Steve Stricker won the U.S. Senior Open in 2019 and is the defending champion after the 2020 edition was canceled due to COVID-19.
The U.S. Senior Open is back on the schedule this year after being canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, it was one of 10 U.S. Golf Association events that were canceled a year ago.
This week, the 41st edition of the Senior Open will take place in Omaha, Nebraska.
A field of 156 golfers will take to the course on Thursday at Omaha Country Club.
The USGA reports that 2,999 golfers filed entries in 2021. That’s the third-most in championship history. The record for entries is 3,101 in 2002.
Here’s a rundown of what you need to know.
Defending champ
Steve Stricker
With his wife Nicki handling caddie duties, Stricker went wire-to-wire in 2019, just the third golfer to do so in the championship. He started the final day with a six-shot lead and then fired a final-round 69 to win by that same margin over Jerry Kelly and 2018 champion David Toms. Stricker won the event in his first attempt. Simon Hobday in 1994 and Olin Browne in 2011 were the others to go wire-to-wire.
About the venue
Omaha Country Club
The course is hosting the U.S. Senior Open for the second time. Kenny Perry won it the last time it was held there in 2013. It’s the seventh course to host twice. Omaha Country Club was established in 1899 and has been at its current location since 1925. The course was redesigned in 1951 and renovated in 2005.
How to watch
Golf Channel (TV) and Peacock (streaming) will tag-team the coverage in 2021. Live TV coverage will go until 8 p.m. ET all four rounds, with the third and final rounds on Golf Channel from 4 to 8 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday.
The most majors?
Bernhard Langer
Langer has 41 wins on the Champions circuit and has won 11 senior majors. He became the all-time leader in 2017 after he won the Senior PGA Championship. Jack Nicklaus is next with eight. Hale Irwin, the all-time leader in senior wins with 45, has seven senior majors.
By the numbers
There are 20 countries represented. The U.S. claims 121 of the 156 golfers. There are 72 golfers playing the event for the first time. There are 34 amateurs in the field, the most since 2012. Jay Haas, who is 67, is the oldest player in the field. Jose Maria Olazabal is playing in his first U.S. Senior Open. He’s in the field on a special invitation.
Senior majors in 2021
This is the fourth of five majors on the senior circuit. Alex Cejka won the Regions Tradition and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. Stricker won the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship. The final senior major in 2021 will be the Senior Open Championship at the Old Course at Sunningdale in Berkshire, England, July 22-25.
Where does it go from here?
There are four future U.S. Senior Open locations that have been announced:
2022 – Saucon Valley Country Club (Old Course), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
2023 – SentryWorld, Stevens Point, Wisconsin
2024 – Newport Country Club, Newport, Rhode Island
2025 – The Broadmoor, East Course, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Cameron Beckman came from three strokes back with a 4-under 68 Sunday to claim his first PGA Tour Champions win.
ENDICOTT, N.Y. — Cameron Beckman came from three strokes back with a 4-under-par 68 Sunday to claim his first PGA Tour Champions victory in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.
A 51-year-old Texas resident making his 15th start on the senior tour, Beckman made eight closing-round birdies at En-Joie Golf Course and sidestepped a bogey at the 18th to top Ernie Els by a shot.
Beckman finished 12-under to Els’ 11-under, with five sharing third at 10-under.
Els, leader by three through 36 holes and by two at the turn Sunday, shot even-par 72 with three birdies and three bogeys. He was offered wonderful opportunity at the 18th when Beckman drove in a hazard left of the fairway, but left his second from 94 yards in the fairway well short and two-putted.
Beckman, whose most recent win came in 2010 on the PGA tour, had two previous top-10s on the PGA Tour Champions. Sunday’s victory qualified him for next week’s U.S. Senior Open.
A three-stroke advantage will be in Ernie Els’ capable, proven, world-class hands to begin the final round of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.
ENDICOTT, N.Y. – A three-stroke advantage will be in capable, proven, world-class hands to begin Sunday’s concluding round of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.
