Alvamar Private head pro Randy Towner reacts after missing a putt on the 16th green in this 2009 file photo. On Thursday, Towner informed Alvamar president Dick Stuntz that he is leaving and has accepted the position of head pro/general manager of the Firekeeper Golf Course at the Prairie Band Casino.

In the end, the lone golfer who was not defeated by the golf course was the man who earned the one and only U.S. Senior Open spot at stake Wednesday in the Kansas City qualifier played at Alvamar Country Club.

Bryan Norton, 50, of Mission Hills came in under par. The other 36 golfers came in over par. Norton advanced to the Senior Open to be played July 30-Aug. 2 at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind. For the others, it’s wait ’til next year.

Norton, who spent five years on the European Tour and one on the PGA Tour (1991), plays as an amateur now, but he doesn’t play like one. He shot a 1-under 71, and his score never climbed over par.

Alvamar private head pro Randy Towner, 55, blazed to a 2-under-par 34 on the front side, but carded a 42 on the back, finishing at 4 over par, good for a tie for seventh place. Former Alvamar and Eagle Bend pro Jim Kane, now living in Edmond, Okla., finished in a three-way tie for second with a 73. Milburn Country Club pro Randy Hunt, formerly of Alvamar and Prairie Dunes, fired a 74, which earned him fifth place.

Towner was trying to make his second trip to the U.S. Senior Open, having qualified two years ago. (Kane earned last year’s spot by firing 65 at Leawood South CC). By the time Norton, who played in the last group, finished, Towner was back behind the counter in the pro shop, doing what he does every day.

“It was better than I expected on the front nine and worse than I expected on the back nine,” Towner said.

All his excellent work on the front — his well-placed drives, crisp iron shots and terrific putts — was swallowed up by the damage done on the first two holes of the back side. His second shot on No. 10 landed in the green side bunker, and he couldn’t save par. On the par-3 No. 11, he pulled his tee shot way left into a dead-pan lie from which he wasn’t able to get on in two. Double-bogey 5.

“I just hit an awful shot,” Towner said. “I would have been better off to have whiffed.”

Over the next four holes, he settled for par, just missing a few birdie putts. Towner carded a bogey on each of the final three holes, avoiding a far worse fate on No. 18 by executing an improbable shot out of the woods, his ball pressed against a rock and a tree, into the middle of the fairway.

“I had it going for a while, then I had it going again for a while, then five putts in a row either lipped out or stopped right at the edge,” Towner said.

Many golfers echoed those laments. Alvamar private is packed with doglegs, drastic and subtle, and greens loaded with breaking putts, drastic and subtle. It requires golfers to hit tee shots to precise spots. Or else.

Asked if the high scores surprised him, Hunt said, “No, it’s Alvamar. It’s always been Alvamar. You can have a wreck on any hole. It doesn’t surprise me at all. The course was marvelous. It’s in great shape. We drew perfect weather. The greens were great.”

Indoors, in the cool air of the club’s new bar and grill, ball-striker par excellence Gary McClure, such a talented golfer he earned second-alternate status at last year’s qualifier, fixated on what he called a career first. He four-putted from 6 feet on No. 15. McClure shot an 80, as did slightly more than half the field. Matt Seitz of Hutchinson, who played in the Senior Open a year ago, carded a 77.

And then there was Norton, rising up above it all by having the discipline to avoid greedy shots. He didn’t seek short cuts, didn’t cave to temptation, didn’t do anything to raise the ire of the course that plays harder than it looks. He sought pars, and he found 15 of them to go with one bogey and two birdies.

Norton showed why in so many ways 50 is the perfect age for a golfer. He’s been around long enough to see it all, and he still has enough strength to crush the ball, the wisdom to choose to finesse it at times.

Norton lives in Mission Hills and works in Kansas City for Lockton, the world’s largest privately owned independent insurance company.

After graduating from Salina Central High in 1977, Norton went on to golf for Oral Roberts, where he teamed with Kane. He four times competed in the U.S. Open and once finished 29th in a British Open played at St. Andrews, otherwise known as the home of golf.

Norton remained ever respectful of Alvamar’s punitive nature and focused on keeping his ball on the lush fairways. He decided the road to Crooked Stick meant staying away from the big stick. He took a wood out of his bag just once, when he used his driver on the par-5 17th hole.

“It was about the only hole where I thought even if I don’t hit it straight, I can find it,” Norton said. “On the other holes, it’s either you hit it where you’re supposed to or you’re re-teeing it.”

Even then, he played it safe on the next shot.

“I had 250 (yards) in, and it gets kind of skinny up there, so I hit a 7-iron with my second shot just to lay it back and keep the trouble away,” Norton said. “Then I just had 100 yards in.”

On in regulation. Two putts. Par. Over and over, that’s how Norton won by not losing.

“The greens were great,” he said. “Thank goodness, too, because I didn’t have many make-able birdie putts. It seemed like I was 30 feet all day. I was just kind of lagging around all day long. And that’s going to happen when you hit it off the tee with an iron because you have a lot more club into the greens. I just played conservative all day.”

On in regulation. Two putts. Par. No frills, just a precious spot in the U.S. Senior Open.