Category: PGA Tour Champions

How Jim Furyk realized the PGA Tour Champions was ‘where I wanted to be’

“It’s not as mentally and physically taxing, yet it’s still extremely competitive.”

RICHMOND, Va. — Last year Jim Furyk was anxious to give the PGA Tour Champions a shot.

He picked his first two starts strategically. First up in August 2020 was the Ally Challenge in Michigan because he loved the golf course, Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club, former host of the PGA Tour’s Buick Open (which Furyk won in 2003). Next up was the Pure Insurance Championship, an easy choice because as he said, “everyone likes going to Pebble Beach.”

Furyk took home the hardware from both events, joining Arnold Palmer and Bruce Fleisher as the only golfers to win their first two starts on the senior circuit. He then finished up his PGA Tour season and decided he wanted to come out and join his fellow 50-plus players on the Champions tour, and he hasn’t looked back since.

“It was just very apparent playing in (Champions tour) events, I enjoyed it. I didn’t have a lot of success here last year. I played solid, I finished 13th, but still really enjoyed the tournament, enjoyed the golf course and kind of had the feeling this was kind of my – where I wanted to be,” said Furyk ahead of this week’s Dominion Energy Charity Classic, the first of three events in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

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“It’s fun. It takes a little bit less out of you,” Furyk continued. “A three-round golf tournament, we’re in carts for the pro-am and for the practice rounds – that’s a great invention, by the way – then I walk during the three days, but instead of walking five or six rounds a week, I’m walking three. It’s not as mentally and physically taxing, yet it’s still extremely competitive.”

Plus he’s gotten the chance to get reacquainted with his 8-iron, 9-iron, and wedges again.

“I missed those guys for about four or five years on the PGA Tour,” joked Furyk.

Earlier this month the 51-year-old hosted the Constellation Furyk and Friends, won by none other than 2021 PGA champion Phil Mickelson, who’s set to defend his 2020 Dominion title this week after a war of words online regarding the USGA and R&A’s new local rule for club length. A week after Furyk and Friends at the SAS Championship, the event’s namesake was without longtime caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan due to an injury. Instead, his son Hunter was on the bag, and the pair finished tied for third.

“Better. I’m actually surprised at how well he’s gotten around this week,” Furyk said of Fluff’s status. “He really was hobbled last week and wasn’t able to bear a lot of weight. He’s still got a little bit of a limp to his gait, but we went on — he was on the cart today for the pro-am and he put the bag on his shoulder a significant amount … He’s limping a little bit right now. I’m sure it’s a little sore. I’m sure he’s hiding it a little bit, too. He seems to be all right, thinks he’s going to be good to go.”

Furyk will need his right-hand man to be on his A-game this week as the pair take on the top-72 players from the season-long Schwab Cup points list, especially at 54-hole Champions tour events that are more of a sprint than a marathon compared to the 72-hole Tour stops.

“You can have a bad nine holes out on the PGA Tour, you’ve got seven more to kind of catch up. Out here you play a bad nine holes, you feel like you’ve put yourself behind the eight ball,” said Furyk, who enjoys the pressure and chance to be aggressive.

“I think playing a golf course that’s 7,000 yards gives me a little more chance to be aggressive, fire at more pins. I’ve got a little shorter iron in my hand. When we’re playing out on Tour and we’re sitting at 73, 74 and I’ve got 5-iron, 4-iron in my hand a lot, I’ve got to play a lot more conservative. Conservative isn’t fun, aggressive is fun.”

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Ahead of his PGA Tour Champions title defense, Phil Mickelson says driving accuracy is irrelevant: ‘I look at longest’

“If you want to look at stuff that’s irrelevant, have at it.”

RICHMOND, Va. — Do you think driving accuracy is important? Phil Mickelson sure doesn’t.

When the 51-year-old Lefty won the Constellation Furyk and Friends earlier this month for his third PGA Tour Champions win in just his fourth start (Fred Couples is the only other player to do so in 2010), he was 81st in driving accuracy.

“I look at longest, like I try to hit it the farthest out here and I was No. 1 in driving distance. That’s the way I look at it,” said Mickelson after his Thursday pro-am ahead of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, the first of three legs in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs. “If you want to look at stuff that’s irrelevant, have at it. What I’m looking at is distance, I want to hit it, I want to fly it 305 and try to – because I’m a really good wedge player, so if I get wedges in my hand, I’m going to be tough to beat.”

