Category: PGA Tour Champions

Jerry Kelly alone atop leaderboard at Senior Players Championship

One Friday survivor was Jerry Kelly, who was one of six players to shoot par and took a three-shot lead over four others heading into the third round.

Aided by an ever-changing wind and a laser-like sun that turned the greens into a landing area slightly softer than an airport runway, the South Course at Firestone Country Club has turned ornery.

There were few survivors during the second round of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, which resumes Saturday with the field scrambling in the first of what was supposed to have been the third of five majors on the Champions Tour this year.

The Regions Tradition, postponed from early May, is scheduled for Sept. 24-27. The other three majors have been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

One Friday survivor was Jerry Kelly, who was one of six players to shoot par and took a three-shot lead over four others heading into the third round. Kelly, with six PGA Tour Champions wins under his belt, stood at 2-under 138 after adding a 70 to his opening 68.

Another to solve the conditions was slimmed-down Colin Montgomerie, one of four players in the field of 79 to break par with a second-round 69 and a two-day total of 141.

How tough was it?

“It was a challenge,” said Steve Stricker, one of four players in at 1-over 141 after a second-round 73 when he hit just nine greens. “I’m not hitting it all that great and that makes it more of a challenge. And we had a little bit more wind today and it’s a cross wind on all the holes, because it’s coming out of the east. So all these holes run north and south, so every hole’s a cross wind. It made club selection a little bit more challenging.”

Through two days and 159 rounds, only 20 scores have been at or under par.

Montgomerie, whose round included five birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey on the par-3 12th, said the conditions were what they should be.

“It’s a major championship and it should be more than a challenge,” said Montgomerie, who has lost approximately 40 pounds in the past five months. “It’s one of those courses where you get rewarded for good play and one of those where you get heavily penalized for not.”

Kelly, who finished in a tie for seventh in the recent Ally Challenge in Michigan, agreed.

“You get out of position here, you’re in deep trouble and that’s what it’s like in a major,” said Kelly, whose round had a painful ending when he suffered an elbow injury by hitting a tree root on the famed Monster 16th hole. “It’s definitely harder to get back in position. It seemed weird the way the holes were shaped and the way the wind was blowing. You know, it switched almost 180 degrees a couple times.”

Kelly saved par on the 180-yard 12th by chipping in from the right rough.

“The chip-in was awesome,” he said.

Not awesome was hitting the root from the right rough on the 16th.

“Hitting the root on 16 was not fun,” he said. “I saw a root in front of my ball but I didn’t see the root that my ball was sitting on. It is what it is.”

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Mark, Brenda Calcavecchia find RV life even better during pandemic

Mark Calcavecchia doesn’t understand why more players don’t travel to tournaments by RV, especially during the pandemic.

Brenda Calcavecchia wants to convert other professional golfers to the RV lifestyle during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She and husband Mark can relax in recliners in front of a big-screen TV with a stocked Sub-Zero wine cooler and their three dogs close by. They explore new places as they travel in between tournaments. They park in Walmart lots, with Columbia, South Carolina, their stop on Sunday night as they drove from Jupiter, Florida, to Akron, Ohio, for this week’s Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.

Mark’s longtime caddie, Brenda believes the mode of transportation is perfect for the virtually inseparable couple.

Except of course, for that harrowing stretch of Interstate 77 through West Virginia, which Mark negotiated Monday in the new Tiffin Zephyr motorhome they picked up five days before.

Senior Players: Leaderboard | Best photos

“It’s awful. The crazy thing is you have to pay to drive that road and it’s no better; I don’t know what they’re doing with the money,” Brenda said Thursday. The native of Bexley, Ohio, is familiar with the highway because her parents often took her to Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as a kid.

“Here we are in this new RV and all I can think about is everything in the entire place falling apart. It shakes … every bump.

“I think we got out OK. A few screws. …”

Calcavecchia is one of four Bridgestone competitors who arrived in RVs. So, too, did John Daly, Woody Austin and Tim Petrovic. Mark and Brenda have been crossing the country on the Champions Tour this way for 10 years.

