"Let's Play 9!"

For June, 2023 we are featuring the OG of Siouxland Player of the Year - Todd Sapp.

It's our pleasure to introduce you all to Todd Sapp, one of the Siouxland area's premier golfers for over 4 decades.  A graduate of Sioux City North High School in 1979 where he participated in golf, swimming and even sophomore basketball, Sapp went on to the University of Nebraska and joined their golf team from 1980-82. As a Husker linkster he only played in one tournament in Albuquerque as a frosh. As Todd put it, "I was more excited about putting into the same practice cup as Bobby Clampett versus getting ready to represent my university like my four other teammates were doing.  They decided in year two that new recruits like Mike Schuchart and Steve Gotsche were probably a better golfer than me...duh!"

Sapp started the Player of the Year competition after a lengthy discussion with friends over who in the area was the better golfer and at the time he was playing several Iowa Golf Assn. tournaments where a point system was in play and his thought was that if we put a point system like that in the Siouxland area then there'd be an answer to who was the best golfer.  After mentioning the idea to Barry Poe of the Sioux City Journal, it became clear that it was also another way to promote the game of golf and help the participation in the tournaments in the Siouxland area.

At last count, Sapp has many local "major" titles - Three Rivercade, three City, two Interstate, two Tri-State Masters and two Sioux Valley Amateur for a total of 12.  Sapp won his first title in 1980, capturing the Rivercade Tournament at Green Valley.  All in all, with club championships and other tourneys, it's safe to say that Sapp is somewhere over 50 for overall victories.

When asked about the creation of Whispering Creek Golf Course, Sapp said "Looking back roughly 25 years ago, I'm proud of the creation of Whispering Creek Golf Course and now the area all around it.  (It) began with an idea between Larry Franzen and myself, that has evolved to be many others that have played a major role in the entire Whispering Creek entity."

Sapp has played in tournaments the better part of the 80s and still continues to this day and has played with and against many of the heralded golfers our city has produced.  "I vividly remember being just a young kid, probably in the mid to late 1970's and playing in the last group of the City or Rivercade with Gene Hagen, Dale Irwin, Mike Jividen and many of the other accomplished golfers from that era...I'm glad to have had those golf memories from the 70's and now all the other memories compiled over the last five or six decades up until today."

For 13 years, Sapp was the golf coach at Morningside College and now University.  As he put it "I really enjoyed my coaching years at Morningside...the relationships I had with every Mustang golfer and with all my coworkers at the college were definitely some of the best years of my life!"

Now-a-days Sapp, the father of two sons Robert and Michael, is retired, or as one of his friends would say - Just feeding the pigeons from park benches.  He took a few years away from golf during the college coaching time but is starting to play a little more these days.

Now, let's see how Todd performs on the back 9...