And that’s putting it lightly. Back at Country Club of Virginia’s James River course this week to defend his first senior victory at the 2020 Dominion, Mickelson has a chance to become the first player to win four of his first five starts on the senior circuit. Even though it’s the same course, Mickelson noted how different it’s playing this week compared to last year with firm and fast greens.

“I think from last year I’m able to take some of the subtleties and nuances of the golf course and have a better knowledge of where I want to be, where I don’t want to be and how I can play it aggressively,” said Mickelson. “So knowing those nuances is important. I think that if the course played like this last year, I don’t think I would have ended up winning, because you really need to know a lot of the subtleties and you could hit good shots and be in a bad spot if you didn’t know the golf course.”

But it won’t be without a little competition. The top-72 players from the Schwab Cup points list qualified for this week’s event, including three past champions at CCV: Miguel Angel Jimenez (2019), Woody Austin (2018), and Bernhard Langer (2017). Langer currently sits first in the standings and is looking for his record sixth Charles Schwab Cup.

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“There are a lot of really good players that are playing some really good golf. What you don’t see is how hard they work off the golf course, because as we all get older, to maintain flexibility, speed, strength, all those things, it’s a lot of extra work,” explained Mickelson. “Obviously Bernhard Langer’s the gold standard, right? That man at 64, what he’s been doing is incredible. That’s the guy to look up to to elongate your career, have a great quality of life.”

Langer, winner of 41 Champions tour events and 11 senior majors, had glowing things to say about all the new “young” players on the tour on Tuesday, especially Mickelson. The man to beat for the last decade and a half noted how eager the last few classes of PGA Tour Champions rookies have been, citing their realization that the senior tour is a second chance to compete at a high level. All that said, Mickelson is enjoying his time but isn’t ready to give the Champions tour his full attention.

“I’m using this as an opportunity to have fun, to be around people that I know, guys that I know. I’m using it as a chance to be competitive but in an environment that doesn’t beat you up,” said Mickelson. “I think it’s underrated how difficult the courses on Tour set up, how tough the pin placements are and you’re really not able to get away with a miss because the pins are so close to the edges. If you short-side yourself, you can’t get up and down.

“I like being able to play aggressive, so it lets me have fun and play the way I like to play out here, and then I try to take that back to when I play on the regular tour and try to implement that type of play. But I always have to dial it back on the regular tour and be more cautious, play to more center of the greens, have more 20-, 30-footers, because if you short-side yourself there, they’re so close to the edges, you can’t get up and down.”

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The 45-time winner on the “regular tour” said he’ll most likely play the season-finale Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix, but he’s unsure about next week’s stop in Florida for the TimberTech Championship.

“I feel like I’m playing a lot better than I have throughout the year, except for the PGA,” said Lefty with a laugh, “and I would like to test myself on the regular tour. So if there’s an event I could play, it might be the week of Boca, it might be the one down in Mexico. I’m not sure what exactly I’ll do, but I very well may go to Boca, we’ll see. That’s the only one I’m undecided on.”

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As the PGA Tour Champions grows, Bernhard Langer dishes on competing with the ‘young’ guns

Langer has run the senior circuit for a decade and a half, and he knows how to compete against the younger crop of players.

RICHMOND, Va. — After turning 50 in August of 2007, Bernhard Langer took his talents to the PGA Tour Champions where he has, over the last 14 years, solidified his title as the most decorated senior men’s player of all time.

How decorated? Two-time Masters champion (1985, 1993) and 42-time winner on the European Tour has amassed 41 wins on the Champions tour, including a record 11 senior majors.

Now 64, Langer knows he needs to step his game up to compete with the “young” guys on the 50-plus senior circuit. You know, players like Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Darren Clarke and oh yeah, 2021 PGA champion Phil Mickelson, who recently won the Constellation Furyk and Friends and will defend his 2020 Dominion Energy Charity Classic title this week at Country Club of Virginia.