“I can’t believe we didn’t do it sooner,” she said after Mark opened with a 6-over 76 Thursday at Firestone Country Club, eight shots off the lead. “I’ve been a germaphobe before it was in style. I didn’t like hotels, I don’t like flying, I don’t like being away from my dogs.

“You close the shades, we don’t know where we are. Once you shut ’em, you’re in this fantastic, comfortable space that’s all yours.”

With golfers wary of hotels and flying commercial, Brenda is baffled why more haven’t gone this route. At the moment the Calcavecchias have two buses, with their Prevost motorhome up for sale after their renter decided to buy his own.

“I think some guys are maybe nervous to even drive,” Brenda said. “I think they think you have to have a [commercial driver’s license]. You can just drive off the parking lot with one.

“I can’t believe more people don’t do this, especially on the regular tour. Those guys can afford to have somebody drive it for ’em, set it up, half of ’em fly private. Why would you want to sit in a hotel because we’re not allowed out? I can’t imagine not being in this; I don’t know what we would have done.”

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During the lockdown, Brenda said she saw Mark less than usual, as he played golf while she renovated a house to flip. She obtained her real estate license last year.

They also participated in Caddies for a Cause, which Brenda said reached its goal of raising $100,000 for the 75 Champions Tour caddies unemployed with tournaments canceled by the pandemic. Pros donated foursomes, others sent memorabilia for auction, which included a Masters pin flag from two-time champion Bernhard Langer.

Now back on the road, Brenda didn’t go to Grand Blanc, Michigan, two weeks ago for the Ally Challenge, the first since the Champions Tour restart. So her COVID-19 test in Akron was her first.

“I was kind of nervous, but I’ve had a flu swab before so I thought ‘It can’t be too bad,’” she said. “It’s not like it’s a 20-minute process, but it still hurts. I think he opened up my deviated septum — I’m not trying to be funny — because I can breathe better now. But I understand and I think the tour has done an amazing job trying to help us be safe.”

The Calcavecchias had hoped to eat dinner at the Diamond Grille, but tour protocols do not allow indoor dining. Nor can they get carryout from Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse, with the Akron location now permanently closed. That’s where they went on their first date during the 2001 NEC Invitational after meeting at the Memorial Tournament. Brenda attended Ohio State and graduated from Franklin University.

Brenda may not be able to convince Mark’s peers to convert to RV travel, but she thinks it’s perfect for them, even before the pandemic. But she admits their adventure has its stressful moments.

“There’s always something new that happens. We’ve become quite the mechanics,” she said. “You think you’ve fixed everything that can happen and something new always comes up.”

Like a familiar, yet frightening stretch of Interstate 77.

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Miguel Angel Jimenez helps set pace at Senior Players Championship

Miguel Angel Jimenez opened with a 2-under 68 on Thursday to share the lead with four others on the famed South Course.

He was part of the first group out and wasted no time in setting the pace in the first round of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club.

Miguel Angel Jimenez, the only pony-tailed player on the PGA Champions Tour and professional golf’s unofficial king of cool, opened with a 2-under 68 on Thursday to share the lead with four others on the famed South Course.

Playing in the first group of the first tee with Fred Couples and Ernie Els in one of the day’s marquee pairings Jimenez birdied the first hole and finished with four birdies and two bogeys en route to a round of 35-33 to share the lead with Wes Short Jr., Steve Stricker, Jerry Kelly and Rod Pampling.

Jimenez, the lover of great food, fine wine and a good cigar, is one of six winners on the PGA Tour Champions this season, having won the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii in January.

Coincidentally, he defeated Els and Couples – his playing partners on Thursday – in a playoff.

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This is the 11th time and the second time this season he has led or co-led after 18 holes. His best finish in four starts in the Senior Players came in 2016 when he finished tied for second with Joe Durant behind three-time winner Bernhard Langer.

After making the turn at even-par, Jimenez birdied the 10th and 11th holes before a bogey on the 471-yard 13th hole, traditionally one of the toughest on the course.

Jimenez, who has started more than 700 tournaments, was not the only one who found trouble at the unlucky 13th. There were 25 bogeys and eight double-bogeys against just three birdies and 44 pars.