Ernie Els backed an opening 68 with Saturday’s bogey-free, 7-under-par 65 at En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott and is well-positioned at 11 under to secure his third win of the 2020-21 PGA Tour Champions season.
Cameron Beckman made birdie at the 18th to close a round of 69 for solo second at 8-under, with Darren Clarke and Miguel Angel Jiménez co-third at 7-under.
“Well, I hit a lot of greens and when I hit the greens, I made some putts, so that was a good key for me,” said Els, who has 12 top-10 finishes in 23 PGA Tour Champions starts. “The conditions were quite tough. Rain and wind kind of came and went so you kind of had to keep the ball in front of you. Finishing on 16 making a good par save and making a birdie on 18 was big.”
Els made five consecutive birdies beginning at the second and another at the ninth. He strung together pars on the back before thumping a tee ball perilously near but clear of the penalty area left of 18 fairway, approached from 95 yards and rolled one in for his seventh birdie of the afternoon.
“I felt like I needed to kind of get a good round going and I had a nice start,” he said. “I played the front nine really well and I just tried to keep it going. I parred every hole on the back nine except for 18. It wasn’t all clean sailing, I had to make some good par saves and so forth, but to make the putt on 18 was big.”
Beckman, whose most recent win came in 2010 on the regular tour, was bogey-free in a 3-under round.
“I hit the ball nice today and I missed — I had a bunch to capitalize on and get a little further under today, but anytime you go bogey free … I hit a lot of greens and just a lot of great shots, so I’m excited for tomorrow.”
Jimenez was 4 under through 12 but made bogeys on the 15th and 18th around a long putt for birdie at 16.
“Yeah, well, I’ve been playing very well, very solid and I only make only one putt on 18 holes really, on the 16th, but solid from the tees, lot of chances for birdie, finished with 3 under par today,” he said.
Clarke is four back following rounds of 69 and 68.
Bernhard Langer switched gears at the last second, opting out of the upcoming British Open and instead choosing to play at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open outside Binghamton, N.Y. on the Champions schedule. He didn’t mention if the stringent COVID regulations had anything to do with the decision, instead insisting that a schedule with four majors in five weeks — between the regular and senior circuits — would have been too much in such a short span.
The way he tells it, his normal caddie, Terry Holt, was simply booked.
“When I told (Terry) that three weeks ago, he said he’s already made plans for family vacations and stuff, so that’s why Terry’s not here. He’ll be back next week,” Langer said.
Since he needed help for the week, Langer enlisted the services of renowned sports psychologist Fran Pirozzolo, who has worked with a variety of high-level sports franchises and players, including Langer and Billy Horschel.
“A friend of mine from Houston that I’m staying with, a long-term friend, over 30-year friend, Pirozzolo, he’s actually a sports psychologist and many other things,” Langer said. “He’s got four World Series rings working with
the New York Giants and he’s been a dear friend of mine for many years.”
How has it worked out?
Langer struggled a little on the back nine during Saturday’s second round, but overall he’s been his regular steady self, and he’s still right near the top of the leaderboard heading into the event’s final day. After a 71, Langer sits T-5 at 6 under for the tournament, five shots behind leader Ernie Els.
Pirozzolo, in fact, worked with the New York Yankees (sorry to correct you, Bernhard), helping the team to four titles in his six years, as well as the Texas Rangers and the Houston Texans. He also has time working with the Navy Seals on his resume, as well working as a training consultant for Evander Holyfield from 1990-1998.
And he brings plenty of local knowledge — Pirozzolo was an all-state wrestler for nearby Elmira Notre Dame High School in 1968, winning the New York State Catholic High School title at 154 pounds. He later was a Division III All-America running back at Wilmington College in 1971 and 1972.
He now lives in The Woodlands, Texas, just outside Houston, but Langer recognized the value he’d be getting in adding a piece to his team this week from a neighboring community.
