Category: PGA Tour Champions

Padraig Harrington survives two final-round double bogeys to win Hoag Classic Newport Beach

Harrington is now 3-for-3 in closing out 36-hole leads on the Champions tour.

Padraig Harrington was looking to go 3-for-3 in closing out 36-hole leads on the PGA Tour Champions on Sunday at the Hoag Classic Newport Beach.

He started the final round at 12 under, a shot ahead of Thongchai Jaidee, who shot a 62 on Friday. Harrington ran into a big trouble twice but rebounded both times.

Harrington’s first trip-up was a double-bogey on the par-3 fourth hole which was playing 140 yards Sunday. He had a second double bogey on the par-4 16th hole, and that one proved more costly as it dropped him to 12 under and out of the lead a shot back of Jaidee and Miguel Angel Jimenez.

On the 191-yard, par-3 17th, however, Harrington hit his ball pin high and then drained the putt for a bounce-back birdie to tie for the lead once again. On 18, Harrington curled one around seemlingly all sides of the cup before it dropped for a closing birdie, setting off an extended fist pump from the Irishman.

Harrington closed with a 2-under 69 to win for the seventh time in 37 starts on the senior circuit. Jaidee was solo second a shot back. Jimenez was solo third, two shots back. Stephen Ames was solo fourth at 10 under.

Defending tournament champion Ernie Els was tied for 33rd. Jim Furyk made his 2024 season debut after recovering from a back injury and also tied for 33rd. Fred Couples withdrew after nine holes during the second round.

The tour stays in southern California for the Galleri Classic at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

Watch: John Daly tops opening tee shot at PGA Tour Champions event

We’ve long become accustomed to JD hitting tape-measure drives, which is what made this swing so startling.

Nerves on the first tee – we’ve all had them. Even two-time major winners such as John Daly.

We’ve long become accustomed to JD hitting tape-measure drives, which is what made the following swing so startling. On Friday, the 57-year-old got off to an inauspicious start, topping his opening tee shot during the first round of the 2024 Hoag Classic, a PGA Tour Champions event held at Newport Beach Country Club in Newport Beach, California.

We’ve pretty much seen it all from The Wild Thing during his rollercoaster career but topping his opening tee shot may have been a first. Daly looked anxious to hit and nearly did so before the first-tee announcer had a chance to call his name. Daly backed off the tee shot when his name was announced and re-started his routine. Daly made “Grip it and Rip it,” a household catchphrase among golfers and led the PGA Tour in driving distance 11 times, but Long John was short of the forward tees with his dribbler off the tee, at least on this occasion.

Daly, who has been struggling with injuries all season, shot 74-75 and was in last place out of the field of 77 heading into Sunday’s final round. Earlier this season, Daly needed an injection in his left hand after his osteoarthritis flared up, and he shot 87 at an event in Morocco. But no matter what, Daly always entertains. The video below shows his one-of-a-kind pre-round warm-up routine. Unfortunately, it turns out he wasn’t ready to roll this week, unless they were referring to his opening topped shot, which is destined for a long future in golf bloopers. Here’s hoping better days are ahead for Big John.

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Until there’s a PGA Tour-LIV Golf resolution, Padraig Harrington suggests player transfers, outside teams in LIV events

“It doesn’t look like there will be any sort of golfing marriage in the near future,” said Harrington.

TUCSON, Ariz. — There appears to be no end in sight to the PGA Tour-LIV Golf rift and this past weekend was just another example of the prolonged standoff.

It was one of the four weekends in 2024 where a LIV event overlapped a signature event. There are 12 times in all this year where the two leagues will intersect.

Scottie Scheffler won the Arnold Palmer Invitational – a PGA Tour signature event that took some criticism for only having 69 players – and banked $4 million.

Meanwhile, Abraham Ancer hoisted a trophy after winning the LIV Golf Hong Kong event and pocketed $4 million.

“It doesn’t look like there will be any sort of golfing marriage in the near future,” said Padraig Harrington ahead of the 2024 Cologuard Classic on the PGA Tour Champions, who had some general thoughts about what can be done in the meantime.

“Why not have it a little bit like the old European Tour-PGA Tour, where there’s a little bit of competition. Certainly it’s good for the fans when there’s rivalries.”

Harrington played both tours for several years. Nowadays he plays mostly on the Champions tour but does dabble in some PGA Tour events. He’s already played twice on the “regular” tour in 2024 and so he sees firsthand the fallout.

“I go back to the PGA Tour and I’m right in amongst it,” he said. “A lot of my friends went to LIV, so I also have a good few guys out there who I would be friendly with.

“So I can see both sides of it. You know, in the end of the day, I played the majority of my career when there was two strong tours and there was a bit of rivalry and a bit of competition, so I’m not, I wouldn’t be averse to that being in the future where there’s two tours and who doesn’t love a little bit of competition?”

