More than 35 years after setting a scoring record in running away with Iowa Conference medalist honors for Central College, Joe Jaspers is still winning men’s golf titles.

Jaspers, a 1988 Central grad, blew away the field with a stunning eight-stroke victory in the National Senior Hall of Fame tournament at the par-72 High Point (N.C.) Country Club’s Willow Creek Golf Course last weekend. He fired a 7-under-par 71-70-68—209 in a field that included some of the nation’s top senior golfers. 

Inducted into Central’s Athletics Hall of Honor in 2006, Jaspers earned eight varsity letters competing in golf and men’s basketball for the Dutch. In golf, he was a four-time NCAA Division III Championship participant and two-time all-American honoree, finishing seventh in the 1987 national tournament when the Dutch placed sixth in the team standings. He was also a four-time all-conference honoree, finishing second twice before winning in 1988, shattering the league scoring record set the previous year by his former Central and Waverly-Shell Rock High School teammate, Bill Spurbeck ’87. Jaspers was a three-year starter for the men’s basketball squad, receiving the team’s Mentink Award for leadership and inspiration three times.

A Waverly, Iowa native, Jaspers lives in Huntersville, North Carolina, competing regularly in tournaments throughout North and South Carolina and occasionally in USGA events elsewhere. He reached the round of 16 at the 2021 U.S. Senior Amateur and won the 2015 North Carolina Mid-Am. His closest brush with an even brighter spotlight came in 2010 when he missed qualifying for the U.S. Open by a shot and was an alternate. One of golf’s four majors, the tourney was played at the famed Pebble Beach Golf Course that year.

Many of the players Jaspers competes with log more time on the course as they are either retired or run their own business. A certified financial planner, Jaspers serves as vice president for wealth management with Carolinas Telco Capital Advisors.