“He grew up here, a half-hour from here,” Langer said. “He’s staying with his mother, and his brother lives here, so I said why not.”
Wes Short Jr. holds the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open’s first-round lead on the strength of a 6-under-par 66 Friday at En-Joie Golf Course.
Wes Short Jr. holds the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open’s first-round lead on the strength of a 6-under-par 66 Friday at En-Joie Golf Course.
A 57-year-old Texan whose most recent of four top-10s this season came in early November, Short made seven birdies against a bogey-6 at the inviting third. The 2016 runner-up is making his seventh Dick’s Open start.
“It was really good,” he said. “Hit more fairways today than I did all of last week probably on the first five holes, Last week was tough, makes this seem a little easier. I drove it really well. I only missed one fairway and maybe three greens and I putted a lot better.”
Bernhard Langer, 2014 Dick’s Open champion and 41-time PGA Tour Champions winner, closed a round of 5-under 67 with birdie at the 18th. He was 6-under at the turn — holing out for eagle from 91 yards at the par-5 eighth — but made three bogeys along the way to a 1-over back side.
“It was a strange day. I had to borrow a putter from (playing companion) Scott McCarron because mine broke (Thursday) and I was very fortunate to even find one that I could putt with,” Langer said. “Started playing really good, was 6-under on the front nine. Hit it close four times and then holed a wedge shot for eagle on No. 8 to get 6-under after eight holes.
“I was hoping to shoot my age (63) today, but ran into some trouble on the back nine.
“If I had putted well today, I’d probably be 8- or 9-under right now, but it is what it is. The putter that was supposed to be shipped and arrive today, it didn’t make it because the plane was delayed, so maybe it’s getting here by tomorrow morning and we’ll do a little better tomorrow.”
Cameron Beckman chipped in at the par-5 12th for birdie and shares second with Langer.
A 51-year-old San Antonio resident, Beckman was a stroke over par through three holes but birdied five of the last six on the front, and proceeded to birdies at the 10th and 12th.
He has two top-10s in 14 PGA Tour Champions starts this season, and is a three-time regular-tour champion.
David Toms, 54, is among a group at 4-under 68. He was T42 in his 2019 Dick’s Open debut and is seeking his second PGA Tour Champions victory. He’s a 13-time PGA Tour winner who in 14 Champions Tour starts this season has seven top-10s.
Defending champion Doug Barron opened with a bogey-free 70.
Billy Andrade likewise opened with 68.
He is a three-time PGA Tour Champions winner with two top-10s in 21 starts this season— most recently in mid-May Mitsubishi Electric Classic. He’s finished 10th or better three times in the Dick’s Open, including a T9 (67-60-69) in 2019.
Andrade’s lowest Dick’s Open round is 66 (Round 3, 2018).
Skip Kendall joins that group at 68, two birdies per side. He is playing his second event of the 2020-21 season.
“I managed my game really well today,” said Kendall, 56. “I hit a bunch of fairways. I wasn’t in too much trouble except for maybe on 18, but managed to make par there. I think that’s — this golf course, it’s a premium to hit the fairways and when you do, it makes it a lot easier. Fairways are narrow, so if you can hit a bunch of fairways, you’re going to be in good shape, I think, and I did a lot of that today.”
Kendall’s top finish in three previous Dick’s Opens was a T31 in 2018.
A couple who’ll attract plenty of weekend attention: Miguel Angel Jiménez and Ernie Els, each at 68.
Joey Sindelar, longtime Horseheads resident now residing in the Town of Lansing, made 16 pars in a round of 72.
Follow Kevin Stevens on Twitter @PSBKevin. You can also reach him at kstevens@gannett.com.
The late additions of Ernie Els and Jim Furyk give the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open field a boost of pizzazz for its return to PGA Tour Champions action.
ENDICOTT, New York – Two late additions give the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open field a boost of pizzazz for its return to PGA Tour Champions action following a dormant year.