“He’s had tremendous success. He’s only played, what, four or five tournaments and won three of them if I’m correct. That’s a very high percentage,” said Langer. “I just heard today that he won 10 days ago and he was 81st in driving accuracy, which blows my mind. If I was 81st in driving accuracy, I wouldn’t finish in the top 20 and he won the tournament.”

“Well, it’s been a very strong rookie class as we all know,” said Langer of his other competitors after a Wednesday practice round for the first of three legs of the tour’s season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs. “They’re proven champions, winners, major winners, and they’re going to have a big impact on this tour, no doubt about it, and we’ve already seen it.”

“What I notice is these guys hit it a lot further than we did 20 years ago, 10 years ago. So I used to be one of the longest guys out here about 15 years ago, 14 years ago, now I’m in the middle of the pack, trending the other way,” said Langer, who noted his drives top out around 280 yards these days. “So I’ve got my work cut out making up for that lack of distance somewhere else, either accuracy or better thinking or better short game or whatever, but it’s not easy because they’re good in all of that.”

The Champions tour is growing and becoming more competitive as the years go on, and the German who has been the man to beat for the last decade and a half is the first to admit it. Will the new names reach any of his marks? Depends how committed they are.

“Oh, they’ll all try and make a run. It all depends how committed they are to the tour and how much they play. We’ve seen Steve Stricker producing some tremendous results out here, but he hasn’t fully committed yet,” explained Langer. “Once he comes out here full time, he’ll win a bunch. I think Jim Furyk is fully committed and he’s going to continue his winning ways. So will Phil, I suppose, whenever that time comes from him.

“You have Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, they’re all working very hard. Mike Weir’s out here working his butt off, excuse my language, but so are many others,” he added. “They’re eager, they’re realizing there’s a second opportunity after the PGA Tour’s over now, and on the PGA Tour Champions they have another chance of playing some really good golf and showing how good they are for the next 10, 15 years.”

Langer drew the blueprint for how to find success in the next phase of his career, and some news players have hit him up for questions and advice on the transition to senior professional golf, not that he’ll tell you who asked or what was said.

“Not going to call any names now or whatever, but they asked what do you think and how did you feel and is there any difference. And there’s slight differences. Most of our tournaments are three days, so you’ve got to play aggressive from the get-go. You can’t afford to have a bad round and expect to win, that’s not going to happen when you play three rounds. That’s probably not going to happen when you play four rounds, but at least you have one more round to hopefully catch up,” said Langer, who has held the top spot on the Schwab Cup standings for 19 of the 36 regular-season weeks this year.

All without a win, shocking enough. Langer hasn’t lifted a trophy since the Cologuard Classic in March 2020, but he’s been in the mix, earning 26 top-10 finishes in 36 starts (with 36 cuts made) to top the season-ending points list with three tournaments to play. At the Country Club of Virginia, Langer has finished T-4 the past two years – runner-up in 2018 and he won here in 2017.

“They’re all special in their given time, but now being 64 years old, it gets harder and harder so it would mean a great deal, especially with the super season,” said Langer of the chance to win a sixth Schwab Cup. “You know, two years running to win one would be extremely special. But we’ve still got three big events ahead of us and I’m not going to get ahead of myself. Try and put my work in and hopefully get some good results.”

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Jim Furyk’s son fills in as caddie as Fluff Cowan misses SAS Championship on PGA Tour Champions

In Jacksonville last week, it was Furyk & Friends. This week in North Carolina, it was Furyk & Son.

In Jacksonville last week, it was Furyk & Friends.

In North Carolina this week, it was Furyk & Son.

Jim Furyk, competing in the PGA Tour Champions SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club, finished tied for third with his son Tanner on the bag.

“I’m sure he enjoyed it and I promise you I enjoyed it 100 times more. Special week,” Furyk said after his round. Regular caddie Fluff Cowan was taking the week off. “I feel bad that Fluff went down, that he wasn’t able to be here. I hope he’s healthy and getting better.”

This was a week after he and his wife hosted the first ever Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament on the PGA Tour Champions.

Furyk and Tanner were teammates in the PNC Championship last December in Orlando. The SAS was the first time Tanner caddied for his old man.

But he wasn’t the only Furyk child at the tournament.

“It was a real special opportunity for our family. Caleigh [daughter] came in from college,” he said. “To have Tanner on the bag, just really cool. Then to have a real solid week and kind of come down the stretch and feel like you’ve got to make a putt on the last.”

