Even after stepping off a plane hundreds of miles from Palm Desert, Calif., Todd Doss was still talking about the 9 he hit a week earlier at the Golfweek Senior National Championship on Desert Willow Golf Resort’s Mountain View Course. In some ways, Doss said, the 9 propelled him to the progress he has made over a year.
Doss, 56, is a birdie machine. He won seven of those in the final round of the Golfweek Senior Amateur on April 2 at Desert Willow’s other layout, the Firecliff Course, which was enough to move him to the top of the leaderboard. Doss’ rounds were 69-73-67 for a total of 7 under par, putting him four strokes behind Jerry Gunthorpe, a giant in the world of senior amateur golf who won the Golfweek Senior Division National Championship four days earlier.
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While this is an important win for Doss in one of senior golf’s deepest areas of stroke play and a testament to the work he has put into his game over the past year and a half, Doss feels the big numbers still need to be considered.
“I was in the lead at one point (at the Golfweek Senior Division National Championships) and then I shot a 9 right away,” he said with a laugh. “Those are the kinds of things that I have to avoid. I learned from that. So today, and even this week, I decided not to make big numbers.”
Although Doss laments the score, he admits he played the hole correctly. After hitting the tree, he returned to the teeing ground. It’s this kind of introspection that helped Doss reach the top of a sport he only recently started competing in.
Doss, a college tennis player, retired from his career as a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in early 2020. Although he currently calls Louisiana home, he spent much of his playing career in Southern California. Prior to competing in back-to-back Golf Week events, Doss had placed runner-up at the San Francisco City Senior Championship, a match play event. Lost to Bob Niger in the final round.
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Doss has spent the past year and a half playing a national schedule, bouncing back and forth among the top five nationally. In January, he received the Association on Aging’s Jack Hessler Award. The Golfweek Senior Amateur still feels like a landmark victory.
“It feels good to be competing at the same level as probably 15 or 20 of the top 50 WAGR players in the world. It’s just a matter of building on my game,” he said. “It’s a question of whether or not it can be avoided, but I don’t like to use that word, but I think I can live with amateurish mistakes.”
Doss works with Corey Gladstone, a top teacher in Dallas. He is a certified Aimpoint instructor and a well-respected putting coach. Gladstone frequently tells his players that his ball strikes are more than strong enough to hang and his putting stroke is up there.
“If you hang around enough that the putter gets hot, it will happen,” Doss said, echoing his coach’s words. “That’s what happened in the final round.”
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Doss had four birdies on the front nine of the Firecliff course and three more on the back despite two bogeys. Considering the wind was blowing pretty hard and his first tee shot was a bit wild, he might not have expected a round this low to start the day, but luckily for Doss, he landed in a different fairway. He walked away with a par on the first hole, telling himself that a par would be a good score given Thursday’s conditions, then striping his drive down the middle on the second hole, heaving his approach to 30 feet despite the howling wind. He made a birdie putt and missed.
“I was like, let’s go,” he said. “Let’s see if I can keep up this good ball-striking. I felt like I rode that momentum the whole front nine. I just kept hitting good shots. It was fun.”
Doss also enjoys the pairing with Gunthorpe, whom he describes as surgical. A big part of Doss’ learning curve involves observing the discipline of veteran players like Gunthorpe. He says he is so meticulous and confident in his on-course decisions that he never makes the wrong decision, even if the outcome isn’t perfect.
“I’m the complete opposite, I’m a mess, right?” Doss joked. “No, I’m like, let’s go for the pin!”
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Doss, now 56 years old, admitted early on in this Senior Amateur journey that he needed tournament reps and a little more experience of the game overall to be truly successful. This victory could have helped him cross that bridge. He cited course management as the biggest area of growth over the past year and a half. Combine that with his physical ability and his name could reach the top of many more leaderboards in the coming years.
“I feel like it’s like my superpower,” Doss said of his health. “In the sense that I take my health and training in the gym pretty seriously.”
Not only did Doss finish ahead of Gunthorpe, he also outperformed players like second-round leader Randy Haag of Orinda, Calif., who finished tied for third at 2 under. Defending champion Brian Hoopes (Scottsdale, Ariz.) was T-6th at 1 over.
Kevin Vandenberg, who tops the Golfweek Senior U.S. Amateur rankings, and Mark Strickland, the tournament’s 2024 winner, tied for 12th place.th In 3 overs.
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Scott Massingill of Payette, Idaho, won the Super Senior title after leading all week. He was 4 under, one spot ahead of Mark Morgan of Shingle Springs, California.
Craig Calkins of Manhattan Beach, California, won the Legend title by finishing at 5 under, nine strokes ahead of runner-up Jeffrey Knox of Jupiter, Florida.
A similar story unfolded in the Super Legends division, where David Lasley of Payson, Ariz., won by 10 strokes with a total of 3 under.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Todd Doss makes breakthrough with Golfweek Senior Amateur title