Ernie Els and Jim Furyk were among the last to commit to the $2,050,000 event to be contested July 2-4 at En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott.
Els, 51 and a 19-time winner on the regular tour, sits third on the money list ($1,792,179) on the strength of two wins among 11 top-10s. Most recent of those top-10s was a T4 in the Regions Tradition that concluded May 9.
Furyk, 51, was a 17-time regular-tour champion. He won in his first two senior starts — The Ally Challenge and PURE Insurance Championship in the summer of 2020 — and has eight top-10s in 13 tournaments.
Jerry Kelly, eight-time senior tour winner at present perched atop the money list ($1,927,667), committed to play in Endicott only to withdraw, as he did in 2019. He shares fifth with Els, Furyk and others on rounds of 69-70 through 36 holes of the Bridgestone Senior Players in Akron, Ohio.
The Dick’s Open field also features:
Doug Barron, defending champion who defeated Fred Couples by two strokes in his second start as a senior.
Alex Cejka, 50-year-old who debuted on Tour in February and proceeded to win major championships in his third and fifth starts.
Darren Clarke, winner in consecutive starts (Nov. 1, Jan. 23) in the 2020-21 season.
Retief Goosen, driving distance leader who sits sixth on the money list.
Tim Herron, a Tour rookie whose first top-10 was a third-place finish in last month’s Principal Charity Classic, in which he was 36-hole leader.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, sixth-place finisher here in 2019 and fifth on the current money list.
Bernhard Langer, age 63, 41-time PGA Tour Champions winner who topped the 2014 Dick’s Open field.
Colin Montgomerie, seven-time Champions Tour winner who has second- and third-place finishes this season. He shared fourth here in 2019.
“We’re obviously excited,” said tournament director John Karedes. “It’s Ernie’s first trip ever to Endicott, Furyk has been here I think three times (most recently for the 1998 B.C. Open). We’re certainly excited to have these 50-year-old rookies coming as well as Darren Clarke, Alex Cejka, Tim Herron. I mean, what a great set of rookies that is going to be joining us.
“I’ve always said, when a guy is a rookie on the PGA Tour we don’t necessarily know who he is. But when a guy is a rookie on our Tour, which is a great thing about the Champions Tour, you know him. And if you look at that list of names, that’s sure proof.”
The 81-player field will be rounded out with Tuesday’s Open Qualifier at The Links at Hiawatha Landing— from which Barron emerged to win last time at En-Joie.
Dick’s Sporting Goods Open
Where: En-Joie Golf Course, Endicott
Purse: $2,050,000 ($307,500 to winner)
Defending champion: Doug Barron
Television: Golf Channel. 12-30-2:30 Fri.; 3-5:30 Sat. and Sun.
Follow Kevin Stevens on Twitter @PSBKevin. You can also reach him at kstevens@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
“Golf does a great job of contributing to the community. Maybe we haven’t always done a great job in the social justice area. I don’t see any reason we can’t.”
Last August, Kirk Triplett put a Black Lives Matter sticker on his bag for the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Triplett was prompted to show support for the cause of racial injustice because of his son Kobe, who is African- American.
“I was thinking about my son, who is 18 years old and could be driving a car in the wrong situation,” Triplett said Friday after the second round of the $3 million PGA Tour Champions major. “I wanted to make sure that’s not his responsibility to deescalate the situation.”
But Triplett knew displaying the sticker was not really taking action. An interview at Firestone Country Club and some that followed helped him discover a way to accelerate change.
One of his comments — “I actually Googled what can a white guy do?” he said — caught the attention of Hall of Fame safety Donnie Shell, who emailed Triplett and told him he had an answer to his question. The former Pittsburgh Steeler is a board member of Dedication To Community (D2C), a national non-profit that educates and empowers communities on diversity, belonging, and equity. Triplett’s partnership with the organization was announced in February.
