It was the host with the most in 2025. The South team made it three straight Oliver Cup victories, posting a 15-9 win over the North in the 2025 event. The three-day tournament was held Sept. 28-30, 2025, at Boulder Creek Golf Club. The South now owns a 7-2-1 record in the event. –by Bill Bowman, Las Vegas Golf Insider
The Oliver Cup pits 12 of the top senior golfers from the North against 12 of the South’s best senior players. The Ryder Cup-type tournament debuted in 2008 with a 12-12 tie. It is held every other year and features foursome matches, four-ball matches and singles matches.
In the 2025 matches, the South won both the foursome and four-ball matches by identical 4½-1½ points for a 9-3 edge heading into the singles finale.
The South squad won five of the first six matches in the singles en route to a 6-6 tie to close out the tournament.
Tim Brand, manager of the South squad, said the teamwork was the key.
“All the guys are familiar with each other and we set up some good teams, for sure,” Brand said. “One of the other big things was Boulder Creek was in great shape. Our players play there a lot. It may not be the home course for most of them, but not a single player was uncomfortable playing it. For the North, holes 9 and 18…as well as a couple of others…are very difficult and it’s tough to get comfortable unless you’ve spent time playing the course.”
Brand added keeping the trophy for the third straight time was also on players’ minds.
“At the end of the day, more than anything else, pride was on the line,” he said. “Players can look back and say I won two out of my three matches or won all three matches and take pride in that.”
Brand said his biggest takeaway from the event was the fact it gave 24 players the chance to represent the North and South…as well as have fun.
“We always want 24 guys to leave thinking that was a ton of fun,” he said. “And we want them thinking ‘I want to keep playing well so I can play on this team two years from now.’ That was accomplished for me and that was the biggest win.”
Looking back on the matches, Brand said one stood out for a lot of the players and it didn’t even involve a victory.
“Getting into a hotly contested match and feeling nervous down the stretch is always something players want,” he said. “And it happened in a great match that forced both teams to play well. John Turk and Steve Fink (South) and David Gray and Kirk Schwoyer were both six-under-par and likely would have won most matches in the last couple of Oliver Cup matches. Both teams were feeding off each other and it had to be great to be part of that match. The match wound up tied but it was still being talked about after the Oliver Cup was over.”
Tim Matzke, representing the North, said his squad simply ran into a red-hot team.
“Our guys never gave up,” said Matzke, who was the captain of the North team for the first time. “Our guys fought hard for three rounds and played really good golf. We just played a good Southern Nevada team. We played well…we just got outplayed.”
Matzke said the event was first-class from start to finish.
“This was just a very enjoyable experience for everyone,” he said. “All the guys walked away after a fun three days. Both teams hung out together and gelled. For being my first Oliver Cup, this was outstanding. It was a blast.”
Matzke said the North team’s goals will be simple going forward.
“We probably need to have more team events,” he said. “Golf is an individual sport and team events aren’t something we do a lot in the association. We probably need to do more to develop better relationships. You can tell the Southern Nevada guys had a great team concept going in and it paid off. That’s something we will work on.”
The 2027 Oliver Cup will be hosted by the North squad with dates and a golf course yet to be decided.
For complete results on the 2025 Oliver Cup, go to: golfgenius.com/pages/12032116985186773451
2025 Oliver Cup—South Team
Todd Roberts, Rick Sepp, John Turk, Steven Fink, John Steele, Gary Carpendale, Michael Hass, George Yocum, Artie Miller, Brian Freymueller, Brent Bingham, Jimmy Bradley.
2025 Oliver Cup—North Team
Seth Allison, Michael Dillon, David Gray, Kirk Schwoyer, Jonathan Aroz, Stewart Knowles, Jason Koop, Dennis Rash, Richard Clark, Terry Ulleseit, Alan Krogness, Troy Orosco.