Jimenez got back to 2-under with a birdie on the 221-yard 15th. He had a realistic sub-par attempt on the Monster 16th but missed what appeared to be a makeable six-foot putt.

“I played very well today, very solid,” he said. “I missed a couple of shots when I make the bogeys but I was always consistent. Am I happy? Happy, yeah, all good.”

He was happy enough to make fun of his miss on the 16th hole.

“The hole is moving, you know?” he joked. “When the hole is moving you know. No, I didn’t hit a good putt. As soon as I hit the ball I noticed it had no chance.”

Jimenez, 56, took a short break on the 18th tee while he waited for Els and Couples to tee off. He sat down and stretched out on a nearby bench.

“I played 17 holes, the heat is coming up and it was a beautiful bench in the shade,” he said. “So I sat down before I started walking.”

Jerry Kelly shows Firestone some love, then takes Senior Players lead with a 68

Kelly was pushing sponsors to extend their deal at Firestone, talking up the course and the conditions.

Organizers of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship didn’t need to use a hard sell to get Jerry Kelly to sign on for this week’s event.

With a history of solid showings at Akron’s Firestone Country Club, Kelly wasn’t just eager to get into the field, he was looking to preserve the tournament for the future.

During Wednesday’s pro-am event, Kelly was pushing sponsors to extend their deal at Firestone, talking up the course and the conditions.

“It’s a treat. I feel really lucky we are able to play this golf course at this
stage. It’s a fantastic golf course,” he said. “I played with the Bridgestone guys yesterday, and I was like, ‘come on, sign for another five years out for this one, too.’ I love coming back here.”

Kelly was talking on Thursday, too, but with his play. Despite a pair of bogeys after the turn, he righted the ship and finished with a 68, good enough to end the day atop the leaderboard, tied with Miguel Angel Jiménez, Steve Stricker, Rod Pampling and Wes Short, Jr.

In the past, Kelly played four events at Firestone during its World Golf Championship days. Kelly made all four cuts, finishing as high as 11th, and amassing over a quarter-million dollars.

“I had my chances with good finishes, but Tiger won every time,” Kelly joked on Thursday. “So that’s all there was to it.”

Kelly’s game is where he wants it to be — he played well at the PGA Tour’s Workday Charity Open in Columbus, overcoming an opening-round 75 to finish T-22, then finished T-7 at the Champions Tour restart in Flint, Michigan, last week. That’s in contrast to how he entered the pandemic break, struggling to get a handle on new irons and dealing with nagging injuries.

He said a bad back forced him to the sidelines for a few weeks, and he’s still seeking post-round treatments, but it didn’t hamper his play.

“I felt better today. Yesterday was rough, working with the guys in the trailer, and they really got me unstuck,” Kelly said. “So, but I’m not going to the range, I’m going right to the trailer and see if I can stay unstuck all week.

“And then I can build off of that. But I couldn’t do what I did today yesterday, so it was nice.”

Kirk Triplett on Black Lives Matter sticker: ‘This message isn’t out here’

Triplett put a Black Lives Matter sticker on his PING golf bag for the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, which opens Thursday

Kirk Triplett wouldn’t call the Black Lives Matter movement his new passion.

He and wife Cathi’s devotion to the cause of adoption will likely remain his priority because that’s how they brought two of their four children into the family.

But those two worlds intersected after George Floyd’s May 26 death while in custody of the Minneapolis police. The Triplett’s youngest son Kobe is African-American, his biological mother Japanese, his biological father Black.

Watching the ensuing protests worldwide, Triplett realized the discussions he needed to have with Kobe, 18. Triplett also knows that the message is not part of the PGA Tour Champions, which has no Black players among its regulars, and he thought it needed to be.

So Triplett put a Black Lives Matter sticker on his PING golf bag for the $3 million Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, which opens Thursday at Firestone Country Club.

“I’m not trying to make a big statement,” Triplett explained Wednesday. “For the first time I was kind of motivated that I don’t think we’re thinking enough about this in the circles that I travel in. I think we see it. We’re well-read. We understand. But I don’t think things are going to get accomplished until the circles that I travel in really understand it better. Sometimes it’s too easy to really not even think about it. I guess that’s why I put it on there.