“Putting a Black Lives Matter sticker on your bag is just kinda, ‘That’s a problem.’ But you hope people migrate from that to solutions and that’s the reason for Dedication To Community on my bag,” Triplett said. “Their main focus is law enforcement training. It’s guys that came through the NFL, worked heavily with them on their conduct policy, and the founder is [M.] Quentin Williams, he was an FBI agent and a prosecutor.
“These guys have one solution. Training law enforcement, training the communities, helping people understand each other better. Really what they work on is communication and not letting these situations escalate.”
Kirk Triplett poses with his golf bag with a Black Lives Matter sticker on it at the 2020 Bridgestone Senior Players Tournament pro-am on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020, Akron, Ohio, at Firestone Country Club. (Photo: Phil Masturzo/ Beacon Journal)
Triplett, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, and his wife Cathi have four children — twins Conor and Sam, 25, daughter Alexis, 21, and Kobe, the latter two adopted. Alexis is Latino; Kobe’s biological father is Black, his mother Japanese.
Before Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder in the May 25, 2020, killing of Floyd, Triplett said he had several conversations with Kobe. Chauvin received a sentence of 22.5 years on Friday.
“We’ve discussed that fairly regularly,” Triplett said of the Chauvin case. “This is not a great deal of interest to him. It became a great deal of interest to me when I talked to him and said, ‘If you get stopped by the police, you need to do this, this and this.’ I’ve got three other kids and that conversation looked completely different with them than it did with him. I thought, ‘Here’s where the patent unfairness comes in.’
“When people say systemic racism or system inequality … it’s something that’s really hard for me to visualize and understand because I’ve never faced it. When I’m having that conversation with him, I just get the little, tiniest inkling of what this might be like. I think that’s the first step, everybody understanding what sometimes these people face.”
Triplett said Kobe got the message. The Tripletts also participated in relationship training through D2C.
D2C has a partnership with the Miami Heat, training Miami patrol officers the Heat sponsor, and is involved with other professional sports.
“They have an agreement with Joe Gibbs Racing and they train the organization there. They do some stuff with the NHL,” Triplett said. “The NHL is like golf, there’s not a lot of racial issues in those sports because they’re so white, for lack of a better term, there’s not a lot of diversity.
“Most sports today that lack diversity want to create opportunity. It’s not an overnight process, but some of it starts with funding and finding ways for young people to look at a sport and instead of saying, ‘Oh, that’s the white man’s game,’ they think, ‘Here’s this APGA,’ [a non-profit tour to prepare African-American and minority golfers] or ‘I can go to school at a HBCU.’ There’s a pathway to participate in the sport.”
Triplett sees progress in that regard.
“Phil Mickelson made a large donation to HBCU golf teams,” he said. “The PGA Tour is trying to help minority access to golf through the APGA. Billy Horschel has also sponsored a tournament for the APGA. Access to health care, access to economic opportunity, all of these things.
“Golf does a great job of contributing to the community. Maybe we haven’t always done a great job in the social justice area. I don’t see any reason we can’t.”
Steve Stricker withstood an early scare from Jerry Kelly but was able to hang to win the Bridgestone Senior Players.
AKRON, Ohio — Steve Stricker withstood an early scare from Jerry Kelly and nearly fell victim to some loose play on the back nine on Sunday but was able to hang to win the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club.
As sloppy as Stricker was on the first four holes on the back, his play was stellar over the final five and that’s what won him the tournament.
Kelly also faltered late, making bogey on two of the final three holes.
Stricker, 54, became the third wire-to-wire winner of the event and won his third major on the Tour Champions when he shot a final-round 33-37 70 to finish at 7–under 273 to win by six shots.
Kelly, attempting to win a second consecutive Senior Players, finished second after shooting 34-38 72 for a 72-hole score of 1-under 279.
Stricker, who earned $450,000 for the victory, joined Arnold Palmer and Bernhard Langer as previous wire-to-wire winners of this event, which moved to Firestone three years ago.
