Amateur Joe Markham Jr. Wins the Tennessee Senior State Open By Brian Weis

Amateur Joe Markham Jr. Wins the Tennessee Senior State Open

By Brian Weis

The 2024 Tennessee Senior Open Championship on the picturesque Cumberland Plateau was a spectacle that brought together 100 of the finest senior golfers. The air was thick with excitement and anticipation as these veterans of the green took on the daunting Stonehenge Golf Course. With its challenging layout, only three players managed consecutive rounds under par over the grueling 36-hole competition.

As the championship boiled down to its final three holes, the tension was palpable. Joe Markham (a) led at -6, with Jeff Lyons hot on his heels at -5, and Henrik Simonsen and Tim Jackson (a) lurking at -4. The drama peaked on the 17th hole when Markham missed a crucial short putt that would have given him a two-stroke cushion, leaving him with a precarious one-stroke lead.

The 18th hole was the ultimate test. Markham found himself in the greenside bunker, Jackson faced a daunting 20-foot birdie putt, and Lyons had already finished in the clubhouse at -5. Markham's nerves of steel showed as he delivered a masterful bunker shot to within 4 feet of the pin. Jackson narrowly missed his birdie attempt, and Markham sank his putt to clinch the Tennessee Senior State Open.

In the end, it was amateur Joe Markham, Jr. from Cleveland, TN, who emerged victorious, carding rounds of 68 and 70 to finish at 138 (-6). His final round was a testament to steady, composed play, featuring a birdie on the front nine and back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th holes. Markham's six straight pars to finish sealed a hard-fought and well-deserved victory.

Revised: 06/14/2024 - Article Viewed 1,803 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.