bob Murphy Jr.’s 2025 Connecticut Senior Amateur victory came as a super senior — a Connecticut State Golf Association competitive classification for those 65 and older (he’s 66). However, this achievement is not his most remarkable. Winning 20 club championships at Brownson Country Club in Huntington, Connecticut, in five different decades earns that distinction.
Well that’s great.
The last club title came in September – 45 years after his first in 1980, when he was a member of the St. Bonaventure University golf team.
“It’s probably good genes and equipment improvements,” said Murphy, who is no relation to former U.S. Amateur and NCAA champion Bob Murphy, who also won five times on the PGA Tour and 11 times on PGA Tour Champions. “I feel like I’ve gotten better and smarter over time.
“I grew up at Brownson and never wanted to leave. Our greens taught me how to read, play and hit on every other putting surface. The members taught me how to treat others with respect.”
Murphy not only respects but cherishes the golf traditions established and followed early on as a player at Fairfield College Preparatory School. “I like the challenge; no two shots are the same,” he said. “I love the game, how it is played with respect and according to the rules, the people and the personalities.”
His favorite golfer is Bobby Jones. “He’s the greatest amateur of all time,” Murphy said. “I can identify with him more as an amateur than as a professional. I’m so glad I never had to pay a yard to pay off a mortgage. Not every golfer is programmed to be a professional.”
Murphy is tailor-made for the amateur game. Consider his appearance in two annual events: the Julius Boros Challenge Cup, a competition between Connecticut Section PGA pros and CSGA amateurs, and the Tri-State Matches between amateurs from Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
“He has played on five Challenge Cup teams and three Tri-State teams this year,” CSGA Challenge Cup and Tri-State captain Roger Everin said of Murphy. “Every team he has been on has won. I can’t think of any other player who has achieved that in my nine years as captain.”
Murphy has always enjoyed and fueled competition, whether as a team member or as an individual. At last month’s Connecticut Senior Amateur at Wallingford Country Club, he was three strokes behind before the final round. He never withdrew from the event with the age requirement of 55 and older.
He recovered from a 4-over-39 front nine and was even par through eight holes on his back nine. “There were no rankings, but I knew it was close,” he said.
Having started his round at No. 18 in the tournament’s shotgun start, his final hole was No. 17, a 320-yard par-4. He said he immediately liked the hole after playing it in an earlier practice round.
Players in the field had two basic strategies: hit less than the driver to place the ball safely on the fairway for a short iron to the green, or use a driver to get it close to the green or perhaps even reach it – as Murphy had done in his practice round.
This was an easy decision that last day. “There’s a crest in the fairway and then it goes downhill; I had a good feeling about the hole,” he said.
He hit the ball 33 yards short of the green.
“I had a downhill pitch, a little nerve-wracking, over a bunker. As soon as I hit the chip, it felt good. It bounced a yard on the green, and then I thought it was in, but it stayed out.”
He winced and clenched his fists against his eagle miss.
Playing partner Brian Hedstrom missed his seven-foot birdie putt. Murphy made his birdie from 2 feet to finish at 145 (71-74), one shot ahead of Hedstrom of Indian Hill Country Club (Newington, Connecticut) and Scott D. Mackesy of Bulls Bridge Golf Club (Kent, Connecticut).
“I’m proud to have won this as it is the 80th Connecticut Senior Amateur,” Murphy said. “There’s a level of validation, and it’s great to win.”
This title meant a little more to Murphy, who was unable to defend his 2023 championship last year due to his day job as a real estate agent in Southwest Florida. He has spent the past 18 years splitting time between homes in Bonita Springs, Florida, and Shelton, Connecticut.
He said that for years he was unable to play in as many CSGA events as he would have liked because of his position as a sales director at a major computer company in New York City and family responsibilities with his wife Colleen and five children.
These days, Murphy says he tries to play in as many CSGA, Metropolitan Golf Association and Florida State Golf Association tournaments as possible. And of course, there’s one event he won’t miss: the Brownson Country Club Championship.
“I never saw golf as work,” he said. “From my first days at Brownson, it’s been a game I love. And if there are trophies or recognition for what you do as an amateur, that’s enough for me.”
Photos: Courtesy of Connecticut State Golf Association
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