“This message isn’t out here. It’s in other sports, it’s in the NBA, it’s in MLS, it’s in the women’s soccer league, it’s in the WNBA. I don’t see it in golf, so I put it on there.”

Kirk Triplett prepares for the Senior Players Championship in Akron, Ohio. (Photo by Phil Mastruzo/Akron Beacon Journal)

Kobe was 10 days old when the Tripletts took him in. He and Cathi had already adopted Alexis, now 20, a Latino who some prospective parents passed over because her 40-year-old biological mother had used methamphetamines. After three in vitro attempts, Cathi Triplett became pregnant with twin boys, Conor and Sam, now 24, but subsequent treatments failed as they tried to expand their family.

Staying at home with Champions Tour events canceled during the coronavirus pandemic gave Triplett time to think about things, he said.

“Being at home, reading the news a lot … A lot of times things in the world don’t affect me very much, but the protests and the stuff affected me this year,” Triplett said. “Not just in the sense of what’s going on in the world, but in the sense of ‘Oh, these are discussions I need to have with my son.’

“I thought, ‘Well, I don’t have to have the same discussion with my other sons.’ Since the discussion is going to be different, I don’t think that hits home and resonates with people unless it’s them.”

Triplett isn’t sure how Kobe feels about the sticker on his bag. Triplett said Kobe, a high school senior in Scottsdale, Arizona, might not like the attention if classes were in session.

“I don’t know, he doesn’t always share. He’s a teenage boy, he likes to be under the radar,” Triplett said. “I think if there was a lot of publicity surrounding this or publicity that affected him or if he was in school, he’d be uncomfortable with it. But he’s not, he’s learning from home and he’s a pretty quiet kid. When we have these conversations, I know he’s listening, but teenagers don’t always let you know that they’re listening.”

Triplett said he didn’t wait until the protests began to bring up systemic racism with Kobe.

“We’ve been talking to him for many years about the fact that, ‘You may get in some situations where you don’t understand why people are coming at you the way they are,’” Triplett said. “He’s experienced it a few times, so he knows it. He doesn’t see it I don’t think on the scale that some people … depending on which part of the country they live in or what their economic situation is. Your economic situation can shield you from so many of these things.

“We’ve talked about it and it usually sort of gets shrugged off and how could it not, because it really isn’t part of his day-to-day life.”

The Tripletts adopted Kobe and Alexis with the help of Debi Rolfing, wife of longtime NBC golf announcer Mark Rolfing, now with the Golf Channel. The Rolfings live in Kapalua, Hawaii, on the island of Maui, where Debi is a foster care parent.

“We’re not trying to change the world, we just wanted to have more kids and these were two kids we thought we could make a difference in their lives,” Triplett said. “More importantly, they’ve made a difference in ours.”

Triplett laughed when asked how his son got the name Kobe, saying Mark Rolfing initially wanted to name him Tiger.

“He goes, ‘No, that’s too big of a name,’ so Mark named him Kobe,” Triplett said. “When we adopted him, we were like, ‘Should we change his name? They’ve already been calling him Kobe for 10 days.’”

Triplett said he doesn’t know if his feelings about Black Lives Matter will ever rival how strongly he feels about adoption. But that wasn’t the point of the sticker prominent on his white golf bag.

“I don’t envision that being the case. For me it was more, ‘Think about this,’” Triplett said. “If somebody will just go on the web site and look. More of the stories that we have about this are anecdotal and we don’t really know the true depth of the issues and I don’t profess to. I have no answers at all.

“But I do know when you have a segment of the population that is frightened of the people that are there to help with their public safety, you have an issue. You have an issue.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

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How I spent my COVID lockdown: Steve Stricker becomes Fortnite fanatic, Retief Goosen restores a Hummer

Steve Stricker refused to demonstrate his Fortnite dance moves, but the mental picture of the 53-year-old golfer celebrating a good shot with gyrations from the video game was still a visual delight. “I got a couple dances when I do something well, …

Steve Stricker refused to demonstrate his Fortnite dance moves, but the mental picture of the 53-year-old golfer celebrating a good shot with gyrations from the video game was still a visual delight.

