At Wednesday’s practice round for the Kansas Golf Association Senior Amateur Championship at Alvamar Country Club was a foursome most of the field knows pretty well.

The four golfers have won a combined five KGA Senior titles over the last three years, and one of the golfers has been named the KGA Senior Player of the Year the last three years.

“There’s a great field, and the three guys I’m playing with today, I’d pick any one of them to win,” said Kevin Handlan of the group that also consists of Randy Apgar, Don Kuehn and Andy Smith. “There’s just a lot of really good players, and they’re coming from all over the state.”

Handlan, a Leawood native, will attempt to defend his Senior Amateur Championship title when the tournament gets under way today at Alvamar.

Kuehn – part of the first group off the 10th hole – hasn’t won the Senior Amateur since 2001, but he is the three-time defending KGA Senior Player of the Year. He is also the 2004 and 2006 Senior Match Play titlist.

Smith actually prevented Kuehn from winning the Senior Amateur in 2005 at Basehor’s Falcon Lakes Golf Course by claiming the title with a one-shot advantage.

In team tournament play, Kuehn and Apgar paired to win last year’s Senior Four-Ball Championship at Flint Hills National Golf Club in Andover.

Despite all the rain in the area over the last couple of weeks, the golfers said the course is looking perfect for the tournament.

“With the spring we’ve had and all the wet weather, it’s probably in as good of shape as any golf course I’ve seen in Kansas City,” said Smith, who is in the second group off the first tee box. “It’s a perfect golf course for the seniors. It’s perfect length. It has some really good pin placements that could demand some pretty good iron shots.”

However, one thing both Handlan and Smith mentioned was how the greens were playing.

“I think the greens are sneaky-fast,” Smith said. “I think if you’re below the hole and in the grain, they’re not very fast, but I’ve had a couple of downhill putts that were extremely slick. So I think a key element will be to keep the ball in the right place on the greens. I think the guy that hits a lot of greens and doesn’t three-putt will have a chance to win.”

This will be the first time the Senior Amateur Championship will be held at Alvamar Country Club since 1984, and the first time Lawrence will play host to the tournament since the Lawrence Country Club was the site for the 1991 Senior Championship.

“Alvamar is such a great community with the public course up the hill and the private course, it’s a great complex,” said Apgar, who will tee off from the first hole as part of the opening group. “Living in Kansas City makes it a road trip, but you also get to go home and sleep in your own bed. But we’re definitely excited to play it.”

The first groups teeing off on the first and 10th holes are slated to go off at 8:30 a.m., with other groups following in 10-minute increments.