Furyk briefly took the clubhouse lead at 11 under after draining a birdie on the last.

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“I had him in there reading it. He put a great read on it, actually. Noticed something about the green that I didn’t early in the putt. Yeah, just really cool. A great memory for me.

“To go out and play well was a little icing on the cake.”

Furyk is among the 72 golfers who have advanced to the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, which starts this week at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.

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Lee Janzen tops Miguel Angel Jiménez in playoff at SAS Championship; Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs start next week

Lee Janzen knocked out Miguel Angel Jimenez to collect his second senior circuit victory.

“How?” Lee Janzen said on Golf Channel minutes after winning for the first time in six years.

Consecutive birdies on the 18th hole is how.

Janzen made a long birdie putt from the fringe on 18 at the SAS Championship Sunday to get into a playoff against Miguel Angel Jiménez. Janzen then made another birdie on the first playoff hole to win on the PGA Tour Champions for the first time since 2015.

Starting the final round two shots back of co-leaders Jiménez and Alex Cejka, Janzen opened with a bogey but he made six birdies after that, including the long one on 18 to shoot a final-round 67.

A playoff seemed a bit unlikely after Jiménez made a birdie on the 11th hole to take a three-shot lead. But his irons got a little loose on the back nine, opening the door for others to track him down.

Janzen did just that, cutting the lead to one after making a birdie putt on the 15th hole. Jiménez then bogeyed the 14th, knotting things up at 11 under. Jiménez had a birdie look on 18 in regulation to win it but left it out to the left.

On the first playoff hole, Jiménez hit his drive into a bunker, then pulled his second against the grandstands left of the green. Janzen then hit his approach to a spot close to where he was in 2 on 18 in regulation, although this time the ball ended up on the green.

He calmly rolled in the putt and was incredulous after his round.

“I haven’t had a top-10 in I don’t know how long,” he said. “If you looked at my performance, you’d say ‘I’m not going to pick him this week.’

“But I saw progress lately. Who knew it was going to turn into a win.”

Janzen has one other Champions tour win, the 2015 Ace Group Classic. The SAS was his 157th start on the tour.

This week marked the final regular-season event of a 39-tournament “super season.”

Up next: the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, a three-tournament postseason that starts at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, next weekend.

The top-72 players on the money list advance to the playoffs but there was room for a wild-card entrant. If any golfer outside the top 72 posted a top-10 finish, he’d make the postseason.

Monday qualifier Thongchai Jaidee poured in a 10-footer for birdie on 18 to shoot a 69 and and finish tied for fifth. He entered the week in the 82nd spot.

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Tales of the golf tournament volunteers, Furyk & Friends edition

“When you have total strangers working for you, it warms your heart,” Tabitha Furyk said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It takes a village to host a professional golf tournament.

Actually, what it took to make Furyk & Friends, which debuted last week at Timuquana Golf Club, run like clockwork is a small army of approximately 600 volunteers, some who took vacation or flew in just to work long hours doing such trivial but vital chores as parking cars, shuttling players, picking up range balls and sorting them, and hauling trash.

Week after week, year after year, many of the same faces greet me at tournaments and make my job and those of so many people they touch that much easier. I always marvel when they inevitably tell me this is their 25th or 30th year volunteering at a particular tournament.

Why do they do it?

I decided I was long overdue to give back at a tournament and find out. There was no better place to do so than at one of my hometown events. Over the years, I’ve noticed ways that charitable causes big and small in the Greater Jacksonville area have benefited from the generosity of the Players Championship, most notably at Nemours Children Hospital, where my daughter has received care.

On Friday, I did the volunteer pu-pu platter of sorts, partaking in short stints working the driving range, walking with a standard-bearer and scorer, chatting with the guys who wash caddie bibs at night and even rode around with the chairman of ecology. He didn’t make me haul any trash, but that’s only because it would’ve spoiled the fun for Mike Crumpler, a lawyer by trade, who called volunteering for the tournament and tossing around trash the best week of his year.

In all, there were 26 committee leaders – everything from first aid to admissions and first tee announcers. They oversee teams of people, some of who take days off from work, pay for hotel rooms out of their own pocket or travel from out of town and spend $45 for the official volunteer uniform of shirt and hat. (Lesson learned: you must wear khaki pants or shorts).