“I got a couple dances when I do something well, I will throw it at the guys,” Stricker said, giving no hint of his preferred choices.

Asked if he would show them off for the PGA Tour Champions camera, Stricker said, “No, no chance.”

What members of the Champions Tour did during the coronavirus lockdown might seem mundane, even though the 50-and-over players are competing in just the second event since the restart in the $3 million Bridgestone Senior Players, which opens Thursday at Firestone Country Club.

But that was not the case where Stricker and Retief Goosen are concerned.

No one would have imagined Stricker becoming addicted to Fortnite or Goosen working to restore a 2006 Hummer H2 SUT, infamous in Akron because LeBron James drove an H2 while in high school.

“I got into Fortnite. Stupid game,” Stricker revealed Wednesday. “I don’t know where that came from, but it’s kind of consumed some of my time, even lately. I bring it with me out on the road and pass the time. But I’m trying to wean myself off that game.”

At first, Stricker’s wife Nicki and their daughters Bobbi, 21, and Isabella, 14, played with him at their home in Madison, Wisconsin.

“During the quarantine, when it first happened, I was playing quite a bit. I had nothing else to do, right? We play golf and then I play Fortnite,” he said. “The kids started playing with me, too. Nicki tried to, but she got frustrated with it and ended that pretty quickly.

“But yeah, I still get into that. The kids have stopped playing. They know better.”

Returning champion Relief Goosen, left, elbow bumps Sam Jakabcic of Brunswick while posing for a photo before the Bridgestone Senior Players Tournament pro-am on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020, Akron, Ohio, at Firestone Country Club. [Phil Masturzo/ Beacon Journal]
Goosen, meanwhile, was in Orlando, Florida. He said he didn’t touch a club for three months, occupied instead by another of his passions.

“I am a bit of a mechanic,” Goosen said. “So I bought myself an old car and spent three months renovating it. I was under the bonnet taking things apart and cleaning and putting them back together. That’s just the kind of thing I like.

“It needed a bit of work. And it just worked out fine now. It’s a great car to drive.”

Goosen said it was only the second or third car he’s tinkered with.

“I’m a bit of a car guy, so they come in and out of my garage,” he said.

Goosen said he also wakeboarded for the first time, then tried water skiing again.

“I used to do slalom waterskiing, but after back surgery … well, before back surgery I sort of gave it up, so it will be 10 years. But I got out behind the boat. And it was a little sort of wobbly in the beginning, but later on, I started finding a little bit of stride. But I didn’t want to push myself and fall and twist an ankle, that’s for sure.”

Fred Couples’ down time was more routine. After playing in the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, California, he headed to Palm Springs, where he, his girlfriend Suzanne Radcliffe and her son Hunter stayed until mid-June. Couples played basketball, golf and tennis with the 12-year-old, watched old movies, kids movies and lots of Netflix.

“Then went back to Newport, and you would have thought there wasn’t a coronavirus,” Couples said. “People were everywhere. And I’m not going to say no one cared, but there was a lot going on. Then they kind of shut California down and then it got a little serious.

“When you’re in Palm Springs, you kind of don’t see the world, except on TV. And everything was beautiful there. And it was beautiful in Newport, once people started paying attention.”

A Seattle native, Couples said he kept an eye on demonstrations against racial injustice in the Pacific Northwest.

Couples, 60, did not play two weeks ago in the Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Michigan, so this is his first experience with the Champions Tour’s COVID-19 protocol.

“I got here and I have never done so many things at a golf tournament and we’re only Wednesday morning,” he said. “I have been tested. I picked up my test. I went, had my temperature taken. I went back and got a ticket to get in the gates. Then I’m eating out of plastic that’s been wrapped up seven times, just to stay clean. And I got no problem with it.”

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Kirk Triplett puts Black Lives Matter sticker on bag for Senior Players Championship

The Black Lives Matter movement is a personal one for Kirk Triplett, and he’s proving it this week at the Senior Players Championship.

For Kirk Triplett, the Black Lives Matter movement is a personal one.

He and his wife Cathi have a couple adopted children, and his youngest, Kobe, is Black.

