Perhaps no stat says as much about Tony Wise’s week at the International Senior Invitational as this one: Over 54 holes at Cartersville Country Club in Georgia, Wise had 26 one-putts. Even Wise could only describe that with one word. “Insane.”
Wise has now competed in this event at Cartersville four times. A year and a half ago, he played a U.S. Senior Open qualifier there, too.
“It’s a course I fell in love with at first sight,” he said. “It suits my eye, I love the tricky greens where you’ve got to hit the spots. I have matured as a golfer, especially as a senior golfer. I have learned kind of how to work my way around even on days I don’t hit it great. I really put a lot of work into my short game and that really, really paid off this week.”
Wise, 57, posted rounds of 67-72-67 at the event – which features both a team and individual component – and at 10 under, finished six shots ahead of Kevin VandenBerg, Golfweek’s top-ranked senior, and Cartersville member Chad Branton.
“They grew the rough up a little bit so everything sank,” Wise said of the golf course, “so I really spent a lot of time on Wednesday during the practice round around the greens and really tried to work on the best way to get those different ways – to chop it out of that Bermuda because it was really nasty and very difficult.”
With the victory, Wise also earns an exemption into the final stage of qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open, a tournament for which he qualified in 2023. Shortly before he teed it up that year at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, however, Wise’s golf clubs were stolen out of the back of his car.
Wise had played a round at Muirfield Golf Club in Ohio with friends the day before and was headed to Scioto Country Club that day. When he got to his car, the windows were smashed and his clubs gone. Despite Callaway helping him piece together a new set on short notice, Wise still entered arguably the biggest tournament of his life devastated at the loss of his bag (perhaps most disappointing was the loss of several personal effects, like meaningful headcovers he had accumulated over his career) and with unfamiliar clubs in his hands. He posted 79-84 to miss the cut.
The incident didn’t stop Wise, a positive and upbeat person by nature, from “having a ball,” but he is still itching for a second chance.
“I really want to go back there and, in all honesty, I don’t think my game was ready for that kind of course – how hard it was, how fast it was, how high the rough was – I was not ready to play that course, I had never seen anything like that,” he said. “Fast forward three years, I am very much more prepared to play on a course like that.”
Wise also took a lesson from one of the world’s best that week. During a Monday practice round, Wise spotted Bernhard Langer down the fairway without a caddie, clubs or golf ball. He’s walking around in tennis shoes getting yardages and making notes.
Langer went on to win that week and Wise has adopted that strategy when he can work it into his tournament prep.
“That is an image and a thought that I will never forget,” Wise said. “If I get to a course early, before the tournament, I will walk at least part of a course, depending on time. . . . That was part of my learning process to get to where I have gotten today. That is something that will never be lost on me.”
Wise’s International Senior victory follows an incredible summer of golf, even if he describes the first six weeks of 2026 as “sludge.” He just felt off, and couldn’t put it all together. But things began to turn around at the Golfweek Pacific Northwest Senior when he finished eighth. The next week, he was 15th at the British Senior Amateur.
By the time he reached the U.S. Senior Amateur at Baltimore Country Club, Wise had been doing his homework – studying his yardage book and watching course flyovers on YouTube. He made it all the way to the quarterfinals, where he lost to eventual champion Mike Sposa.
Just a few weeks after that, Wise won the Kentucky Senior Amateur for the third time, despite not having his best game.
“I’ll grind you to death,” said Wise, a teacher who retired from coaching high school boys basketball in 2021. “I pride myself on being mentally tougher – that’s just how I’m wired. I just kind of gutted out a gritty victory there and I made a promise to myself getting ready for Cartersville that I was going to get back to it.”
Wise combined with fellow Kentucky players Buddy Bryant and Scott Ray to make up a strong three-man team and, led by Wise’s deep scoring, they tied a team from North Georgia at 3 under for 54 holes.
The team title was decided in a tiebreaker by comparing the scores from each team’s third player. The team from Georgia ultimately won. That squad featured Chad Branton, a member at Cartersville who is on the International Senior Invitational committee, playing with well-known Peach State players Billy Mitchell and Bob Royak, winner of the 2019 U.S. Senior Amateur.
With Hurricane Isaias bearing down, the final two rounds of the tournament were combined into one 36-hole day on Oct. 9. Despite that marathon, Branton posted the low round of the tournament over the final 18 holes: a 6-under 66 that included seven birdies.
“I think what helped me the most was we were playing well – when you’re playing well the adrenaline just keeps you going all day,” Branton, 57, said of the way the team competition helped him individually.
It’s always a good feeling to play your home course, Branton added – especially when you feel as much pride as Branton does at the turnout and hospitality that Cartersville has become known for with this event.
Four years have passed since Branton posted a personal-best round of 63 at Cartersville. The 36-hole finish to the International Senior necessitated a shotgun start, and starting on No. 9 made it hard for Branton to spend too much time comparing his round to previous ones as the day unfolded.
“The way Cartersville played this week, I was definitely very accurate off the tee,” he said. “But to make birdies and shoot scores like that you have to make putts. I putted really well, made all my short putts to save par to keep the round going so I would say those two things were the main part.”
Branton, who still works in real estate, has climbed to No. 6 in the Golfweek Senior National Amateur Rankings with a consistent year in which he has repeatedly finished in the top 5.
“I got hurt out in Palm Springs with a back and I had a lot of back issues but now that I’ve gotten healthy, I can see that my game is getting better,” said Branton, who was runner-up at the Golden Isles Senior Invitational before entering his home tournament. “I’m starting to contend and be up at the top more. You want to win, that’s why we play.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Tony Wise extends strong summer with International Senior Invitational victory
