emily Liptak was working on a degree in business management at the University of Akron and caddying at Fairlawn Country Club.

Today, Liptak, 22, is the owner of that degree, an assistant professional at Fairlawn and the winner of the sixth NOPGA Women’s Professional Championship on her first try.

 Not a shabby four months. Can you say, “Living the dream?”

With Union Country Club’s undulating greens — sneaky to read and treacherous enough to drive anyone mad — Liptak posted a second-round 80 and overtook 4-time champion and first-round leader Mary Suitca to win one of the Section’s most coveted titles.

“Today’s round was a lot tougher than the first round,” Liptak said. “I think anyone would say that. The greens were harder (to read) and some of the pin placements made it a much tougher day.”

Union Club showed little mercy. The scores for most of the field were higher in the final round. It was a long and trying day.

Liptak went 76-80=156 to Suitca’s 73-84=157. Alliance Country Club Assistant Melissa Greene finished third at 81-84=165 and Avon Oaks Assistant Erin Craig was fourth at 93-86=179.

Liptak, a Green High graduate, was happy to win but had a much deeper perception, one that tells you she has her feet on the ground as she embarks on a career.

“I was just excited to be here and play in my first Section event,” she said humbly. “I was just excited to meet the other ladies in the Section. They were all so nice it made the whole experience fun.”

Liptak had a personal gallery as her father Andy, mother Susie, uncle Jeff Long and grandparents Andy and Betty followed her every shot.

Liptak was introduced to the game as a child by her grandfather.

“One day he took me, my two older sisters and some of our cousins into the yard and he had a cut-off club,” Liptak said. “He let all of us take some swings. I was the only one who liked it.”

Liptak began the day three shots behind Suitca. That changed on the first hole when Suitca’s drive sailed out of bounds enroute to a triple-bogey. Liptak made par and seemingly in an instant she had a share of the lead.

Tournaments are rarely won on the results of one hole but the par-5 seventh was a turning point. Liptak was 5-over at the time and Suitca was 3-over.

Liptak, longer off the tee than her playing partners, made an eagle to Suitca’s bogey. The three-shot swing was huge.

Liptak’s drive from the forward tees left her 165 yards from the hole. She knocked her second shot to the front edge of the green and rolled in a 25-foot putt.

 Suitca’s drive faded into the right rough and some trees prevented her from getting close to the green. She did well by advancing the ball and getting it back to the fairway but a bogey was the result.

The back nine was a struggle for both as the greens and pin placements took their toll. They combined for five pars, eight bogeys, four double-bogeys and one birdie. Perseverance was a virtue.

Hopefully,  we witnessed the emergence of a much-needed younger competitor to challenge Suitca, who has dominated this championship by winning four of the first five. Liptak said she is looking forward to many future Section events.

 We’ll take that as a good sign.

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