Palmer led from start to finish in winning the 1985 Senior Players at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, and Langer, who has won 41 events on the Tour Champions list, followed suit in winning in 2015 at the Belmont Club outside of Boston.
Undoubtedly, their journeys were less stressful than Stricker’s, who for the second day in a row was nearly done in by the back nine on the South Course.
He began the day with a 4-shot lead over Kelly and had a 5-shot lead at the turn before things began to unravel a bit, just as they did during Saturday’s third round when his 9-shot lead shriveled to three when he bogeyed three of the first six holes and double-bogeyed another.
A similar scenario seemed to unfold Sunday when Stricker bogeyed the 11th and 13th holes and Kelly poured in a 15-foot putt for birdie on 13. The lead had dwindled to two shots.
A saving grace came on the 460-yard 14th hole. Kelly, who won here last year by two shots, left his second shot in a greenside bunker and it led to a bogey to Stricker’s par.
A bigger break came on the 625-yard 16th. Kelly attempted to reach the green in two but his shot hit the far bank and dribbled back into the pond that fronts the green. The penalty shot and two putts resulted in a bogey. Striker chose to lay up and a wedge to 15 feet led to a kick-in par.
Stricker made bogey on the fourth hole, which is where he made his first bogey of the tournament on Saturday. However, this time he responded with a routine par and consecutive birdies on the sixth and 190-yard seventh when his tee shot stopped a tidy four feet from the hole.
Ken Duke, who began the day five shots behind, shot himself out of contention when he bogeyed four of his first six holes.
Fred Couples turned in the lowest round of the day with a 3-under 67 for a total of even-280 to share third place with David Toms, who followed a third-round 66 with a final-round 70.
Phil Mickelson’s victory at the PGA raised questions of how it would play out in the minds of his peers who are about to turn 50.
ARKON, Ohio — Phil Mickelson becoming the oldest major winner in PGA Tour history at age 50 could have a ripple effect on the PGA Tour Champions.
Mickelson’s triumph in the PGA at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island last month will likely postpone his return to Firestone Country Club, which now hosts the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship after last staging the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in 2018.
But his victory also raised the question of how it would play out in the minds of Mickelson’s peers who are about to turn 50.
Joining the Champions tour later this year are four-time PGA Tour winner Robert Allenby (July 12) and three-time major winner Padraig Harrington (Aug. 31). Australian John Senden (April 20) competed in this week’s Senior Players; Stuart Appleby (May 1) did not.
Former British Open champions David Duval (Nov. 9, 2021) and Justin Leonard (June 15), former PGA Championship winner Y.E. Yang (Jan. 15), as well as Brian Gay (Dec. 14, 2021) and Notah Begay III (Sept. 14) can join the Champions circuit in 2022. Duval, Leonard and Begay now work as television analysts.
Bridgestone’s agreement to host the Akron tournament runs through 2022.
While some like Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker have been able to straddle both tours, Mickelson’s success seemingly would prompt some PGA Tour players to hang on longer before making the leap to the senior circuit.
But Furyk, Stricker and Fred Couples consider Mickelson unique and don’t envision a Phil factor disrupting the Champions Tour.
“Phil’s a little bit of an anomaly,” Furyk said Wednesday. “He’s won 45 times, so other than Tiger [Woods] and maybe Vijay [Singh] in their 40s, no one else is really at that level in our era.”
Furyk, 51, said he’s been competing against — and losing to — Mickelson for decades. So he’s probably in no rush to see Mickelson come back to Firestone, one of Furyk’s favorite courses.
“He’s always been the guy at our age level that we had to beat,” Furyk said. “When he was a junior golfer, he was good enough to win in college. When he was in college, he was good enough and did win at the PGA Tour level. Then he went on to win all those events.
“I really take what he does with a bit of a grain of salt. Like if we were always comparing ourselves to him, we basically always got our butts kicked along the way.”
Stricker, 54, said players must listen to their bodies and consider how they’re playing when they approach 50.
