Central grad Jaspers wins national amateur golf tourney
PELLA—More than 35 years after setting a scoring record in running away with Iowa Conference medalist honors for Central College, Joe Jaspers is still winning men’s golf titles.
Jaspers, a 1988 Central grad, blew away the field with a stunning eight-stroke victory in the National Senior Hall of Fame tournament at the par-72 High Point (N.C.) Country Club’s Willow Creek Golf Course last weekend.
He fired a 7-under-par 71-70-68—209 in a field that included some of the nation’s top senior golfers. He called the decisive winning margin unexpected.
“That was a surprise,” he said. “The guys I played with on the last day are very good.
“It was one of those things where I had a good day. I mean, I was making putts I had no business making. On Sunday, I think I made five putts over 20 feet. That’s just not normal. It was kind of crazy.”
And throughout the 54 holes, Jaspers played steady golf.
“I didn’t make any big mistakes,” he said. “When I made a mistake, I didn’t short-side myself or that kind of thing. About the only mistake I made on the last day was that I three-putted from about 45 feet. That may have been my only three-putt out of the three days.”
Inducted into Central’s Athletics Hall of Honor in 2006, Jaspers earned eight varsity letters competing in golf and men’s basketball for the Dutch. In golf, he was a four-time NCAA Division III Championships participant and two-time all-America honoree, finishing seventh in the 1987 national tournament when the Dutch placed sixth in the team standings. He was also a four-time all-conference honoree, finishing second twice before winning in 1988, shattering the league scoring record set the previous year by his former Central and Waverly-Shell Rock High School teammate, Bill Spurbeck ’87. Jaspers was a three-year starter for the men’s basketball squad, receiving the team’s Mentink Award for leadership and inspiration three times.
A Waverly, Iowa native, Jaspers lives in Huntersville, North Carolina, competing regularly in tournaments throughout North and South Carolina and occasionally in USGA events elsewhere. He reached the round of 16 at the 2021 U.S. Senior Amateur and won the 2015 North Carolina Mid-Am. His closest brush with an even brighter spotlight came in 2010 when he missed qualifying for the U.S. Open by a shot and was an alternate. One of golf’s four majors, the tourney was played at the famed Pebble Beach Golf Course that year.
Many of the players Jaspers competes with log more time on the course as they are either retired or run their own business. A certified financial planner, Jaspers serves as vice president for wealth management with Carolinas Telco Capital Advisors.
“I’m a working stiff,” Jaspers said with a laugh. “It’s hard to keep taking weekdays off.”
But he’s able to play 12 months a year and practices when he can.
“Other than these three-day tournaments, I probably play once a week,” he said. “But I try to get to the range a couple times a week.”
His amateur success has allowed him to test his skills on some of the nation’s top courses.
“I was thinking about that one day,” Jaspers said. “You know, growing up, playing the Waverly Golf Course was basically what you always played. Every once in a while, you’d go to Cedar Falls or something. But I was thinking about all the unbelievably nice golf courses I’ve gotten to play.”
Yet he still views his four seasons at Central as the most enjoyable of his career.
“It’s a different environment,” he said. “Now you play tournaments across 10 months of the year and back then (the spring season) was compressed into about six weeks. But the guys on the team, that’s what you remember. The friends you make in college, those are the friends that stick.”