It could be argued that it’s not really a competition. The PGA Tour is a league that had to make its own money to pay its bills, whereas LIV Golf has a seemingly endless cash stream from the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund.

“I think the biggest thing going forward for the PGA Tour, there has to be some way of capping, you know, can’t just steal all our players,” he said. “Players will always make a choice individually what’s right for them, but I think the Tour has to, there’s very few businesses in this world where there isn’t some sort of a noncompete sort of clause.

But until things are sorted out, Harrington pondered, why not have some kind of system of player movement.

“I’m not against, you know, some sort of a transfer back and forth,” he said. “I’m not against having a small amount of invites, and that cuts both ways. … maybe an outside team playing every week in LIV, why not. But again, not too sure how they’re going to come together as one tour, so why not have an agreeable two tours where there’s a bit of rivalry.”

Photos: 2024 Cologuard Classic by Exact Sciences on PGA Tour Champions

La Paloma has three courses and parts of all three were combined to make a composite layout.

TUCSON, Ariz. — The PGA Tour Champions returned to Southern Arizona for the Cologuard Classic but at a new venue.

La Paloma Country Club, a Jack Nicklaus design that opened in 1984, hosted the senior circuit for the first time in 2024 after nine years at Tucson National. Cologuard came on as title sponsor in 2018.

La Paloma has three 9-hole golf courses and parts of all three were combined to make a composite layout for the tournament, which played at 6,856 yards and had a par of 71.

It’s the first year of a three-year deal for the venue, which is also famous for being used for some of the scenes in the hit golf movie Tin Cup.

The total purse is $2,200,000 with the winner earning $330,000.

Steve Stricker says some LIV golfers want to come back to PGA Tour; are player transfers an option?

The golf conversation continues to be dominated by the PGA Tour-LIV Golf rift.

TUCSON, Ariz. — While player movement at the top level of men’s professional golf usually involves LIV recruiting yet another PGA Tour player, Steve Stricker said he knows that some LIV golfers want to return to the PGA Tour.

“I know that for a fact,” he said Thursday after his pro-am round ahead of the 2024 Cologuard Classic at La Paloma Country Club. “And so it’s kind of a wait and see game.”

With much of the golf conversation dominated by the rift, there doesn’t see to be much oxygen left to talk about the other tours but players on the PGA Tour Champions are paying attention to the goings-on in the world of professional golf.

“Of course I’m very interested in what happens,” said Stewart Cink, who turned 50 last year but still plays on both PGA Tour circuits. “I hope that we can get back together as like one sport in golf, but it’s a complex situation.”

With the PGA Tour holding a big-money signature event at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and LIV Golf playing for a fourth time in 2024 in Hong Kong, the Champions circuit is about to stage the first of three straight West Coast events.

“Ultimately, I hope someday we all can play nice together again and have the best players in the world playing and competing against one another,” said Stricker. “I think that day will come and I think there will be some circumstances, you know, where those guys that left are going to have to do something, I don’t know, a penalty of some sort, I don’t know what that means. I hope some day it all comes back together and the guys are playing all together again.”

Whether the rival tours coexist, merge or simply allow some crossover, many feel that there should be no easy path back to the PGA Tour for those who left.

“I wouldn’t let the LIV guys come right back, I don’t think. I think there needs to be some way of, you know, just another way to say thanks for the guys that didn’t leave and just kind of abandon our standards and rules,” Cink said. “I think there needs to be some form of like delayed, I don’t know if it’s delaying some of their performance bonuses or if it’s some kind of a suspension that maintains itself, I don’t know exactly, but something.”

Big names on the PGA Tour leaving for LIV Golf is having a ripple effect on the Champions tour.

“It’s unfortunate, because when [Phil] Mickelson came out, it was a jolt for our tour and it was great,” David Toms, the defending champion of the Cologuard Classic, said during a media day Monday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, for the upcoming Galleri Classic.

Mickelson won his first two – and four of his first six – starts on the PGA Tour Champions in 2021 but seven months after rolling in a birdie putt on the 18th hole at Phoenix Country Club to end that season, he was off to London for the first-ever LIV Golf event.

“And so then all of the sudden he’s not a part of us anymore. So that’s unfortunate,” Toms said.

The drain of veteran golfers with name recognition means the Champions circuit also lost out on Lee Westwood, who turned 50 in April of 2023 and it won’t be able to welcome Ian Poulter, who turned 48 in January 2024, nor Henrik Stenson, who turns 48 this April, in the coming years. The PGA Tour losing a bit of name recognition eventually means a weakened Champions tour.

As long as the PGA Tour and LIV exist, perhaps there’s some middle ground that can be found.