The eight-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions arrived in Akron, Ohio, for this week’s Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club with a Black Lives Matter sticker on his golf bag.

“This seems like a good venue where this message maybe doesn’t get spread as much,” said Triplett in a PGA Tour Champions video on Tuesday. “Golf’s a very insulated game. For me, personally, I was affected kind of more personally this time and it seemed like a natural thing having an African-American son in the house and having to have these conversations.”

“That’s a conversation that I think people around golf, it doesn’t hit home,” Triplett said of the Black Lives Matter movement. “It doesn’t just have to come from the African-American side, it needs to come from all sides, so, hence the sticker.”

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Hale Irwin’s competitive fire rises again as Bernhard Langer nears victory record

As Bernhard Langer closes in on his record of 45 PGA Tour Champions victories, Hale Irwin doesn’t sound overly possessive.

As Bernhard Langer closes in on his record of 45 PGA Tour Champions victories, Hale Irwin doesn’t sound overly possessive.

But there is a hint of regret in the 75-year-old’s voice, a touch of disappointment. Not because he feels as if the machine-like Langer will eventually pass him, but rather that he wishes he could have competed more in the twilight of his career.

Hampered by a foot injury that would require three to six months of rehab if he underwent surgery, Irwin has played in three tournaments in 2020, the same number in 2019, and hasn’t competed in more than eight since 2015.

“I probably could have played a little bit longer, more effectively had I wanted to,” Irwin said last week. “But things developed off the golf course that gave me opportunities to do other things. If you’re going to play competitive golf, that’s what you do. If you don’t do that wholeheartedly and with more attention than I was giving it, then you’re not going to play as well.

“Of course, someone like me that is highly competitive, I don’t like to accept something less than what I’m capable of. It was frustrating and I was tired of getting frustrated, so I just kind of stepped out of the arena and let those guys bang heads.”

Irwin returns to Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, this week for the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, but he won’t be competing in the $3 million event. Instead, Irwin will join Andy North, Tom Kite, Hal Sutton, Larry Nelson and Gary Koch in the Westfield Legends Pro-Am on Thursday morning at Westfield Country Club.

“I may have to withdraw, that’s too strong a field,” Irwin joked. He was speaking from Denver, where he was celebrating his son’s birthday.

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Langer, who turns 63 on Aug. 27, has totaled 41 victories and will be among the favorites in the Bridgestone field. No. 2 in the Charles Schwab Cup rankings with five top 10s in six events this year, Langer has one victory in 2020, that in the Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Arizona, on March 1. He has won at least once for 14 consecutive years and has triumphed eight times at age 60 or older.

Irwin’s last victory came in 2007, but he has shot his age or better 44 times on the Champions Tour, well ahead of Gary Player, second on that list with 30. Among Irwin’s recent highlights was a first-round 67 in the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach in September 2018.

“The body and the mind, you take just a little bit of a hesitant step and the field just goes right by you. That’s kind of what I’ve done the last couple years,” Irwin said.

He said he has a “bunion net” on the outside of his left foot, where the bone toward the end of his little toe separated. It changed his swing pattern and affected his distance.

“The putting is still good, the short game is still good. I still drive the ball accurately,” Irwin said. “I’m 75, do I really want to get my foot operated on? Is it going to work? You just don’t know.”

Hale Irwin lines up a putt on the first hole during the final round of the Senior PGA Championship golf tournament at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., Sunday, May 29, 2011.

Although COVID-19 protocols may prevent Irwin from hitting a shot at Firestone on this visit, he has fond memories of Akron, where he started to play in the American Golf Classic, which followed the Rubber City Open.

“Coming back reminds me of the very first time I was in Akron. It was such a well-run event, it was so much fun to play,” he said. “They were one of the first tournaments that actually had hospitality that would help players find housing and those kinds of things that we take for granted today. The city embraced it. It’s such a great golf environment.

“You had a really good golf course, you had really attentive crowds, it wasn’t a country club it was a golf club, so you kind of had that atmosphere. For me, it fit hand and glove.”

Family lured Irwin away from competitive golf after his design work dried up between 2007-09. But he plays in outings and said he has gotten more involved in non-golf-related businesses.