Tabitha Furyk said she wore out her friends and family, who pitched in to make the tournament a success, including father-in-law Mike Furyk, who greeted players on the practice tee as he puffed on a cigar. But it takes a village and she couldn’t tout the work of her volunteers enough, some of whom never even saw a shot, depending on their assignment, which is why she couldn’t wait for the volunteer appreciation party on Sunday night.

“When you have total strangers working for you, it warms your heart,” she said. “I feel like I have new friends that I haven’t even met yet.”

Here are some of the incredible people I met on the job.

Phil Mickelson: ‘On the regular tour, there’s so many new, young, fresh players, I don’t know who two-thirds of them are’

While Lefty is enjoying the PGA Tour Champions, maybe he’s less familiar with some of the golfers on the PGA Tour.

Phil Mickelson certainly sounds like he’s enjoying the PGA Tour Champions – winning three of the four events he has entered helps that. His latest victory came Sunday in Jacksonville, Florida, in the Constellation Furyk and Friends.

But it’s not just about the winning. The 51-year-old prefers the aggressive nature he can display on the senior circuit, and he said he’s having a good time playing with guys he knows better while he’s less familiar with the up-and-coming golfers on the PGA Tour.

“I don’t feel like there are tournaments on the regular tour that are really exciting me to get out and play, so it’s fun for me to get out here and work on a few things that I’m trying to improve on and play with guys that I know. I know all these guys here,” he said Sunday after winning at Timuquana Country Club .

A four-hour delay during Friday’s first round at Timuquana sent everyone inside.

“With that rain delay, I go into the locker room and everybody in there I know, whereas on the regular tour there’s so many new, young, fresh players, I don’t know who two-thirds of them are.”

Jim Furyk became the second golfer to win his first two times out on the senior circuit last year. It didn’t take long for Mickelson to become the third. Now he has three wins in four outings and more than $750,000 in earnings.

“It’s a good start. I’m having fun, I’m having fun playing here. I’m enjoying being around the guys, I’m enjoying the golf courses, how I can be a little bit more aggressive and like when I made a mistake on No. 5, I can still recover. You do that on the regular tour, you just get eaten alive. You just can’t make those mistakes there and have a chance to compete and contend and win. So I like how you don’t have to be perfect and I can get away with a shot or two here or there, so it makes it fun to play and play aggressive.”

Make no mistake: Mickelson is not declaring that he won’t play the PGA Tour from now on. After all, he is the reigning PGA Championship winner.

“I think if I can play well in tournaments on the regular tour and compete and maybe win a time or two like at the PGA and have some credibility when I come out here, I think that would be a good thing because it shows how high a level of performance goes on out here on the Champions Tour,” he said. “If I can continue to stay up in the world rankings and compete in some regular Tour events, when I do come out here, I hope to help out.”

Mickelson’s next PGA Tour Champions event will be Oct. 22-24 at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Virginia, when the PGA Tour will be at the Zozo Championship in Japan. He then most likely will play the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship on Nov. 11-14 in Phoenix, the same week as the PGA Tour’s Houston Open, which Mickelson chose to play in 2020 because it was the week before the pandemic-delayed Masters.

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Phil Mickelson wins again on PGA Tour Champions, this time at the Furyk and Friends in Jacksonville

Phil Mickelson is now 3-for-4 on the PGA Tour Champions after holding off Miguel Angel Jimenez in Jacksonville.

Phil Mickelson is now 3-for-4 on the PGA Tour Champions after holding off Miguel Ángel Jiménez Sunday to claim the Constellation Furyk & Friends at the Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville.

Mickelson, the first reigning major champion to ever play in a Champions event, shot a final-round 68 to finish at 15 under. His scorecard featured three straight birdies to start his day. He had a double bogey on the sixth hole before recording birdies on Nos. 12 and 15.

Leading by one, Mickelson sank a clutch three-footer for par on 17 to keep his one-shot lead. On 18, he hit his drive 301 yards right down the middle. After he hit his approach, fans filled the fairway behind him as he walked to the green.

Jimenez faced a long putt for birdie to tie, but burned the edge and settled for par for a final-round 68 and a solo second-place finish. He now has five consecutive top-10s.

