Carothers & Husband Win Medalist Playoff at U.S. Senior Am Qualifier

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ROSEVILLE -- As a general rule, if you're the medalist or co-medalist in a qualifying tournament, once you've signed your scorecard, you get to relax -- and maybe even celebrate. 

That, however, was not the case on Monday in the U.S. Senior Amateur Qualifying. For one thing, it wasn't a relaxing kind of day at Midland Hills Country Club. While other parts of the Twin Cities were mostly sunny and dry, there was enough rain in Roseville to force a lengthy delay.

And then, for the co-medalists -- Dave Carothers, John Husband and Scott Ainsworth -- there was the little matter of a playoff, because there were three of them and only two qualifying spots available. All three of them shot even-par 71s. So not long before 9 p.m., as the sun was about to set, they went to the tee at the 350-yard, par-4 18th hole to settle the matter. 

Fortunately for the MGA officials in charge of the qualifier, the playoff lasted only one hole, and they didn't have to bring the principles back on Tuesday morning. But it wasn't so fortunate for the unlucky co-medalist -- Ainsworth. Carothers and Husband both made pars on the 18th, but Ainsworth three-putted for a bogey, missing a 4-foot putt for his par, and he was eliminated. 

This wasn't the first near miss for Ainsworth. At last year's U.S. Senior Am Qualifying at Hastings CC, Ainsworth missed a playoff for the second spot by two strokes.

Carothers earned his share of medalist honors and got into the playoff by going 2 under for his last six holes. Having started on the back nine, he was 2 over after eight holes. He birdied the 18th, but bogeyed the par-4 second, to slip back to 2 over, but he birdied the 135-yard, par-3 fourth and the 535-yard, par-5 sixth. He bogeyed the other par-3 on the front nine, the 175-yard seventh hole, but bounced right back with a birdie at the 335-yard, par-4 eighth.

This wasn't the first time Carothers demonstrated that he could make birdies when it mattered. He birdied five of the last 10 holes at Interlachen on his way to a final-round 66 and a one-stroke victory in the 2017 Minnesota State Amateur. At age 48, he became the second-oldest winner in the history of the State Am, behind only Jim Scheller, who won the 1991 State Am at age 51 (the year after he won the State Senior Am). 

Now at 55,  Carothers was playing in his first USGA senior event. (USGA and MGA senior tournaments have a minimum age of 55. The minuimum for U.S. Senior Opens, Minnesota State Senior Opens and Minnesota Public Links senior tournaments is 50.)

As for Husband, the 64-year-old from Ontario, Canada, seems to like qualifying in Miinnesota. He was the medalist in the U.S. Senior Am qualifier at Edina CC last year, with a 70. But he didn't make it to the match-play portion of the Senior Am itself. Tim Peterson, the other qualifier from Minnesota did, before losing his first match. On Monday, Peterson didn't miss a return trip to the Senior Am by all that much. He shot 73 at Midland. 

This year's U.S. Senior Am will be played at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn., beginning August 24.