“Phil’s a unique player, a special player, and he’s still got that flexibility and that length that most guys when they turn 48, 49, even before that they’re losing distance, and he picked up distance. He’s worked hard at it,” Stricker said. “For him to be able to do that was something extraordinary.
Steve Stricker watches his approach shot from the No. 8 fairway during the third round of the 2021 Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Akron, Ohio. Photo by Akron Beacon Journal
“I think you’ve just got to see where you’re at with your own game. Guys are going to see that and they’re going to say, ‘Hey, it’s possible,’ for sure, and maybe work towards that. But everybody’s a little bit different, especially the older we get.”
Furyk measured his driving distance against others on the PGA Tour to help him decide. He’s now fully committed to the Champions Tour save for occasional venues where he’s performed well.
“The longest I ever averaged in my career was 282 off the tee,” Furyk said of the 2015 season. “No. 100 [on the PGA Tour] was 289, so I was giving up seven yards, which is not a big deal. Cut to 2020, my last full year. At 50 I averaged 281, I was one yard off my all-time distance, but No. 100 was 298. Now, instead of giving up seven yards, I was giving up 17. I’m giving up two or three irons a hole for an entire week.
“That season I led the Tour in greens saves, but it’s a lot harder to be close when you’re giving up that much distance. So it was apparent to me there are courses I really feel I can compete, but to do it for an entire season was harder. And I really enjoy being out here. My wife and I now have a Champions tour event, so it made it even that much easier to support this tour 100 percent.”
Jim Furyk makes his second shot from the bunker on No. 7 during the third round of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Akron, Ohio. Photo by Akron Beacon Journal
Couples called Mickelson “a unique” individual and doesn’t expect PGA Tour players to try to copy his feat.
“I don’t see many 49- and 50-year-olds saying, ‘I’m going to win a PGA,”’ Couples said Wednesday. “Can Steve Stricker? Of course he can. Can Jim Furyk? Yeah. But I think as they get a little older, they’ll fall into [what’s] out here and love it.”
Jerry Kelly, 54, who won his first senior major last year in Akron, feels no pull to the PGA Tour, especially with a game built on accuracy, not length.
“I don’t have any kind of ego necessity to be out there at all,” Kelly said Tuesday. “I did well while I was out there. I would have loved to do more. But the things I want to do to make my career, win a major, things like that…
“That was incredible that Phil did that, but those majors are not in my cards. If they ever went back to Merion [in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania] again, I’d love to play in that one. But the distance, the way they’re setting up golf courses is not conducive to me. Really the last eight to 10 years was not conducive to me winning a major. That’s the only thing I could take away from playing consistently on the PGA Tour.
“Plus just hanging around the top 125, you wouldn’t get into the majors. My best way to get into the majors is playing here. I’m totally fine with where I’m at.”
A continued draw
The Senior Players offers a unique carrot that should continue to draw players to Akron. Since 2006, the winner has earned a spot in the Players Championship the following year. That event offers a $15 million purse, the largest on the PGA Tour, with Justin Thomas earning $2.7 million for his victory in March.
“I’d love to get back there and this is the way to do it,” Kelly said. “That course is right up my alley.”
Furyk talked to several players about when they knew it was time to choose the senior tour.
Hale Irwin initially split his tournaments 50-50, but that lasted less than a year. Players like Davis Love III and Vijay Singh, of whom Furyk said, “They weren’t wedge- and putter-type guys, they were guys that were built on power. … Davis always said, ‘If I putt well enough to win on the Champions Tour, I feel I putt well enough to win on the PGA Tour.’ He did at Greensboro.”
In 2015, at age 51, Love captured the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, firing a 6-under 64 on Sunday to become the third-oldest winner in PGA Tour history, a designation that still stands.
Stricker planned on playing more on the Champions tour in 2021, but then the U.S. Ryder Cup captain saw the competition postponed by COVID-19 until this year. That forced a change in his schedule because he wanted to stay close with potential members of his team.
