Casey Courneen has been around long enough to know how to compete effectively.

That's one of the reasons he was able to shoot a 73 to tie for second place at Connoquennesing Country Club in a June 20 qualifier for the West Penn Amateur golf championship.

Courneen also has been around long enough to know that he can't control the weather. At 56, this Sewickley resident figures the heat helped beat him almost as much as the competition did at the West Penn Amateur, which took place June 24-25 at Sunnehanna Country Club near Johnstown.

"Hey, I'm 56," Courneen said with a laugh. "I'm not as young as some of those other guys. That first day [of the West Penn Amateur] is 36 holes, and that's not my strength any more.

"I played OK in the first round, but the heat really got to me in the second round."

The 90-plus degree temperature that day helped sap Courneen of his strength, but not his enthusiasm for competition. He failed to make the cut for the three-round West Penn Amateur, but believes there are better days ahead for the rest of the summer.

"Typically with my handicap, I expect to shoot around par," Courneen said. "I think that's close to where I should be. But it wasn't there for me at Sunnehanna that day. I didn't play great, but I didn't play terrible. I really didn't play very well after I got tired."

Competition is what drives Courneen, both in his employment career and athletically. The same can be said of the rest of his family.

Courneen works as a manufacturer's rep in the restaurant supply business. His oldest son, Ryan, is a former standout basketball player at Quaker Valley who now plays at Waynesburg College.

Younger son, Casey, will be a sophomore with the Quaker Valley basketball team next season and also is developing into a standout golfer.

The younger Courneen, 15, recently played in a WPGA junior tournament in New Castle and finished in the top half of the field.

After that, he played in the West Penn boys' championship tournament at Rolling Hills where he finished in fourth place with a 77, one shot behind the three players who tied for first and ended up deciding the event in a playoff. The event marked the first time the younger Courneen broke 80 in an 18-hole event.

"That was a good experience for him," Courneen said. "He was excited to play that well and I'm glad for him to be able to do that against that kind of competition. It was a real plus for him and for the progress he's making to go to an event like that and play as well as he did."

Courneen has his own plans to continue playing this summer. Although events such as the West Penn Amateur pit him against some younger competition, at 56 he now is afforded senior playing status by the USGA.

"So I'll be able to play in the U.S. Senior Amateur qualifiers and the West Penn Senior amateur and events like that," Courneen said. "I try to keep my hand in it as much as I can.

"If I'm playing well in some of the U.S. senior qualifiers, I'll get to move on and play some of the better courses against some of the top competition in the country. I think that's what it's all about."

Courneen calls himself "a goal-oriented guy" and tries to conduct his life in a manner where he is setting goals and trying to reach them.

"Hey, sometimes you get them and it feels good," he said. "Sometimes you don't, so you have to work harder to get there. "You can always set goals that are there to try to help you improve yourself, to try to make yourself better."

Courneen will be trying to do that with golf tournaments the rest of the summer.

He said like most players, he can improve all aspects of his game from driving the ball off the tee to his short game to his touch on the greens.

But the idea behind trying to improve is simple, according to Courneen. Improving his game will help him compete better against other players.

"To me, competition is what it's all about," he said. "Reporters are competing to get stories. I'm out there competing to make a sale every day in the restaurant business and I like to compete in golf.

"We're all out there competing every day. I think that's healthy for life."