State Am's much more than golf for Stimpson

LAYTON — After going through what he has during the last 20 months, Greg Stimpson sees life through a different perspective.

In November 2007, while having routine shoulder surgery, Stimpson was diagnosed with leukemia. Suddenly, besides a long recovery from rotator cuff surgery, Stimpson had to undergo high-dose chemotherapy treatments for several months.

Now at the age of 49, Stimpson is the oldest player remaining in the Men's State Amateur golf tournament — and he's enjoying every minute of it.

"This is a big thrill, I couldn't have expected anything better than this," he said. "This is fun. I've got a lot of support, a lot of rooting for the old guy."

Although he has been involved in Utah golf for most of his life, playing at Bonneville High and Weber State, coaching the Weber State golf team and playing as a professional for several years, it took nearly a half century for Stimpson to make it to match play at the State Amateur.

He made the best of it Friday at Valley View Golf Course by winning two matches, over Nicklaus Despain and Cameron Young, and will meet Andrew Barton in today's quarterfinals.

Besides Stimpson and Barton, a 23-year-old from Sandy, the other quarterfinalists are defending champion Dan Horner, 18-year-old Weber State golfer Alex Sutton, BYU's Robbie Fillmore, BYU-bound golfer Zac Blair, Jeff Jolley and Todd Francis.

For Stimpson, it's good just to be playing golf period, these days, let alone contending for Utah's biggest amateur prize. He says although he still receives treatments, his cancer is in remission and he is confident he will beat the disease.

After defeating Despain, a fellow member at the Ogden Country Club, 4 and 3 in the morning, Stimpson eliminated Young 5 and 4 in the afternoon in the biggest margin of the second round and second-biggest of the day.

Blame it on his age or the fact that he was so focused on his round, but Stimpson didn't even realize he had won his second match when he rolled in a tricky 4-foot downhill putt at No. 14.

As Young came up to congratulate him, Stimpson started counting with his fingers and when he realized he was five holes up, he broke into a big smile and shook Young's hand.

"I thought we had one more hole," he said afterward, laughing.