“I’m not against, you know, some sort of a transfer back and forth. I played (Mexico Open) there on the PGA Tour a couple weeks ago, and I’m sure they would have loved to have Abraham Ancer play. So I’m not against having a small amount of invites, and that cuts both ways,” said Padraig Harrington, who compared the situation to the rivalry the PGA Tour used to have with the European Tour. “When the European Tour is in Spain this year, we would love to have Jon Rahm play the Spanish Open. I’m not against a small amount of transfer of players playing events and maybe a couple of invites going each direction. Maybe an outside team playing every week in LIV, why not.

“But again, not too sure how they’re going to come together as one tour, so why not have an agreeable two tours where there’s a bit of rivalry.”

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Padraig Harrington insists his instructional videos can get ‘every golfer in the whole wide world to a single figure handicap’

“It’s hard to be a scratch golfer, but to get to 9, it’s not that hard.”

TUCSON, Ariz. — For golf nerds, Padraig Harrington is a must follow on social media.

If you watch his instructional videos enough, you might even get really good at the game.

“I should be able to get every golfer in the whole wide world to a single figure handicap. I think that’s a very reasonable goal,” Harrington said after his pro-am round at La Paloma Country Club, host venue for this week’s Cologuard Classic on the PGA Tour Champions.

“I’ve always liked coaching,” he said, his words coming from a place of truly trying to help the “weekend warriors” get better as this difficult game. Harrington started making videos during the COVID shutdown. He was actually kept from traveling home to Ireland for several months during 2020, so he just kept playing golf but he also started pointing the cellphone camera towards himself to create content that just might help someone out there learn the game.

Cologuard: Steve Stricker says ‘it’s fun thinking about’ pairing up with Tiger Woods for team event in New Orleans

“I tried to post a video every day, then obviously we expanded to now doing it on YouTube on Paddy’s Golf Tips. It’s enjoyable. It’s a great way to get access to the public directly.”

Chris DiMarco, a five-year veteran of the Champions circuit, says it’s “fun watching them and it’s not just something he’s doing to be funny.”

But is it realistic to turn Joe Sixpack, who goes through two sleeves of balls each round, into a single-digit handicapper?

“I think that’s a very reasonable goal,” he insists. “It’s hard to be a scratch golfer, but to get to 9, it’s not that hard.

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“When I say it’s not that hard, there’s some simple things you can do to get there and that’s what my videos are mainly focused on. I’m really just trying to help the weekend warrior get to a level where if you’re a single figure golfer, you can walk into any clubhouse with your chest expanded. It’s a level of achievement.”

Shedding bad habits is one thing. So is ignoring the so-called tips that everyone has heard.

“When it comes to golf, people who come to golf, especially athletes who come to golf, they seem to have some crazy ideas about keeping your head still or keeping your head down or swinging slowly. God, they’re like 100 percent, I think, it won’t be 100 percent, but 99 percent of golfers would be better off doing the exact opposite of what they think would be better. Just swing away, that’s probably the best advice you could give. You’ll just get used to it and time it after that rather than to try and get good too quick, too early.

“We could talk about this all day,” he said.

His playing competitors sometimes notice, too. Harrington says he was stopped by a Champions tour colleague Thursday morning about a recent video.

“I was literally walking out the door, the pro said it was really helping him,” he said before continuing his thoughts in instructor mode. “I just did a recent one with stepping in your swing, try and get the proper sequence in at the movements. Remember, I said movements. You don’t stay still when you’re swinging a golf club, you’ve got to move.

“I’m not trying to make these lessons for my fellow pros,” he added. “I’m trying to make them, as I said, for beginners and people who are kind of stuck in the game, who aren’t improving and trying to get them across that threshold of, you know, being able to break 80, be a single-figure golfer.”

Steve Stricker says ‘it’s fun thinking about’ pairing up with Tiger Woods for team event in New Orleans

So, what if Stricker formally asked Tiger, might he accept?

TUCSON, Ariz. — Tiger Woods has already made it known he’s facing a future of playing a limited schedule of the majors, the Genesis and probably the signature events when he can.

But what about the lone team event on the PGA Tour, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, alongside good buddy Steve Stricker?

Stricker floated the idea on a recent Golf Digest podcast, saying he’s a “huge Tiger fan, and I want to see him playing as much as he can.”

He then floated out an amazing prospect.

“I thought about asking him to see if he wanted to play in New Orleans at the team event,” Stricker said.

Since then, a few days have passed for Stricker to marinate on the idea. In Tucson this week for the PGA Tour Champions Cologuard Classic, he was asked to confirm whether he in fact did ask Tiger to play.

“I haven’t, no,” he said after his pro-am round at La Paloma Country Club.

Was the idea of it just something he’d thought about, not actually considered?