Irwin and his wife, Sally, have four grandchildren — “the light of my life right now,” he said — who range in age from 19 to nearly 5. His daughter lives in the Phoenix area near Irwin’s home in Paradise Valley with her two boys, his son in Denver has two girls. The Irwins have also kept their home in St. Louis, where they lived for many years.

Hale Irwin is shown with his trophy after winning the U.S. Open Championship title at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., June 16, 1974. Irwin defeated Forrest Fezler with a score of 287. (AP Photo)

“I’m happy, let’s put it that way. I miss playing, I don’t miss the travel and all the other stuff that goes with that,” Irwin said. “There’s always a part of me that will stay tuned to the competitive arena of golf because that was my life for so many years.”

That means Irwin will be watching if Langer catches or passes his victory record.

“It’s his to make or break,” Irwin said. “Have to give the man credit, he’s played extremely well through his later years. I had my run at it.

“If Bernhard makes it, I’ll applaud him. If he doesn’t, he gave it a great try. Nothing I can do about it, just wake up every morning and bless the sunrise.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

Darren Clarke and his wife to reunite at Senior Players after five-month pandemic separation

Clarke’s excitement in playing at the Senior Players Championship might be superseded by the fact that Alison will join him in Akron.

When his wife Alison left Newport Beach, California, on March 8, Darren Clarke could not have imagined they would spend the next five months apart.

After he completed the final round of the PGA Tour Champions’ Hoag Classic, she flew to their home in Portrush, Northern Ireland, just before international travel was halted by the coronavirus pandemic. Clarke found himself alone at their place at The Abaco Club on Winding Bay in the Bahamas from March 14 until five weeks ago, when their eldest son Tyrone managed to join him.

The Clarkes were an ocean away on their eighth wedding anniversary on April 11.

So Clarke’s excitement to return to Firestone Country Club for the first time in nine years for this week’s Bridgestone Senior Players Championship might be superseded by the fact that Alison will join him in Akron on Saturday night.

“That will be wonderful,” Clarke said by phone from Abaco on Thursday. “She’s been back in Northern Ireland with our son Conor. With airports, borders, everything being shut, it’s been a logistical nightmare trying to get everybody together. It actually hasn’t been possible.”

The 2003 winner of the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational and the 2011 British Open champion, Clarke will be playing his first Champions Tour event since the lockdown began. He doesn’t know what lies ahead for the rest of the season amid COVID-19, except that tour protocols will reduce him to delivery or carryout from his favorite restaurant, Ken Stewart’s Grille.

“I’ve got no idea what the real world is really like,” he said, days from emerging from his pandemic paradise.

Clarke was frustrated he was forced to communicate with his wife and sons via WhatsApp and video calls twice a day, but admitted, “At least we were seeing each other a daily basis.” Despite the separation anxiety, Clarke knows he was lucky to be quarantined at The Abaco Club.

He said Abaco Island has had only one known case of COVID-19. The club has repaired damage from Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that destroyed nearby Marsh Harbour last September; he said that town may be five years from normalcy. The Abaco Club’s Scottish-style links course regarded as the best in the Bahamas remained open, as did its beach bar Flippers, 20 yards from the first tee.

Clarke said he cooked for himself, played golf and went fly fishing for permit, which he said is his “thing” while there.

“They’re the holy grail of flying fishing,” Clarke said. “They’re very spooky. You’ve got to basically be able to throw a minimum 80-foot cast in 25 mph crosswinds and land it in a one-foot square. You can do all that perfect and they still won’t eat.

“That’s my complete obsession. They call it permit fever. I’ve been doing it now for a good few years. They are incredibly difficult and frustrating. Not only do I do that, but I also try to play golf. So I picked two of the hardest things you could possibly do.”

With Clarke were a few good friends — course superintendent Matt Dimase, food and beverage manager John Wiley, development officer Kevin O’Malley and golf director Brian Shaver.

Clarke, 51, has always done everything to excess, and that included consuming his Flippers drink of choice, a Sea Breeze (usually vodka and cranberry with a splash of grapefruit).

