The Champions Tour is idle until the first major of the season, the Senior PGA Championship at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, MI, May 21-27. The purse is $2,000,000 with the winner receiving double Charles Schwab Cup points. Last year, Tom Watson defeated David Eger at the first extra hole of a sudden-death playoff to claim the title and become the oldest winner of a major championship since the Champions Tour began in 1980.
RECENTLY
Sandy Lyle was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame last week. As a Hall of Fame member, Lyle, who had limited status, can now commit to open, full field tournaments and will be included in the starting field of each co-sponsored tournament.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Gary Player, the 10th recipient of the PGA TOUR’s Lifetime Achievement Award, was honored at a reception during last week’s THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Player joins Gene Sarazen; Byron Nelson; Arnold Palmer; Sam Snead; Jack Burke Jr.; Pete Dye; Deane Beman; Jack Nicklaus; and President George H.W. Bush in receiving the award, which was announced in March.
Mark O’Meara received the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund award for his lifelong contributions to the game in Boston. The Ouimet Fund will provide $5 million in scholarships to more than 300 young women and men in the 2012-2013 season. Also, former Ouimet honoree Arnold Palmer has agreed to serve as honorary chair of the organization’s centennial celebration of Francis Ouimet’s historic 1913 U.S. Open victory. The Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund has awarded $25 million in scholarships to 5,000 students since its founding in 1949.
Hale Irwin is the recipient of the Denver-based Will F. Nicholson Jr. Award for lifetime contributions to the game of golf. After moving to Colorado as a teenager, his career in athletics began as a multi-sport standout at Boulder High School and then at the University of Colorado, where he became an all-conference defensive back and an All-America golfer. Irwin, a three-time U.S. Open champion, the Champions Tour’s all-time victories leader (45) and a 1992 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, received the award last week.
Gary Wolstenholme won the season-opening Mallorca Open Senior on the European Senior Tour. Dick Mast and Tim Thelen finished as the top American’s, tied for eighth.
Damon Green, who caddies for Zach Johnson and finished T13 at last year’s U.S. Senior Open, earned third-place at the annual “Caddie’s Contest” at last week’s PLAYERS Championship. The caddies have a nearest-the-pin contest on Wednesday of tournament week at No. 17. Green’s shot finished 5 feet, 10 inches from the flagstick. The winner was Brent Henley (Robert Garrigus) at 3 feet, 7 inches from the hole.
COMING UP
The Senior PGA Championship (May 21-27) will be played at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores, designed by Jack Nicklaus in a beach and golf community on Lake Michigan about 100 miles east of Chicago.
The Principal Charity Classic presented by Wells Fargo (May 28-June 3) will feature “The Bachelor” host Chris Harrison, along with actor Steven Weber in the UnitedHealthcare Pro-Am on Wednesday of tournament week at Glen Oaks Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa. Harrison is making his first visit to The Principal Charity Classic this year. Weber is a returning guest after playing in the Pro-Am the last several years. Weber starred in several popular television series, including “Wings,” and has a direct tie to The Principal. He has been the voice of the company’s television commercials for the last seven years.
CHARLES SCHWAB CUP
Even though Michael Allen has a 350 point lead over Bernhard Langer in the Charles Schwab Cup race, Langer might be the favorite to win the Charles Schwab Cup this year if you enjoy symmetry. If Langer wins the Cup this year it will follow his first win in 2010. All other multiple winners of the Charles Schwab Cup won their second Cup two years after their first – Hale Irwin (2002, 2004), Tom Watson (2003, 2005), Jay Haas (2006, 2008) and Loren Roberts (2007, 2009).
Michael Allen’s highest finish in the Charles Schwab Cup was 4th in 2010, 1,751 points behind the winner Bernhard Langer.
NUMBERS
18 – The number of consecutive winners who have now come from the final group. Jeff Sluman (2011 Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach) was the last player to win from outside the final group (3rd-to-last group).
DID YOU KNOW?
Fred Couples and Michael Allen share the No. 1 position for scoring average this season with a 68.67 scoring average.
ON THIS DATE
5/19/00 – Jim Colbert ties a Champions Tour record (set by Chi Chi Rodriguez in 1987) with eight straight birdies in the opening round of the TD Waterhouse Championship on his way to a 61. Note: Dana Quigley (2005), and Joe Ozaki (2006), have since matched the record.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“I would love to win a TOUR event more than anything.” – Michael Allen expresses his desire to win on TOUR and be known as the only player in history to win his first PGA TOUR event after having won a Champions Tour event.
“I’m not going to say everything is perfect if it’s not because that’s not going to help him.” – Champions Tour professional Mark Brooks shares his strategy while caddying for J.J. Henry at THE PLAYERS Championship last week. Henry finished T40 after making the 36-hole cut on the number.
“I asked Jose Maria Olazabal a question (about his health) once. Jose said, ‘We have a saying in Spain: If you wake up and nothing hurts, you’re probably not alive.’” – Kirk Triplett comments on advice he once got from this year’s Ryder Cup European team captain.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Gary Player @garyplayer I am thankful to be alive, to be fit & healthy, to have a wonderful family and caring friends. How lucky can one be?
