“A portion of a tree at Firestone Country Club broke off and struck a spectator as it fell to the ground.”
AKRON, Ohio — A large tree limb fell during Wednesday’s pro-am at Firestone Country Club, just a day before the Kaulig Companies Championship was slated to begin.
The limb, about 30-40 feet in length, suddenly fell to the ground between the ninth and first holes with a crash just before 3 p.m. A crew working with chainsaws was able to clear the tree from the path relatively quickly.
Firestone workers rush to the scene where a large tree branch feel between holes 1 and 9 during the Kaulig Companies Championship pro-am at Firestone Country Club, Wednesday, July 10, 2024, in Akron, Ohio. (Jeff Lange/Akron Beacon Journal)
The PGA Tour Champions released the following statement on the incident:
“At approximately 2:40 p.m. today, a portion of a tree at Firestone Country Club broke off and struck a spectator as it fell to the ground. The club and tournament medical staff took immediate action, attending to the fan and providing first aid. Local EMTs arrived on-site shortly thereafter, transporting the spectator from the course to a local hospital to receive additional medical attention. Following the fan’s safe transport off-site, the club’s grounds crew removed the fallen portion of the tree from the property.
“We remain in touch with the spectator and will follow-up and monitor his recovery. The safety and well-being of everyone at our tournaments is always our top priority.”
The festivities began with a pro-am Wednesday. The tournament kicks off Thursday and lasts until Sunday.
Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning will receive this year’s Ambassador of Golf Award for his work in and out of the golf world on Thursday evening.
This is the second consecutive year Kaulig Companies, a Hudson-based business that works in sports, entertainment, home products, financial services and philanthropy, will sponsor the tournament.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com. Follow him on Threads at @ByRyanLewis.
Langer was asked about the key to his sustained success and he insisted it came from a multitude of factors.
Bernhard Langer’s final foray with the DP World Tour after an incredible 50-year run didn’t go as planned as the star missed the cut Friday at the BMW International Open, shooting a 1-over 73 following an opening-round 71 in Munich in his native Germany.
“I was able to live that dream for 50 years,” the 66-year-old said. “I have wonderful memories from all over the world, not just in Europe but Asia, Australia, Japan, America, South Africa. I was able to travel the world and meet with kings and queens.
“I played golf with all sorts of people, whether they were successful businessmen or just the average butcher or bricklayer or whatever, it was fun, it was great.”
But now that Langer has finished off his career overseas is he also thinking about scaling back on the PGA Tour Champions, where he is the all-time leader with 46 victories?
Bernhard Langer of Germany and his caddie at the pro-am prior to the 2024 BMW International Open at Golfclub Munchen Eichenried in Munich, Germany. (Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
It certainly doesn’t appear so. Prior to the U.S. Senior Open at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island, Langer was asked about the key to his sustained success and he insisted it came from a multitude of factors.
“There’s a lot of things. First of all, you have to be reasonably healthy, because if not, you can’t do what you want to do and can’t swing the way you want to swing,” he said. “I was born with a competitive nature, so I have a healthy drive and live a disciplined life, which probably helps. You need a great support system with coach, manager, caddie, family obviously is even more important, all of that.
“And the willingness to put in the work. I’m 66, and a lot of people say, why don’t you retire? I guess I could, but I love the game of golf and I love to compete, and I’m still good enough to compete and be up there where I think I can win tournaments.”
So at least for now, Langer will stay involved with the senior circuit, where he’s been a high-level performer on since winning Rookie of the Year honors in 2008.
This season, Langer had made the cut in all seven of his Champions starts, and has a pair of top-10 finishes, including a third-place showing at the Principal Charity Classic in June.
“When that changes, when I feel like I’m going to finish in the bottom third of the field every week I compete, then it’s probably time to quit,” he said. “Hopefully, I will know when that is.”
Langer, 66, captured 42 DP World Tour titles (in addition to his three PGA Tour and 46 PGA Tour Champions wins). He was originally planning to make the 2024 Masters his final trip to Augusta National but suffered an Achilles injury in February and has since said 2025 will be his final time playing the Masters.
The senior schedule heats up with two majors in three weeks, starting at Firestone Country Club next week with the Kaulig Companies Championship and Langer is expected to be in the field, if for no other reason than the desire to stay active.
“I don’t drink alcohol at all. I drink a little bit, but very, very little. I don’t smoke. I exercise every day and stretch. I have done so forever since I can remember. I think that certainly helps to be reasonably fit, to have some stamina, and to feel better,” he said. “Just the body functions better when we move the body. If we become too sedentary, sooner or later you’re going to pay the price for it. I talked to my PT, physical therapist, and he said, if you lay two weeks in the hospital, just two weeks, don’t do anything, guess how much strength you lose? 50 percent. I was shocked.
“That only encourages me to do more, do something every day, instead of just laying around for a few days in a row.”
Bland nearly holed a bunker blast on fourth playoff hole to lock it up.
It took a two-hole aggregate playoff then two more holes of sudden death as Richard Bland of England outlasted Hiroyuki Fujita of Japan for the U.S. Senior Open title Monday at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island.
Bland became the 12th player to win his U.S. Senior Open debut and the second golfer from England to win the title.