“We had some great times being teammates on some of those [Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup] teams over the years. I guess I blurted it out loud when I was on a podcast with somebody, I said wouldn’t it be cool to get the band together one more time, for him and I to play again,” he said, adding “I don’t think that will happen, he’s got other issues than playing with me, but it would be fun, and it’s fun thinking about it.”

Stricker is coming off a PGA Tour Champions season in which he won six times, including three majors. One of those, the Kaulig Companies Championship (formally the Senior Players), guaranteed him a spot in next week’s Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

So, what if Stricker formally asked Tiger, might he accept?

“You know, I’ll see him next week at the Players, hopefully he’ll be there and I’ll be there, hopefully play a practice round with him. Yeah, I’ll ask him,” he said.

Ricardo Gonzalez wins Trophy Hassan II in Morocco, Angel Cabrera T-27 in PGA Tour Champions return

He’s the fourth player from Argentina to win on the PGA Tour Champions. 

Across four PGA Tour-sanctioned tours, Ricardo Gonzalez had made 38 starts during his career, surviving the cut 28 times. He had recorded six top-10 finishes and made nearly $350,000.

On Saturday, he finally broke through.

The 54-year-old Argentinian shot 3-under 70 at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in Morocco to win Trophy Hassan II on the PGA Tour Champions, his 13th start on the circuit. He did so with his son on the bag.

Gonzalez finished at 10 under, one stroke in front of Thomas Bjorn, who carded a 4-under 69 on Saturday. Y.E. Yang, a co-leader heading into the final round, finished T-3 at 7 under along with Mark Hensby.

Gonzalez is the fourth player from Argentina to win on the PGA Tour Champions.

“Very happy and very emotional,” Gonzalez said. “I worked so much to be here, and this is my trophy. I like that.”

After a bogey on the par-5 12th, Gonzalez had four straight birdies on Nos. 13-16 to take the lead and secure the victory. He earned $320,000 for his victory and moves to No. 3 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

Stephen Ames, the event’s defending champion and last week’s winner at the Chubb Classic, finished T-16.

In his return to the PGA Tour Champions, fellow Argentinian Angel Cabrera finished T-27, with his best round of the week coming Saturday with a 3-under 70.

Angel Cabrera of Argentina in action during the final round of the Trophy Hassan II at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam on February 24, 2024 in Rabat. (Photo by Phil Inglis/Getty Images)

Cabrera, the 2009 Masters champion, has been working on obtaining a visa to return to the United States and continue playing golf. He did not need a visa to travel from Argentina to Morocco for this week’s event.

“While competing in the Masters again is a dream, securing a visa is Angel’s priority at the moment so he can resume his professional career,” Cabrera’s manager Manuel Tagle wrote in an email to Golfweek last month. “We are working on getting an appointment with the U.S. Embassy in Argentina. Probably early March as his visa has expired January 2024.”

John Daly shoots 87, Angel Cabrera T-39 after two rounds in Morocco on PGA Tour Champions

Good scores have been hard to come by this week.

John Daly had to withdraw last week after injuring his left hand, but he’s back in action this week on the PGA Tour Champions, which is in Morocco for the Trophy Hassan II.

Perhaps the hand is still a bit tender, as Daly slogged his way around Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in Rabat, Morocco, to the tune of a 14-over 87. His scorecard showed seven bogeys, two doubles and a quad. He did close with a birdie but is last in the 66-man field at 17 over.

Angel Cabrera is tied for 39th after two rounds. Playing in his first event on the Champions tour since getting out of prison, Cabrera shot 79-72 and is beating 21 others after Friday’s second round.

Good scores have been hard to come by this week. With 132 rounds played so far, there have been only eight rounds in the 60s. Meanwhile, there have been four scores in the 80s.

There’s a tie at the top of the leaderboard between Y.E. Yang and Ricardo Gonzalez, both at 7 under. Thomas Bjorn, Steve Pate and Mark Hensby are tied for third at 5 under. The final round is Saturday.

The PGA Tour Champions returns stateside in two weeks for the Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Arizona.

PGA Tour Champions event sees final round canceled because of rain; Stephen Ames declared winner

This is just the second time in the tournament’s 37-year history that the champion was decided in fewer than 54 holes.

Sunday’s final round of the Chubb Classic on the PGA Tour Champions has been canceled due to inclement weather.

Stephen Ames, who held a three-shot lead over former Naples resident Rocco Mediate following Saturday’s round, has been declared the 2024 Chubb Classic champion.

This is just the second time in the tournament’s 37-year history that the champion was decided in fewer than 54 holes. In 1995, Bob Murphy won the Chubb Classic at Vineyards Country Club in Naples after 36 holes when rain forced the cancellation of the final round.

The Chubb Classic tournament staff will be in touch with ticket holders who purchased tickets to today’s final round of play.