Alex Cejka is making the most of his time as the golf world awaits the return of top-level tournament action. Mini-tours are still holding competitions in some spots around the country and Cejka has been keeping his game sharp.
He won 12 days ago on the Outlaw Tour in the Phoenix area and then again at the Parker Open on Sunday, doing so in the most spectacular fashion.
Cejka, 49 and the winner of more than $13.3 million in career earnings, was the most heralded golfer in the field but found himself down six shots with six holes to play at Emerald Canyon Golf Course.
That’s when he kicked things into overdrive:
- Birdie on 13
- Hole-in-one on 14
- Another birdie on 15
- Eagle on 16
- 20-footer for par on 18 to force a playoff
“Awesome tourney, great course and one of my greatest back-nine comebacks to win,” Cejka said in the aftermath of his amazing 11th-hour rally. “The Arizona tournaments have been nice to stay in shape, competitive, and play against young, great and promising players.”
The last time most heard Cejka’s name was after he was disqualified from the 2019 Honda Classic for using “greens-reading materials that did not fit the new scale allowed,” according to a PGA Tour media official.
Cejka’s violation was among the many that occurred in the early part of 2019 as golfers acclimated to a slew of new rules.
Cejka is now about seven months away from eligibility on the PGA Tour Champions.
He turns 50 on Dec. 2 and is doing what he can to stay sharp.
Emerald Canyon a hidden gem
The course has several holes that wind through narrow canyons, the bright green grass of the golf course contrasting sharply with the rocky desert landscape.
The course opened in 1989 with 9 holes. Nine more were built in 1990.
Parker is a town of about 3,000 residents on the Colorado River, the natural border separating Arizona and California. The population swells in during the winter months with part-time residents from Canada, Washington, even quite a few from Minnesota.
On the Arizona side, Emerald Canyon is just down the road from the Roadrunner Floating Dock Bar, with the Sundance RV Resort and Outlaw Saloon just down the way on the California side.
Football legend Gale Sayers has family in the area and has played the course several times.
Calling Parker the middle of nowhere might be slighting the middle of nowhere.
All kidding aside, it’s about a two-and-a-half hour drive southeast to Phoenix, and about a four-hour drive to the west to Los Angeles. If you wanna get to Vegas, head north for about three hours. And if you want to see a slice of U.S. history, drive 23 miles to the south to the town of Poston. World War II historians know Poston because it was home to one of the largest Japanese-American internment camps during World War II.
As one would expect, this desert town gets hot. It’s about this time of year that the temperatures start climbing. It’s already hit 100 degrees there, with 107 in the forecast for Wednesday. That’s generally the cue for winter visitors to head home, but many of them left a several weeks ago. It was mid-March when Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau instructed Canadians to head home because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sharp decline in green fees
Steve Benton, the PGA Professional and Golf Course Director at Emerald Canyon, said revenues dropped $100,000 during an almost four-week stretch in late March/early April because of all those early departures.
But then came the state of California’s decision to shutter its golf courses. And then a different group of golfers came, this time from over the state line. In droves, Benton said.
“People were driving three, four hours to get here to play golf,” Benton said. “Many of them would spend the night and play again the next day.”
He also saw a huge uptick in replay rounds. Once golfers got to Parker, they were going to make the most of their stay.
The tee sheets filled back up. Two Saturdays ago, 271 golfers played the course, way up from the same weekend a year ago.
In fact, holding the three-day Parker Open and its 120-golfer field actually meant fewer golfers on the property during a time when business was booming.
Benton says he did consider calling off the event. That was partially because of virus concerns but also because not enough golfers were signing up. He decided to extend the deadline to enter and then the entries starting coming in. Including one for Cejka.
Local knowledge
Benton has lived in the area for 28 years. Needless to say, he knows a thing or two about Emerald Canyon, calling it a “tricky” layout, especially for someone who’s never seen it before.
Cejka initially submitted his name for the event but it was a couple days before Benton realized it.
“I was like, ‘Wow, is that THE Alex Cejka?’ ” he said. Benton decided to call him up when he noticed Cejka hadn’t signed up for a practice round. Benton arranged to play with him on Wednesday, two days before the 54-hole event started.
“As we were playing, I’d tell him ‘OK, on this shot, hit it over there’ and he’d hit it exactly there every time,” Benton said.
Getting some local knowledge seemed to pay off. The Parker Open gets some good golfers but clearly Cejka’s game was on a different level from most of the pros that come out. He took home the $4,200 first-place check and left with a strong impression of Emerald Canyon:
“You definitely have your own Amen Corner.”