Playing No. 18 for the third time in the playoff, Bland almost holed his blast from a greenside bunker, the ball striking the flag and finishing inches from the hole. His par knocked out Fujita, who failed to get up and down from 44 yards short of the flag on the long par 4. Fujita’s lengthy par putt missed by an inch.
It was the second senior major title in two tries for Bland, 51, who plays on LIV Golf. In May he won the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores in Michigan.
“Your first two senior tournaments to be majors, and to come out on top is, I was just hoping going into the PGA that I was good enough to contend. I hadn’t played against these guys,” he said. “I knew, if I played the way I know I can play, it should be good enough to be able to compete. But, yeah, to be (standing) here with two majors is, yeah, I’m at a loss for words at the moment now.”
Both players had gone par-par-bogey in the first three playoff holes. After the playoff started on No. 10, they played the long, par-4 18th three times to settle the playoff.
On the fourth playoff hole, Fujita drove left and just inches off the fairway. But Fujita carries only a 5-wood, and with 259 yards to go, he was unable to reach the green in regulation. His approach ended up some 44 yards short of the flag in good position, and his pitch onto the green finished well short of the hole.
After having banged his drive past a fairway bunker, Bland had a 214-yard approach uphill but hooked his approach into a greenside bunker. From there, his par save locked up the title. The ball bounced once, kissed the flagstick, then looked as if it might fall into the cup before settling just inches away.
Bland closed in 4-under 66 to reach the playoff, while Fujita cooled off Monday and finished in 1-over 71.
Hiroyuki Fujita plays a bunker shot in the fourth round of the U.S. Senior Open on Sunday at Newport Country Club. (Louis Walker III/USA TODAY NETWORK)
On the first hole of the two-hole aggregate playoff, both players missed the fairway to the right on the 455-yard, par-4 10th. Fujita missed the green just short but was able to save his par after Bland missed his birdie putt.
On the second playoff hole, both players hit the fairway on the 466-yard, par-4 18th, their golf balls within steps of each other on the side of a mound. Both players hit the green and two-putted for par, the playoff then returning to the 18th tee for what turned into sudden death.
Both players missed the green on No. 18 on the third playoff hole, Fujita in a greenside bunker to the left and Bland slicing his approach well right. After Bland’s pitch and Fujita’s bunker blast, both players missed lengthy par putts and the playoff went to a fourth hole.
The final round was unable to finish Sunday because of dangerous storms. When play was called Sunday, Fujita had a three-shot lead on Bland and a four-stroke lead on Richard Green.
But Fujita, 55, made three bogeys on the back nine Monday after having just two bogeys in his first 64 holes, opening the door for Bland to catch him at 13-under 267. Fujita missed just one fairway in his first three rounds but wasn’t as sharp after the weather delay.
A par on No. 18 in regulation would have locked up the title for Bland, but he fell into the playoff with a bogey on the closing hole after driving into a bunker. Fujita narrowly missed a long birdie putt on the 72nd hole that would have given him the title.
Bland’s win gets him a spot in the 2025 U.S. Open.
“I know what you guys like to do with U.S. Opens, so just go easy on us olders. Maybe you can stick a tee up maybe for me,” he said. “It was my first ever tournament in America in at Bethpage in ’09, and I was just blown away by it. We’re always kind of like, oh, being from Europe or from the UK, our major is The Open, but I was blown away by the U.S. Open.
“I’ll be looking at flights to Oakmont for next year very, very soon.”
The USGA reports that play was postponed until Monday due to a dangerous weather situation.
The 2024 U.S. Senior Open was in a lengthy delay Sunday afternoon when the USGA announced the final round would be postponed until Monday due to a “dangerous weather situation.”
Hiroyuki Fujita is the current leader at 16 under. He is up three shots on Richard Bland and four on Richard Green. Steve Stricker is solo fourth at 10 under. Those are the only four golfers double digits under par through 3 ½ rounds at Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island.
Fujita, 55, has just two bogeys through 64 holes so far. Through the first 54 holes, he had only missed one fairway. During his final round Sunday, he broke the record for most consecutive fairways hit (32) at a U.S. Senior Open since 1997.
The third round tee times on Saturday were moved up in an attempt to avoid the weather but Mother Nature was not to be beat on Sunday. The start of play was delayed due to fog. When play was suspended at 3:01 p.m. ET, the USGA reported that it was due to “a dangerous weather situation.”
The 44th U.S. Senior Open has been suspended due to dangerous weather in the area. pic.twitter.com/r87jcVME5b
The duo got together for an interview in the first round and it was priceless.
Get the tissues out.
Gary Koch and Roger Maltbie are names familiar to most golf fans who have watched any NBC Sports telecast over the last couple decades. The two haven’t worked full-time for the network since the end of 2022, but they returned in March for the 50th anniversary of the Players Championship, and fans loved seeing their faces on TV and listening to their analysis.
Well, the duo and good friends were together on TV again Thursday, this time in a bit different capacity. Koch qualified for this week’s U.S. Senior Open at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island (the oldest player to ever do so at 71 years and 7 months), and Maltbie was walking around as an on-course reporter.
The duo got together for an interview in the first round, and it was priceless.
This will be his sixth tournament back as he continues to play through recovery from an Achilles injury.
It’s been a year already since Bernhard Langer won the U.S. Senior Open. More important to the here and now, he’s just shy of five months since tearing his Achilles on Feb. 1.
