Page 48 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2025

SPORTS & OUTDOORS
WILSON ACCEPTS INVITE TO 2025 U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR
Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, Texas.
Every kid who grew up playing golf has dreamed of playing in the U.S. Open, PGA, Open, or Masters. Ocean Springs native Steve Wilson realized that dream in 2008 by winning the United States Mid-Am Golf Championship. A 2009 Masters invitation was waiting just past the new year’s dogleg.
Success tees off more offers, and
this year Wilson will take his talents to San Antonio for the 2025 U.S. Senior Amateur conducted by the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) and hosted by Oak Hills County Club, a superb Tillinghast design.
Wilson received an email from the USGA inviting him to play in the 2025 U.S. Senior Am, but he did not understand
why.
“I called the guy and told him I didn’t apply to play, and he told me that it was
the last ‘little gift’ for winning the U.S. Mid-Am.”
“I’m at the point in my golf life
where I wanted to play in only 4-balls and scrambles, and then they throw
this big invitation at me,” quipped Wilson. The former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Bulldog
and Southern Miss Eagle has already started preparing for the event in August by entering individual stroke play
tournaments.
A Top 10 finish in the 2025 Mississippi
State Amateur, a tournament he has won twice, proved he still has what it takes to compete in state and national championships. “I’m very excited because the winner is exempt into the Senior Open and the U.S. Mid-Am,” he said.
His excitement is spoiled a bit by his self-inflicted demotion to fun golf, but people who know him are not fooled. Longtime friend and former South
Alabama standout Josh Lampley likes Wilson’s chances to win another national championship. “He’s
still hitting the ball really far,” Lampley pointed out. “He just finished Top 10 as a senior in
story by Tommy Snell photos courtesy of USGA
48 | August 2025
www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living
Ocean Springs native Steve Wilson.
the State Amateur. If he gets his mind right and sinks some putts, he can beat
anybody.”