Mike Weir hasn’t won a golf tournament since 2007 but he’s in position to snap a streak of more than 13 winless years on Sunday.
After his second-round 67, Weir is atop the leaderboard at the Cologuard Classic, the second PGA Tour Champions event in 2021, at the Omni Tucson National Resort in Tucson, Arizona.
His last victory anywhere came at the short-lived Fry’s Electronics Open on the PGA Tour at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale. A win Sunday would be his first in 233 starts—194 PGA Tour, 19 Korn Ferry Tour, 11 PGA Tour Champions, nine European Tour—worldwide.
This week in Tucson, Weir is 4 under on the front nine and 10 under on the back and has posted rounds of 66 and 67. He is at 13 under and will take a two-shot lead over Kevin Sutherland into Sunday’s final round.
“I can’t recall a time where I’ve hit so many shots close to the hole,” Weir said. “I’ve hit really a lot of shots that have been almost tap-in to just outside of tap-in. I don’t know, probably six, seven, eight shots. So my wedges have been very good, even mid iron game’s been very good, so that’s really been good. And I’m driving it good.”
Sutherland, who won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix in November, eagled the 17th to get to 11 under.
Scott Parel is in third at 10 under, three shots back. Scott Verplank bogeyed the last and is 9 under, four back. Jeff Maggert, who started the day in 28th, posted the low round of the day with a 7-under 66. He had eight birdies in his round and is tied for fifth at 8 under with David Toms and Tim Petrovic, who made a hole-in-one for the second day in a row. On Friday he aced the 16th, on Saturday, the 14th.
“I called my wife yesterday and I said, ‘You see my card?’ And she goes, ‘Yeah, you made an eagle.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s part of it, but it was on a par 3.’ She goes, ‘Oh, my God, hole-in-one,'” said Petrovic. “I think they got this one (on Saturday) on video, though, so my dad will probably, he’s probably still laying on the floor in his living room right now, watching that one go in.”
Phil Mickelson had a double-bogey on the par-5 second hole but he responded with birdies on Nos. 3, 4 and 6. On 15, he had another memorable mud ball save from the edge of a lake and walked off the course with a 1-under 72.
“I thought I might have made another birdie from the mud. I couldn’t hit that wedge shot any better,” he said.
He is nine shots off the lead and will have some work to do on Sunday as he chases a first-ever third straight win in his first three starts on the Champions circuit.
Defending champion Bernhard Langer is six under and is T-11, seven shots back as he chases his 42nd victory on the Champions tour, which he joined in 2007. He has at least one win in 14 years on the circuit. Local favorite Jim Furyk shot a second-round 69 and is T-15, eight shots off the lead.
Others of note: Steve Stricker (T-8), Fred Couples (T-11), Cologuard ambassador Jerry Kelly (T-11), Ernie Els (T-15), John Smoltz (T-51). John Daly withdrew after 12 holes.
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