This will be his sixth tournament back as he continues to play through recovery from the injury. He’ll also be three-for-three in participating in the senior majors in 2024, quite a feat for someone who was told the typical Achilles’ recovery is 12 months.
“It’s getting better, but it’s not there yet. I was told it’s an injury that generally takes 12 months to be at 100 percent, and I’m not even at five months yet,” Langer said Wednesday at Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island. “I feel it. My leg and my ankle is swollen. It’s fatigue. I don’t have the range of motion in my foot.
“So there’s various things that aren’t there yet. My balance is not where I want it to be and my strength. My calf muscle is probably one or two inches smaller than the other leg. I can’t get on my tiptoes. Right foot, I can do that. Just my right foot. I tried it on my left, and nothing.”
While he will get a cart this week, he will also need to prepare for a fourth day of competition, as senior majors have 72 holes, unlike most of the regular-season senior events consisting of 54.
“I’ve got a ways to go and I’m happy to be playing golf. The good thing is I can get carts in tournaments because right now I can’t walk four or five days, 18 holes. It’s impossible,” he said.
Langer says he had a long discussion recently with New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who famously tore his Achilles just four plays into last season.
“We had just talked about the PRP and stem cells, which I haven’t done yet and probably will not do, but I’ve had PRP done, which is your own blood spinning and injecting your own blood into the wound or into the area that needs healing,” Langer said. “It was interesting to hear his thoughts on the rehab, what he did and what I was doing, and it was on very similar lines and similar progress as well.”
After setting PGA Tour Champions records for victories (46), majors (12) and money ($36 million), he says he often gets the same question.
“I’m 66, and a lot of people say, why don’t you retire?” he said. “I guess I could, but I love the game of golf and I love to compete, and I’m still good enough to compete and be up there where I think I can win tournaments. When that changes, when I feel like I’m going to finish in the bottom third of the field every week I compete, then it’s probably time to quit.
“Every record out here started at 50. They should never lower it. That’s what it is and what it should always be”
(Editor’s note: This is the second part of a two-part series examining the PGA Tour Champions and its eligibility age from Golfweek’s PGA Tour senior writer Adam Schupak. The first part of the series, on Tiger Woods and his potential involvement in the PGA Tour Champions, is linked here.)
Carl Pettersson is stuck in what many PGA Tour professionals over the age of 40 refer to as no man’s land.
Pettersson, 46, aka the Swedish Pancake, has made 443 career Tour starts, won five times, reached as high as No. 23 in the world in 2006 and earned more than $22 million on the PGA Tour, but injured a wrist in 2016 and has cashed a check just once since October 2017. He’s made just 10 starts in the last six years since turning 40 and underwent surgery on both hips a year ago – three months apart – to repair torn labrums that had limited his mobility.
“I’m just getting back into the swing of things,” he said during a recent phone interview with Golfweek. “I’d like to make a run on the Champions Tour in a few years.”
That is a common refrain of pro golfers as they approach the half-century mark. In no other profession do workers welcome turning 50 more than PGA Tour pros, who blow out all those candles and instantly become eligible for golf’s great mulligan, PGA Tour Champions, the 50-and-older circuit. But getting to an age that often sets off a mid-life crisis in others and transitioning to a life of (mostly) no cuts and suddenly being one of the longer players again can be tricky business. As the Tour becomes younger and deeper, it’s become harder than ever to keep a card and remain relevant after age 40, demoting some pros to eke out a living on the Korn Ferry Tour, others to become talking heads on TV or, in Pettersson’s case, Uber Dad around town.
Is 50 still the right age for eligibility to PGA Tour Champions? It’s a question that has surfaced every few years since the senior circuit came into fruition in 1980. Opinions are sharp and divided.
Jeff Sluman tees off the second hole during the first round of the 2024 Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golf Club. (Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
“It could possibly help both tours,” Jeff Sluman, 66, said. “Get some more youth in there, more access for the Korn Ferry Tour pros on the PGA Tour.”
“Every record out here started at 50,” Scott McCarron, 58, said. “They should never lower it. That’s what it is and what it should always be.”
When Golfweek asked PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan if he felt age 50 still is the right criteria to become eligible for the PGA Tour Champions and has there been any consideration of lowering that number, he essentially brushed the question aside for another day.
“The only way I would respond to that is that 50 has worked very well, and when you look at the impact you can have by lowering the age level and thinking about who is going to start playing on PGA Tour Champions versus continuing to play here competitively and thinking about those that are on PGA Tour Champions today and the records that are there, it’s complicated,” Monahan said. “But we’re dealing with a lot of complexity, so that’s something that we’ll continue to look at.”
Four years ago, before COVID-19 or LIV Golf emerged to focus their attention, members of the PGA Tour policy board pushed for PGA Tour Champions to evaluate if the time was right to lower the age of eligibility. One suggestion was to staircase the age down one year at a time until it would be lowered to 45 to avoid the shock and make it more palatable for current members of the senior circuit. The reality is there’s no equitable way to do it – someone is going to feel as if he’s been screwed.
Justin Ray, head of content at Twenty-first Group, provided several stats that confirm what seems obvious by now: the PGA Tour is getting younger. From 2000 through the 2012-13 season, 18.2 percent of PGA Tour winners were age 40 or older. Since 2013-14, that number is significantly lower — 8.4 percent.