After Steve Flesch made a birdie to secure a solo third-place finish, Lefty then clinched a two-shot win by curling in a birdie putt.

“It was a hard-fought battle and I really enjoyed it. I enjoy playing out here,” Mickelson told Golf Channel after his win. He also had a lot of praise for his friend and tournament host Jim Furyk, who finished tied for fourth at 9 under with Ernie Els and Cameron Beckman.

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Phil Mickelson goes on back-nine tear for two-shot lead in Furyk and Friends, thinks he can do better

Phil Mickelson, at 11-under-par through two rounds, thinks he’s got a lot more in the tank.

Here’s something scary: Phil Mickelson, at 11-under-par 133 through two rounds of the PGA Tour Champions Constellation Furyk & Friends, thinks he’s got a lot more in the tank than his two opening rounds of 66 on Friday and 67 on Saturday at the Timuquana Country Club.

“I felt like I played well, the scores were fine, but I feel like I have a really low one in me,” Mickelson said, looking ahead to Sunday’s final round. “I want to go try to shoot that number.”

Mickelson took off after a pedestrian front nine and played the first six holes of the back at 5-under, with a 12-foot eagle putt at the 13th hole. He surged past three players tied at 9-under, Miguel Angel Jimenez (65, the day’s low round), Steve Flesch (66, with a closing bogey after four birdies in a six-hole span) and playing partner Matt Gogel (69).

More: Welcome home: David Duval returns to his golf roots to play in Furyk & Friends charity event

Tied at 8-under is Ernie Els (who turned in a blazing finish for a 67), David Toms (68) and Woody Austin (67). A group of six players at 6-under are led by U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker (67), tournament host Jim Furyk (69) and Mike Weir (69).

At one point when the final group was on the front nine, there was a four-way tie for first among Mickelson, Gogel, Weir and Darren Clarke, and 19 other players were within three shots of the lead.

But as a hot afternoon wore on, the leaders gave themselves more of a cushion and 13 players are within five shots of Mickelson, who had only one birdie on the front.

“I felt like I was hitting some good shots on the front nine, but they weren’t quite going the right distance or just weren’t quite working out,” he said. “Then the back … I went on a nice little tear. And I thought, ‘I’m having a lot of fun.’”

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Mickelson set up his eagle putt with a 7-iron from 195 yards out, then dropped a 30-foot birdie putt at the par-4 14th and scrambled out of the pine straw and trees at the par-5 15th to stitch together his final birdie of the day.

Mickelson nearly drove out-of-bounds at No. 16, found the ball to his relief, but had to pitch out and missed a 15-foot putt for par. He then two-putted the final two holes.

Fans line the area around the ninth green of the Timuquana Country Club on Saturday during the second round of the Constellation Furyk & Friends.
Mickelson said he’s left some shots on the course, but usually feels that way regardless of how low he goes.

“I’m sure we all do,” he said. “I had a bunch of good looks today, but I get a chance to come out here and play tomorrow. And I’m really enjoying the golf course, so it’s a fun opportunity to try to go low again and try to shoot the number that I feel I’m capable of.”

The two players who came from behind to catch Gogel at 9-under approach their scores in different ways — and both are on serious rolls in recent Champions Tour events.

Jimenez, the affable, cigar-smoking pro from Spain, was relentless with his iron shots to set up a series of short birdie putts on the back, four within a five-hole span.

“You can see [that he’s hitting his irons well] … hit it to 4 or 5 feet from the hole is very good, no?” Jimenez said. “It’s nice … nice course. You need to be very sharp with your irons.”

Jimenez has finished among the top-10 in his last four starts and on Saturday he posted a score in the 60s for the eighth time in his last nine rounds.

He will be gunning for his third PGA Tour Champions title this season, and the 11th of his career.

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Flesch, on the other hand, did his hard work on the tricky Timuquana greens.

He drained three putts of 15 feet or longer on the back nine and said going to an “armlock” method of putting has helped in recent events, in which he’s finished 13th or higher six times in seven starts, with four top-10s.

“The ball just gets on line better for me doing it,” he said. “The shorter ones tend to be easier because the ball’s on line, right off the bat. So I’m thrilled with it.”