“They’ve got a very heavy pour down here, which leads to a very sore head in the mornings,” Clarke said. “I tend to enjoy myself wherever I go and these five months have been no exception.

“Unfortunately, I’ve been dragged towards Flippers a lot, so exercise hasn’t been at the top of the agenda. Eating and drinking however have. It’s been quite a good fun time with my friends, but I’m ready to get back to playing again and seeing the guys on tour and trying to be competitive again.”

Five months of merriment did not keep Clarke from working on his game.

“I’ve been practicing an awful lot. Hopefully the state of the game is OK,” he said. “You can practice all you want, but you never really know until you have a card in your hand, until you get into competition. I worked really hard on a lot of things I thought I needed to and we shall see what happens next week.”

Clarke captured the 2011 British Open at Royal St. George’s, at age 42 becoming the oldest winner of the event since Roberto De Vicenzo in 1967. But Clarke said he no longer basks in that glow.

“It’s wonderful to win the tournament that I wanted to win as a kid. The guys jab at me every now and again when they win a hole off me in Nassau,” he said. “It’s not something that I think about an awful lot. I achieved my dream, which not too many people actually do, so I’m very fortunate in that way. Maybe I should revisit it a little bit more often in my thoughts.”

Winless on his two years on the Champions Tour, Clarke can think of no better place for that breakthrough than Firestone, where his 12-under par 270 in 2003 was four strokes better than Jonathan Kaye.

“It would be wonderful to win at Firestone,” he said. “I’ve given myself a few chances to win, not as many as I would have liked. That’s why I’ve been working my a– off and practicing as hard as I have. I want to win. If that was to come sooner rather later, I would really enjoy it.”

With the impending arrival of Alison, the Bridgestone Senior Players will provide more than a South Course challenge for Clarke.

Miss Northern Ireland and runner-up as Miss United Kingdom in 1987, Alison (nee Campbell) founded Belfast-based ACA Models in 1990. Alison met Clarke on a blind date set up by golfer Graeme McDowell, a Portrush native.

Clarke’s wife Heather died in 2006 at age 39 after a four-year battle with breast cancer. Their sons Tyrone and Conor were 8 and 5, respectively.

“I was still living in London and Graeme suggested, ‘I’ve got a friend you might want to meet,’” Clarke said of finding Alison. “We spent a weekend in London and got along really well. It was time for me to move back to Northern Ireland again. She has her business there.

“It was one of those things that just worked out. She’s a wonderful lady.”

Marla Ridenour is a columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal, part of the USA Today Network. She can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

Jim Furyk pulls away, wins Champions Tour debut at Ally Challenge

Furyk stood his ground on Sunday, posting a smooth-as-silk 68 to win in Champions debut at Warwick Hills, just outside of Flint, Michigan.

Jim Furyk sure made this Champions Tour stuff look easy.

While others made runs on Sunday during the final round of the Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Michigan, Furyk simply stood his ground, posting a smooth-as-silk 68 to win in Champions debut.

He becomes the 19th player to win a Champions event on his first try, following in the footsteps of others like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins.

“I didn’t know 19 people won in their first time, it sounds so ordinary,” Furyk said through a smile after the victory. “It feels good, you know, I really missed a lot of good friends out here. I respect the talent out here and you look at how many Hall of Famers and how many good players there are, so it’s an honor to come out win the first one.”

Retief Goosen and Brett Quigley both were in the hunt with Furyk, but each made a critical mistake down the stretch — Goosen bogeyed No. 18, while Quigley lipped out a short putt on No. 17 and bogeyed each of the final two holes.

Ally Challenge scores

For Furyk, this meant another great finish at Warwick Hills, where he made all 15 cuts when the course hosted the PGA Tour’s Buick Open. He captured the Buick title in 2003, finished second twice and placed in the top 25 in all but three of his appearances at the course.

Chris DiMarco, Rod Pampling and Wes Short Jr. all finished tied for third at 10 under while Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Jerry Kelly were fourth at 9 under.

In terms of others who have also won their debut, Palmer won in his first attempt, the 1980 Senior PGA Championship, while Nicklaus won in his debut at the 1990 Regions Tradition.

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