From 2000 through 2011, there were nine different seasons where 15 percent or more of the wins on Tour went to players age 40 or older. There has not been a single season where 15 percent or more were age 40 or older since.
In the 2021-22 season, there was only one player in his 40s all season to win — Chez Reavie at the Barracuda Championship, and he was 40 years old. Since 1990, there have been four seasons where there were two or fewer winners on the Tour age 40-plus — wait for it — two of them are 2020 (2 wins) and 2022 (1 win) and this season could be headed to a third. Camilo Villegas, 41 at the time, Justin Rose, 42, and Lucas Glover, who won twice at age 43, were the only 40-somethings to lift a trophy last season. Just one player 40 or older has tasted victory so far this season: Brice Garnett, 40, at the Puerto Rico Open, an opposite-field event with a diluted field.
Brice Garnett celebrates making his putt for birdie on the fourth playoff hole to beat Erik Barnes at the 2024 Puerto Rico Open at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. (Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
In fact, since Phil Mickelson’s win at the 2021 PGA Championship at age 50, only seven events have been won by players 40 or older – a ratio of just 4.8 percent. Nobody older than 43 has won during that span. Stewart Cink won at 47 (Sept. 2020 and April 2021) and Brian Gay at 48 (Nov. 2020) but they have been the exception to the rule.
This season, there were eight players age 45 or older that were fully exempt on the Tour, including Matt Kuchar (46), Zach Johnson (48) and Scott Gutschewski (47) and only one of them, Charley Hoffman at No. 82, is currently in the top 125. The trend of younger winners and 40-somethings trying to hold on to status for dear life as they count the days to 50 has been hard to ignore and was the impetus for the PGA Tour policy board approaching the Champions Tour policy board to investigate the issue. A study was conducted that found that neither sponsors nor players were in favor of it.
So, the idea of lowering the eligibility age died on the vine.
James Hahn, 42, one of the policy board members at the time, recalled this being the final verdict: “They said, ‘We don’t want PGA Tour rejects. If you’re still competitive on the PGA Tour (in your late 40s) and have status, why would you want to play on the Champions Tour?’ ”
Indeed, the players who do move the needle tend to stay competitive longer and try to delay their transition to the senior circuit as long as possible for a simple reason: Nearly all of the Champions Tour’s regular-season purses are approximately $3 million, or less than first prize at a PGA Tour Signature event. It’s a case of simple economics why a player such as Cink continues to spend the majority of his time on the PGA Tour despite having turned 51. But Hahn, for one, questioned how much the members of the Champions Tour policy board – at the time David Toms, Paul Goydos and Joe Durant, who had each earned more than $7 million since turning 50 – were able to separate their own self-interest with what’s best for the future of the senior circuit.
“We’re in a room full of hypocrites,” Hahn said. “Joe Durant lost his card and then went on the Champions Tour. Now he’s on the board. You don’t want a PGA Tour reject but you were a Tour reject.”
Joe Durant reacts after winning the 2024 Cologuard Classic at La Paloma Country Club in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Hahn said he supports seeing the eligibility age reduced to 47 or 48 – calling 45 “too young” – but claimed that Durant, Goydos and Toms didn’t want younger competition fearing they’d have instant success “and take money out of their pockets.”
“They don’t want that to happen,” Hahn said. “They are looking out for themselves and their friends more than for their business. There wasn’t a chance to pass the regulation of lowering the age because the people on their board are irrational and don’t see the benefit, or if they do see the benefit, it’s at the expense of them and their friends and affecting their personal income. After this conversation, it was put quickly on the sideburner because we didn’t want to have conflict between our boards.”
Kevin Kisner, 40, who served on the board at the time and supported lowering the eligibility age, agreed with Hahn’s assessment saying, “It’s dead in the water for now.”
To those on the Champions Tour, the attitude can best be summed up by the expression if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
“We looked at it extensively as an organization and we looked at it in concert with the player directors on the regular tour. We were open to it because to be honest with you there’s been some push to lower it,” PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady said. “My response to that after looking at it, the guys that are going to move the needle out here, when they’re 48 the big names are still competitive on the regular tour, and they’re not going to come out here. At 48 I think Jim Furyk was still ranked in the top 10 in the world. I don’t need to lower the age for other journeymen, that doesn’t help us sell our product and it may have pushed out a Tom Kite or Ben Crenshaw. While Kite may not have been competitive anymore, he was fantastic in the pro-am and he’s a Hall of Famer. So I don’t need to bring in a 48-year-old who’s going to push out a big name. Now I may be told I have to do that at some point. But at least right now, everyone appreciates that it’s not something we should do.”
But the problem remains that being sentenced to “no man’s land” is happening a lot earlier for pros than ever before. More and more players are biding time in their 40s.
Woody Austin watches his tee shot on the 16th hole during the first round of the 2020 SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club. (Photo: Chris Keane/Getty Images)
For Woody Austin, 60, who has banked more than $9 million on the senior circuit, the question is rather simple: “Do you get to collect anything else at any other endeavor at 45? I think not. It doesn’t need to get younger,” he said.
Austin blames equipment and the emphasis on the power game for dumbing down the ability to make a living on the Tour.
