Miles McConnell hadn’t competed at Niagara Falls Country Club in Lewiston, New York, in nearly 40 years. McConnell used to play the Porter Cup there when he was in his early 20s and he had always wanted to get back.
When the now-60-year-old teed it up in the Senior Porter Cup last month, his game clicked. He won the 54-hole event by two shots over Howard Clendenin.
“To win was just a bonus,” McConnell said, “but it was great to be back.”
McConnell’s Senior Porter Cup victory on Sept. 11 came on the heels of his victory in the Sunnehanna Senior Amateur on Aug. 19. He also made match play at the U.S. Senior Amateur, but bowed out in the first round. For his consistent play to start the fall, McConnell has been named Golfweek’s Senior Player of the Month
for September.
In reflecting on his game, McConnell, who is currently ranked fourth in Golfweek’s National Senior Amateur Rankings, felt consistency has been key. At the end of 2025, he wasn’t particularly happy with his play.
“I think I committed myself a little more just to some practice time this year and getting back to some fundamentals that worked for me when I was younger,” he said. “I started playing well in January, February – started to hit the ball well. I think since that time I’ve been very consistent, not doing anything spectacular by any stretch. Just solid ballstriking, my short game has been very steady.
“For most of my life, I’ve been a really good putter but my putting kind of left me a couple years ago, I’m not sure why.”
It’s easy to take short game for granted – until the flat stick falters. It wasn’t so much that McConnell was three-putting a lot, but that he was missing the four-to-six footers he needed to make. For the first time in his life, McConnell made a few putting changes, including a grip change. Now he’s using a modified claw grip.
The changes began to work over the summer – he putted well down the stretch at both the Senior Porter Cup and Sunnehanna Senior, and that made all the difference.
“When your short game is good, you’re not afraid to miss a green,” he said of the effect short game has had on his scoring. “You can go for a pin or two that you wouldn’t go after.”
McConnell, who was born in Toronto but moved to Florida when he was 10, plays out of Buckhorn Springs in Valrico, Florida. Despite being retired from the restaurant business, McConnell still likes to pick and choose his competition calendar – teeing it up 10 to 12 times a year nationally.
The U.S. Senior Amateur and R&A Senior Amateur are high on his list. He competed in the latter for the sixth time this year and finished 11th at Frilford Heath in England.
“It’s probably my favorite trip of the year, it’s just such a different experience playing golf over there,” he said. “… That would be one I would dearly love to win someday.”
McConnell won the Canadian Senior Amateur in 2024 and has a long history in USGA events dating to the U.S. Amateur in 1985, where he missed the match-play cut. Two years later – the summer before his senior year at the University of South Florida – McConnell qualified for that event again. This time, competing at Jupiter Hills in Jupiter, Florida, McConnell made it to the quarterfinals where he lost to eventual champion Billy Mayfair.
“I’ve been lucky enough to play a fair amount of USGA events over the years, that’s always a highlight,” he said. “I love it.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Senior Player of the Month: Putting change makes all the difference for Miles McConnell