But the senior tour’s stars are not concerned about the Phil factor convincing some in the class of 2021, 2022 and beyond to push back their commitment to the Champions tour.
“Guys are realizing that the competition on this tour is good enough to be able to say goodbye,” Kelly said.
Steve Stricker continued his run during the early going on Saturday of the Senior Players but showed signs of loose wheels later on.
AKRON, Ohio — Steve Stricker is either going to join Arnold Palmer and Bernhard Langer as a wire-to-wire winner or author a collapse of unimaginable proportions during Sunday’s final round of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club.
He showed signs of both on a sunny and windy Saturday.
Stricker continued his assault on the famed South Course during the early going on Saturday but showed signs of loose wheels in the later going and teetered on the brink of a stunning collapse.
A third-round 72 left Stricker still on top of the leaderboard at 7-under 203, but reigning champion Jerry Kelly crawled up Stricker’s back and is just four shots behind.
Only a birdie on the 625-yard 16th stopped the hemorrhaging and might have saved the day – and the tournament — for Stricker.
“It was a tough stretch of holes in there from 12, 13, 14, 15,” Stricker said. “I had a five-shot lead starting the day, I’ve got four now, so all in all I didn’t give away too many. But had an opportunity to kind of distance myself; that was the plan today. Go out, get going, be aggressive and make some birdies and get out ahead. But kind of got sidetracked there in the middle.”
He was able to right the ship with the birdie on 16.
“Yeah, I think so. It was a good drive, a good 4-iron that I hit there and a nice, chip, good putt. I played the hole well, played the next hole well, just got a gust of wind at 17, and played 18 well. I’m fine, I just I wish I didn’t have the little hiccups there in the middle.”
Stricker, 54, opened the third round with a 5-shot lead and birdied the first three holes to eventually make the turn at 2-under 33.
But he made three bogeys and one double-bogey on the back and tumbled back to the pack.
What had been a seemingly insurmountable 9-shot lead dwindled to four by day’s end as Kelly showed some heart with a third-round 2-under 68 to end 54 holes at 3-under 207.
Palmer led from start to finish in winning the 1985 Senior Players at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, and Langer, who has won 41 events on the Tour Champions list, followed suit in winning in 2015 at the Belmont Club outside Boston.
Stricker, 54, suffered his first two bogeys of the tournament on the fourth and 10th holes and stumbled to a double-bogey on the par-3 12th, but his three consecutive opening birdies extended his lead to a whopping nine strokes, seemingly leaving the field in his wake.
Contenders Paul Broadhurst, Ken Duke and Marco Dawson – or anyone else, for that matter – were not able to mount any challenge to the U.S. Ryder Cup captain.
Broadhurst, a two-time Senior major winner who started the day in second place, five shots behind Stricker, bogeyed two holes on the front and fell into a tie for eighth with Dawson at 2 over, nine shots off the lead.
Dawson also bogeyed two holes to start and added another on the 12th.
Duke was the lone contender able to maintain an even level and eventually pulled into sole possession of third place, five shots behind. He made the turn at even-par and added a birdie on the 12th by making a putt from just off the back edge of the green.
Jim Furyk, Ernie Els and David Toms are tied for fourth at even par, seven shots behind Stricker.
Kelly, who won here last with a final score of 3-under 277, began the day eight shots behind Stricker. He bogeyed the first but rebounded with two birdies and eventually to 3-under.
“I enjoy the chase,” Kelly said. “I’d rather be in the lead and stretch it, that’s everybody’s ideal. But, I don’t mind the chase.”
Now that he is in the hunt, Kelly showed some renewed vigor.
“It feels great,” he said in answering a question as to how it felt to be in the hunt. “I feel the swing is getting better and better each day. I still feel good putting and the short game. I mean, I’ve just got to go out and play. These conditions are tough. It’s going to be even tougher tomorrow. Yeah, it’s going to be a dogfight.”