“I get that because the game has changed and these guys are better at 20 because the game is so frigging easy now you want to make it easier for the guys who get kicked out at 40, but no. You’re not a senior at 40 or 45,” he said. “Pretty soon the high school kids are going to be professionals if they keep making the game so easy. These guys aren’t any better at 19 than they were back in the day; you don’t have to know golf anymore. All they know is clubhead speed and go hit it. We had to know everything, they have to know nothing. Stop making it so easy and you wouldn’t have so many good 20-year-olds.”
Interestingly enough, Steve Stricker, 57, who led the Champions Tour money list with nearly $4 million in earnings last season and thus with the most to lose with an age change, has been one of the leading proponents of lowering the age. Stricker, who hosts the American Family Insurance Championship in his native Wisconsin, recalled being in the equipment trailer during a rain delay at his event in Madison in 2022 with Brady and discussing lowering the eligibility age.
“Wouldn’t 47 be a great time with Tiger about to turn 47 shortly?” he asked at the time. “It would boost this tour. We’re losing Lee Westwood and some other LIV guys. So I texted Tiger and he responds right away. No chance. When he comes out here he wants to compare his time out here to the greats – to Bernhard Langer and Hale Irwin. That’s him, right? Taking those records and having them in a spot where he can try to erase those records.”
But Stricker remains resolute that lowering the age would only strengthen the senior circuit.
“I still think we can change it to 48,” Stricker continued. “That doesn’t mean Tiger has to start at 48. But let Carl Pettersson come out and play and stay relevant. I support that concept, I really do. A couple years younger, somewhere in that range 45-50, 45 is a little aggressive but I’m thinking the 47-48 age would be a good boost for us. I think it is even more important now with some LIV guys going away. If we lower the age, there will be 10 more Steven Alkers that are 48 and hungry to play.”
Ernie Els embraces Steve Stricker after winning the 2024 American Family Insurance Championship. (Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
That touches on another future concern: Will players be motivated to play into their 50s?
While Alker is the model for the journeyman making good from the fountain of youth — he earned $841,849 for his career on the PGA Tour and more than $8 million and counting since joining the Champions Tour — Hunter Mahan, 42, could be the archetype of the modern star player. He won six times and earned more than $30 million in prize money before walking away from the game in 2021 to spend more time at home with his family and began coaching high school golf.
When he joined the Tour, Kenny Perry, Vijay Singh and Jay Haas experienced some of their best years after 40. Before them, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Raymond Floyd all won majors in their 40s.
“I don’t see that happening again,” Mahan predicted. “The idea of a 40-year-old being the Player of the Year seems impossible. Guys are going to be like ‘I have so much money, do I want to grind at this at 45 and travel all the time?’ Some guys will, but it’s not going to be the game where guys play into their 60s.”
Davis Love III hits a tee shot on the third hole during the first round of the 2023 SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club. (Photo: Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
Davis Love III concurred that careers are trending shorter and the eligibility age may need to be lowered down the road.
“You might get to a point where guys have made so much money that they don’t care about playing at 50,” he said. “If someone had my career starting now, they’d make $620 million. If a guy does that by their 40s, why would he want to come out here and play? Our purses are staying the same.”
But that hasn’t stopped Pettersson from counting the days until he’s eligible for one of the two exemptions for players aged 48-49 into Korn Ferry Tour fields every week based on his position on the career money list and likely at least a year of exempt status on PGA Tour Champions when he turns 50. Does Pettersson think 45 is the right age?
“I see both sides, where 45 makes a lot of sense but everyone else has had to wait to 50 so keep it at 50,” he said.
It seems inevitable that the data supporting lowering the age will become so convincing that the powers-that-be will have a hard time sticking their head in the sand for too long. Does being two months away from turning 47 and unlikely to benefit from an age reduction color his opinion? Pettersson chuckled and said …
The PGA Tour Champions is prepping (and praying) for Tiger.
(Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part series examining the PGA Tour Champions and its eligibility age from Golfweek’s PGA Tour senior writer Adam Schupak. The second part of the series is linked here.)
The U.S. Senior Open is being held at a fantastic venue this week at Newport Country Club in Rhose Island, but two years from now it will take on an entirely different profile at the Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.
At the course that shaped Jack Nicklaus into an 18-time major winner, Tiger Woods will be eligible for the field for the first time, and he’s strongly hinted that he’d like to win the title and fancies the chance to break a tie of nine USGA national championships with Bobby Jones. Winning at Scioto would make Woods the first player to achieve a Grand Slam of sorts: the U.S. Senior Open, U.S. Junior (3), U.S. Amateur (3) and U.S. Open (3).
“He’d love to win that Grand Slam and get some of the other senior majors on his CV,” Padraig Harrington said. “I saw him at the course (during the PNC Championship) and we were just crossing paths and he laughed at me. I won’t say exactly what he said but the gist of it was he can’t wait to get out and beat me.”
Tiger Mania II could be ready to strike the PGA Tour Champions, and PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady cannot wait. Two years ago, at the American Family Insurance Championship in Madison, Wisconsin, Brady waited out a rain delay in an equipment trailer with tournament host Steve Stricker when Stricker broached the topic of the eligibility age for the senior circuit. Stricker, the leading money winner last season, proposed it was time to revisit whether 50, the age restriction since the creation of the tour in 1980, still made sense as the start of golf’s ultimate mulligan.