Worth watching will be Els, the four-time major champion who was 1-over at the turn. He birdied the 10th hole to kick-start a back-nine 30 that included an eagle at No. 15 and three more birdies.

Mickelson wasn’t discounting anyone’s chances.

“They’re playing some good golf, so I have to keep doing the same thing,” he said. “Playing aggressive, driving the ball in play, hit some good iron shots and give myself some putts and hopefully make some.”

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Red-number day at Timuquana: Phil Mickelson, Matt Gogel share first-round lead at Constellation Furyk & Friends

Weather prevented fans from seeing the best of what the field had to offer Friday at the PGA Tour Champions Constellation Furyk & Friends.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A sudden early-fall Florida thunderstorm on Friday prevented fans from seeing the best of what a star-studded field had to offer in the first round of the PGA Tour Champions Constellation Furyk & Friends.

But there’s nearly perfect weather coming up for the final two rounds this weekend at the Timuquana Country Club, fans are welcome back and these guys are just getting started.

Phil Mickelson, playing in his fourth PGA Tour Champions event and nearly six months after winning the PGA Championship, birdied his last hole before a three-hour weather delay, birdied his first hole after returning, and made the best of two loose shots on the final two holes to post a 6-under-par 66 for a share of the lead with Matt Gogel, who birdied his last two holes playing in the final group of the day.

Mickelson saved par on a 12-foot putt at the par-3 17th hole after pulling his tee shot into a deep patch of rough on a sloping bank, then did well to make a bogey at the par-4 18th after nearly driving his tee shot out-of-bounds on the left.

Just inches from the white line marking OB, Mickelson punched out, wedged to within 15 feet and left a par-putt attempt on the left edge.

“I hit a few wayward shots,” said the first reigning major champion to ever play in a PGA Tour Champions event. “I just didn’t feel great but fought to finish the round off and try to regroup for [Saturday]. It’s a good start, though. I didn’t do any damage and made some good birdies on that front nine.”

Frank Lickliter II of nearby Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, fought back after two consecutive bogeys when he returned from the delay and played the rest of his round at 3 under with no more blemishes to record a 5-under 67, matching Cameron Beckman.

“I’ve probably played this place, 40, 50 times … Gator Bowl [Pro-Ams] … I’ve always liked it,” said Lickliter, a two-time PGA Tour winner who is still searching for his first Champions Tour top-10 after 18 starts. “I was playing good, then after the storm, came back and made two bogeys in a row, immediately. But I settled down and made birdies coming in … I’ve been making birdies again this year.”

The eight players tied at 4-under are a mix of major champions and journeymen, led by World Golf Hall of Fame member and Schwab Cup points leader Bernhard Langer, plus past major winners Darren Clarke and David Toms.

“No wind and the greens are fantastic to putt on, so if you get it going, you can hole a lot of putts,” said Robert Karlsson of Sweden, one of the players who posted a 68. “But they’ve done a good job with the pins, there’s a few tough ones in there, especially on the back nine. But it’s very enjoyable.”

The tournament was halted at 11:50 a.m. because of approaching weather and the severe storm and lingering lightning forced tournament officials to send fans home and close the gates.

However, the field was able to return at 3 p.m. and with the sun breaking out, virtually no wind rustling the pine needles of the historic course, the players performed with only themselves, family members and a few media watching.

They put on a show. Mickelson made three birdies after his return, Gogel birdied four of his last five holes, Beckman birdied three of four at one point and Kevin Sutherland ran off five birdies in a row to get a share of the lead before a closing double.

Nineteen players shot in the 60s and 34 broke par, and most of the birdies came after the rain softened the slick greens.

Despite posting his seventh score in the 60s in 10 career Champions Tour rounds (he won his first two starts last fall), Mickelson, predictably, was kicking himself for not squeezing more out of his day.

“Granted, the golf course is challenging here and there’s some spots you’ve got to be careful,” he said. “But for the most part it’s just really fun being out here and playing fewer holes and being able to play aggressive, kind of like the way I like to play. It’s been fun the few events I’ve played.”

The field averaged 72.185 in Timuquana’s first round in hosting a major professional tour.

“They [the maintenance staff] did a great job getting the course ready, and draining it so quickly so we could go back out and play,” Mickelson said.

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