Orchard Lake’s Rick Herpich Tops Super Senior Points List
By Greg Johnson
The U.S. Senior Amateur Championship, played this summer at Country Club of Detroit, provided special golf moments for a handful of Michigan golfers, including Rick Herpich of Orchard Lake.
“Being co-medalist in the U.S. Senior Am qualifier at Oakland Hills, then getting to play here in our hometown at Country Club of Detroit, hitting the very first tee shot to begin the tournament with my son there, my wife, my brother all there, and then to make match play at (age) 68,” he said. “That was a pretty cool thing.”
Herpich, who won the Super Senior division at the GAM Senior Championship and was second in the GAM Super Senior Championship, has been named the Golf Association of Michigan’s Super Senior Player of the Year for the second consecutive year.
A member of the GAM through Orchard Lake Country Club, Herpich gained key points with his play in the U.S. Senior Amateur and totaled 380 to top the Super Senior points list. (The same U.S. Amateur Championship runner up finish put Jerry Gunthorpe at the top of GAM’s Senior Men’s Player of the Year.)
Herpich, a retired Valassis Communications executive who winters with his wife Debbie in LaQuinta, Calif., has added national senior golf to his schedule in recent years. He recently finished fifth in a Society of Seniors national event in California and will play in at least two more events in the spring.
“I’ve always loved to compete and this is a game you can play for a long period of time,” he said. “The thing for me is I’ve gotten better over the years. A lot of guys I compete with played so well when they were in their 30s and 40s that now they seem disappointed that they can’t play like they used to play. For me, it’s the opposite. I keep seeing improvement and that’s exciting. It helps keep me going. I’m lucky that way.
“I play and practice, but I also continue to work with a personal trainer at Orchard Lake (Country Club),” he said. “Tom (Kruszewski) has kept me in really good physical shape. Being able to keep my flexibility, balance and strength as I have gotten older had really helped.”