“I said, ‘No, we just did this,’ ” recalled Brady of a study the tour conducted in 2021. “He goes, ‘I know, I know.’ I said, ‘Unless Tiger tells me he’d play right now. (If that’s the case), I’ll lower the age tomorrow.’ ”
If ever the age limit was going to be lowered, this seemed to be the time so Stricker whipped out his phone and promptly texted Tiger. Stricker’s message was succinct and to the point: If we lower the age would you play the Champions tour? Stricker remembers nervously staring at three bubbles as the 15-time major winner and 82-time PGA Tour champion, “The Needle,” “The Goat,” – take your pick – responded right away.
“No, I’m not ready,” Woods wrote. “I want to follow in the same footsteps as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Bernhard Langer.”
In short, Tiger doesn’t want a head start before he becomes Champions tour-eligible on Dec. 30, 2025. He wants a level playing field. He wants to chase Langer’s 12 majors and 46 career titles, Nicklaus’s eight majors and Phil Mickelson winning his first two starts (and four of six).
“That’s him, right?” Stricker said. “Tiger’s going to try to erase those records. It gives him something to focus on and try to achieve. If that’s the case, maybe we will get him out more.”
The future of PGA Tour Champions likely hinges on how much Tiger chooses to play after he turns 50 on Dec. 30, 2025. There was a time 15-20 years ago where the idea of Tiger playing the senior tour was unfathomable. He has been hinting for several years now that he wants to play. What started as a joke seems like it could be reality. Asked at the 2021 Hero World Challenge if he looked forward to his upcoming 46th birthday, he smiled and said, “Four more years until I get a cart.”
Left unsaid was the fact the Champions tour allows players to ride in golf carts at most of its events – the majors are an exception. That became all the more relevant after Woods was involved in a single-car crash in February 2022 and required multiple surgeries, including fusing his ankle after he had to withdraw from the 2023 Masters and missed the rest of the season.
During his pre-tournament press conference at that Masters, Woods was asked whether he would consider using a cart in PGA Tour events, something he’s repeatedly declined even though he’d likely be granted use of one via The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) for medical reasons. “I’ve got three more years, where I get the little buggy and be out there with Fred (Couples). But until then no buggy.”
In 2006, the Champions Tour Division Board of the PGA Tour voted to allow players the option to use golf carts during most events on the tour. The circuit’s five major championships and certain other events, including pro-ams, are excluded.
Walking 72 holes has been the biggest hindrance for Woods in his latest comeback and there’s a sense that if he takes one on the senior tour, he could be a force to be reckoned with all over again. “He’ll absolutely kill everybody,” Nicklaus said during the Masters in April in an interview with Golf Channel.
Geoff Ogilvy, who turned 47 on June 11, is counting the days until he too will be eligible. He expects Tiger to play and spark a resurgence in the Champions tour.
“Taking a cart changes everything for him. Interest both from fans and sponsors is going to be through the roof. I think there’s a good chance that Champions Tour ratings can top the PGA Tour when he decides to play. And what else is he going to?” Ogilvy said.
He could delve deeper into golf course architecture or assume a bigger role in the management of the PGA Tour. It’s hard to know what’s really going on in Tiger’s brain. But it could be 1990 all over again when Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino hit the half-century club to join Arnold Palmer and Gary Player and make the senior circuit the biggest game in town. Whenever Nicklaus teed it up, TV ratings for the round bellies topped that of the flat bellies. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, for one, may not be fond of the Champions tour cannibalizing all those eyeballs from the big tour.
Brady got a sneak-peek of what he can expect from Tigermania II in 2021 when Mickelson turned 50 and took the tour by storm. According to sources, ratings for Mickelson’s win at Furyk & Friends in 2021 eclipsed that of the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children’s Hospital Open the same week.
“Will our ratings go up? Absolutely,” Brady said. “Could I see NBC and Golf Channel wanting to put an event on the network? Yeah. Tiger would have to commit early enough for us to make that happen.”
Much can happen in the course of the next 18 months to influence Tiger’s decision to play, but Brady and his team already have begun preparing for various scenarios. In June 2023, he gathered his staff – “anyone who touches the product,” he said – and got the ball rolling.
“We gathered and started a whiteboard of what ifs, the craziest things, whatever it was, you know, come up with it. Because it’s not too early to just think through everything,” Brady said. “We’ve had conversations at the annual meetings with all of our tournaments about it. You know, you hear comments from time to time about how he can’t wait to have a golf cart. He has conversation with Steve Stricker or Ernie Els or some of these other guys. You know, they’ll come back and tell me they’ll say he’s looking forward to it, which is great. What does that mean? I have no illusions that he’s going to come out here and play 15 times. If he plays four times, that would be fantastic, if he plays 10 times that would be even better.”
Tiger likely will continue to focus on the men’s majors but could he ride around in a cart and endure less stress on his body while still getting the competitive juices flowing and knocking off some rust before the Masters, for example? It seems feasible.
“I don’t think anyone envisions him playing 20 events – he didn’t do that when he was healthy – but if he comes out and plays some events it will be a shot in the arm for us,” Jim Furyk said.
That would be an understatement. Furyk has a different view as an owner and operator of a Champions tour event, Furyk & Friends. He lived through Tiger Mania when Woods turned pro in the summer of 1996 and became a sensation.
“I don’t know if you remember how unprepared we were for the attention, the hoopla, the media, the security, the fans, you name it. If we can get ahead of that and gauge his intentions of what he would like to do it would help our tour massively to be ready and prepared,” Furyk said. “The difference of having him at a tournament versus not is months of preparation. As excited as I am about it, I also run an event and understand how that side of an event gets ready; it makes me cautious. I won’t say nervous because the opportunity is great.”
Brady echoed Furyk’s sentiment.
“If he commits on the Friday before a tournament, we’ve had this conversation with tournaments, they won’t be prepared for it: ticket sales, which turns into an issue with your security, your transportation shuttles, concessions, everything. That was part of that white board that we did,” Brady said.
He confirmed that he’s already had a conversation with Tiger’s agent, Mark Steinberg, to educate him on how things work on that tour.
“We had a great conversation about the Champions tour: how many events we have, the markets where we play, majors, some of the courses where we play early, a little bit about our cart policy,” Brady said. “I don’t see Tiger ever wanting to file for ADA otherwise he would have done that already.”
Stricker suggested the tour (and the other governing bodies) should consider amending its cart policy so that Tiger could ride at the majors, too.
“Let’s make sure he can play. You hate to make special rules but if we can get him out here with a cart, let’s do it, you know what I mean,” he said. “We should do everything we can.”
The addition of Els, Furyk, Harrington and Retief Goosen in the last five years have given the senior tour a boost, but TigerMania II could make the circuit the talk of the golf world again.
“I just want Tiger to come out here and play a little bit,” Brady said. “In an ideal situation, Tiger turns 50 and the Mitsubishi Electric (in January 2026) is his first start. Maybe you pair him with Fred Couples and they have a great time.”
Asked whether he’s made his pitch yet to Tiger to play in his own tournament, Furyk joked that it was too soon.
“He’s getting old,” Furyk said. “He might not even remember by the time he turns 50.”
As for Padraig Harrington’s body of work through Sunday’s closing round? Let’s label that appropriately workmanlike.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The outcome, of course, made for a magnificent third consecutive Dick’s Sporting Goods Open victory. As for Padraig Harrington’s body of work through Sunday’s closing round? Let’s label that appropriately workmanlike.
The affable Irishman played En-Joie’s back nine in even-par, nevertheless posted a single-stroke win over Mike Weir to leave him 3-for-3 in Endicott since celebrating a 50th birthday.
Harrington closed with 4-under 68 to finish the 54-hole event 15-under, with Weir coming in at 67. Third place was shared by Mark Hensby (66), Ken Duke (68) and Ken Tanigawa (70) at 13-under.
Stephen Ames, 36-hole co-leader on rounds of 64 and 69, faded from realistic contention on the back and shared sixth after a 71.
“It’s very exciting,” Harrington said. “Coming into the week people say, ‘Oh, are you going to do a three-peat,’ and it’s a lot easier to say it than do it. So yeah, I was trying to keep my expectations dab even though I do like the golf course. I know it suits me. I think it was managing other people’s expectations and trying to keep myself in a nice place.
“I probably didn’t play as well on Wednesday and Thursday as I would have wanted it, but I got gradually better as the tournament went on. Certainly today on a windier day it was a tricky day to be out in the last group. I certainly got a few good breaks. A few things went against me, but I got a few good breaks as well to even out the day. It was just my day.”
As for that back nine?
He opened by inexplicably chopping his second from the middle of the 10th fairway into the drink and made bogey, and his lone birdie thereafter came via a superb drive and approach finessed prudently to a bit above the hole at 15.
At the come-and-get-me 16th, he ground out par from well past the green near the 17th tee box. At 17, he yanked a 9-iron tee ball but got up and down from nasty rough left, holing a putt of seven or so feet. At the last – with Weir having posted 14-under – Harington carried his drive 317 yards to an ideal position and proceeded to uneventfully two-putt.
“I was really trying to make one more birdie,” he said. “I knew I had a one-shot lead, but if I could get it to two shots, I felt that’s comfortable. I was going after it on 16 and we were thinking 3-wood. Then we said, ‘Well, get driver to the back of the green.’ And obviously I pitched on hardpan rather than the soft part, went long and I was in – I wasn’t in the worst place in the world, but it was awkward when you’re leading the tournament.
“I think if I was one shot back, I would have given that a much better effort to get that up and down, but I was more concerned about not taking 5. And 17 was a little lapse in concentration; I was just drawing it into the pin, and I changed my target at the last moment and snatched that a bit.”
Weir, who assuredly will rue a shorty for par misfired at the 13th, made six birdies against that lone toe-stub. He has finished second in two goes at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.
Harrington, who made eagle at the third and birdies on the sixth, eighth and ninth:
— Made it eight wins on PGA Tour Champions in his 41st start at the age of 52 years, 9 months, 23 days.
— Joins Ames (2) and Ernie Els (2) as multiple winners this season.
— Became the first player to win the same PGA Tour Champions event in three consecutive seasons since 2014 DSGO winner Bernhard Langer at the Kaulig Companies Championship (2014-16).
Endicott, no doubt, will remain special to Harrington.
“This is what the Champions Tour is all about,” he said. “When we come to venues like this, Broome County, old PGA Tour stops, dare I say it being outgrown or forgotten about, they really come out for the Champions Tour. They love their golf, they come out, they have a great sponsor in Dick’s. The whole community, the fans come out, and we love being here.
“It’s great for us as players, we get to relive our past glories, hit shots under pressure, under stress, some good, some bad, so it’s really a perfect Champions Tour event. You have the atmosphere, you feel like you’re a kid back in the old days.”
Odds & Ends
— With birdies on six of his first nine holes (1-3 and 7-9), Hensby closed his first Dick’s Open with a 6-under 66 to finish T3 at 13-under. He played En-Joie’s front nine holes in an aggregate 12-under.
— Following a 7-under 65 in Round 2 to share the 36-hole lead at 11-under, Tanigawa closed his sixth Dick’s Open with a 2-under 70 to finish T3.
— In his sixth Dick’s Open start, 36-hole co-leader and Charles Schwab Cup No. 1 Stephen Ames shot 71 to finish T6 at 12-under. The finish becomes his ninth top-10 of the season (13 starts) and first in the Dick’s Open.
Check out who’s in the lead group Sunday seeking to enhance a spectacular track record.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Surprise, surprise. Check out who’s in the lead group Sunday seeking to enhance a spectacular track record in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.
Padraig Harrington closed a spotless round of 7-under 65 with birdies on En-Joie Golf Course’s final three holes Saturday to take a share of the 36-hole lead. Ken Tanigawa (65) and overnight leader Stephen Ames (69) will accompany Harrington in a group scheduled to leave the first tee at 10:36 a.m. Sunday.
Next-best through two rounds are Bob Estes, Paul Stankowski and Steve Allan, sharing fourth a shot off the top spot, with three others at 9-under. If a quartet at 8-under is within reach, perhaps keep an eye on Miguel Angel Jimenez, whose second-round 68 began with five successive birdies.
Sunday’s weather may not be pretty. Thunderstorms have been forecast with varying degrees of likelihood from early afternoon through the night. Due to that threat, it’ll be a two-tee start with the last groups off at 10:41 a.m.
Harrington’s eight senior tour rounds at En-Joie have all been in the 60s, with a high of 69 to open the 2023 event and a low of 63 to round out his second-consecutive win here. Entering Sunday, he is an aggregate 45 under par – the kind of comfort zone that figures to serve him well in the thick of the moment Sunday.
“Both rounds this week I finished strong. It’s been a bit of a surprise,” he said. “I was a little frustrated probably through nine holes today. My playing partners were going so low, I wasn’t holing the putts. Then, I don’t know if I was patient or things happened to go my way, but it was really nice to come home 5-under.
“This is one of those – there’s obviously a big bunch of people up on the leaderboard, but sometimes you’re three or four shots off the lead, you have a chance going into Sunday, but with so many people on the leaderboard, you really want to be very tightly up there. You want to be if not in the lead, close enough. One of those guys is going to go low tomorrow, so hopefully it will be me.”
Harrington is seeking to become the first player to win the same PGA Tour Champions event three consecutive seasons since Bernhard Langer achieved the feat at the Kaulig Companies Championship (2014-16).
Ames made five birdies – one of the gotta-be-kidding variety from rough left and perilously to the drink at the par-4 15th – against 10th- and 13th-hole bogeys. When holding a 36-hole lead/co-lead in 54-hole events, he is 6-for-9 converting for a win.
“Everything was pretty solid,” he said. “I didn’t make as many putts that I’d like to, not like yesterday, but I think a little bit of the rain kind of changed the greens a little bit because they got a little softer, so we had more footprints through the greens. So, I guess altogether it was a solid round, got it around nicely.”
As for Sunday, given anticipated inclement weather?
“Well, another early start to the week, which is kind of interesting because they said rain today, too, and we never got it, and it had the same on Friday, and we never got it. But we’re getting some tomorrow apparently, so I’m not going to elaborate on that one.”
Round 1 leader Stephen Ames finished 3-under for the day and in a three-way tie for first at 11-under for the Dick’s Open, June 22, 2024.
Tanigawa, who stood 9-under for the day with two eagles through 13 holes, stumbled with a bogey at the 14th and a double at the 15th. He rebounded with birdie at 16.
“I started out great, I got it to 9-under and just hit a lot of good shots, made the putts to capitalize on those good shots,” he said. “Overall, very happy, very good round for myself.”
He hit the first 12 greens in regulation.
“Ball in the fairway, for sure. That always helps, right?,” he said. “I had probably good numbers, which helped. Just when you attack the pins, it kind of makes sense with those numbers, and if not, just kind of hit middle of the greens if you can.”
Odds & Ends
— The start of Round 2 was delayed 45 minutes because of fog.
— Tanigawa’s lone top-10 finish in five previous Dick’s Open starts was a T6 in 2022
— As a PGA Tour rookie, Estes lost in a playoff to Mike Hulbert in the 1989 B.C. Open at En-Joie.
— Chad Campbell withdrew following an opening-round 68 that featured eagles on two of his first five holes, citing the illness of a family member. The 50-year-old Texan was playing his third senior tour event.
