Tag: 2021 Ally Challenge

Joe Durant crashes Bernhard Langer’s birthday week to win PGA Tour Champions Ally Challenge

It was shaping up to be a pretty great birthday week for Bernhard Langer, but Joe Durant crashed the party.

It was shaping up to be a pretty great birthday week for Bernhard Langer, but Joe Durant crashed the party.

It didn’t come without a bit of final-hole drama, however, at the Ally Challenge Sunday on the PGA Tour Champions.

Teeing off the 18th hole with a two-shot lead, Durant had to play his second from the 9th fairway. Two swings later and he was facing a five-foot bogey putt that he made to seal the win by a shot over Langer.

It’s Durant’s fourth senior circuit win and his first since the 2018 Chubb Classic.

Durant had four birdies on his front nine, then strung together a bunch of pars to maintain a two-shot lead through most of the day. He birdied the 16th and needed that extra cushion as it turned out. His bogey on 18 snapped a 44-hole bogey-free streak.

Langer turned 64 on Friday and celebrated by shooting his age. After 36 holes, he was tied with Doug Barron for the lead. Langer has been stuck on 41 PGA Tour Champions wins since March 2020, and he’s going to stay on 41 as his final-round 70 just wasn’t enough. Hale Irwin is the all-time Champions leader with 45 victories.

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The shot of the day came courtesy of Vijay Singh. On the par-5 555-yard 16th hole, Singh ripped a 3-wood for his second shot from the fairway and landed his ball on the green, then watched it bounce three times before trickling in for an albatross. That shot got him to 5 under on the day and 13 under for the week. He would finish par-par for a 67.

The round of the day was the 8-under 64 posted by Steve Flesch. He had eight birdies in all, four on each side. It was the fifth 64 posted this week.

Defending champion Jim Furyk, who earned his first Champions win in his circuit debut at this event in 2020, shot 65-71-70 to finish tied for 10th.

Barron, who won two weeks ago at the Shaw Charity Classic, finished 14 under and tied for fourth while playing this week with his mind admittedly elsewhere.

“I’m playing with kind of a heavy heart. My sponsor, my dearest friend, had a stroke last Sunday and he’s in ICU, and really his son told me to play this week for him,” he said after his round Saturday. “So, Mr. George Brian, I’m just thinking of him. He owns Waverly and a course called Mossy Oak in West Point, Mississippi. Really just thinking about him all day.

“And my son gets deployed next week, I’m going to see him tomorrow [Sunday] night. I’ve got a lot of things on my mind.”

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When Bernie turned 64: Langer shoots his age on birthday (Friday), shares lead at Ally Challenge in bid for 42nd senior win

A day after Bernhard Langer shot 64 on his 64th birthday, the ageless wonder birdied two of the last three holes on Saturday to shoot 66 and claim a share of the 36-hole lead with Doug Barron at the Ally Challenge

A day after Bernhard Langer shot 64 on his 64th birthday, the ageless wonder birdied two of the last three holes on Saturday to shoot 66 and claim a share of the 36-hole lead with Doug Barron at the Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Michigan.

“I didn’t age two years today, I just want to say that,” Langer quipped. “I’m not 66 today.”

 Langer shot a bogey-free round and credited a hot putter for his low score.

“Didn’t make too many of the closer ones, but made three or four long ones, which is fun,” he said. “I haven’t done that in a while.”

It put Langer, who is winless since March 2020, in a strong position to pick off his 42nd title on Sunday since joining the PGA Tour Champions at age 50. Only Hale Irwin with 45 victories has more wins on the senior circuit.

Langer said he was serenaded three separate times with a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday,” by the gallery on Friday. In the rain-delayed first round, he carded nine birdies and a bogey at Warwick Hills in shooting his age for the first time in a tournament.

“I was texting with my family this morning because of the rain delay and I said, ‘My goal is to shoot my age today and give myself a birthday present,’ ” Langer recalled after the round. “Just shows you the strengths of the mind if you put something in your mind and a goal and sometimes you can achieve it.”

Barron, who won two weeks ago at the Shaw Charity Classic, fired a bogey-free 64 to improve to 14-under 202.

“I’m playing with kind of a heavy heart. My sponsor, my dearest friend, had a stroke last Sunday and he’s in ICU, and really his son told me to play this week for him. So, Mr. George Brian, I’m just thinking of him. He owns Waverly and a course called Mossy Oak in West Point, Mississippi. Really just thinking about him all day.

“And my son gets deployed next week, I’m going to see him tomorrow night. I’ve got a lot of things on my mind, golf’s not really important. So I guess the lesson of the week is don’t think about golf so much.”

Langer enters the week third in the Charles Schwab Cup point standings and said a victory would cap off a wonderful birthday week.

“It’s going to take a low one because it’s really bunched up, it’s not just Doug Barron and I, there’s about 15, 20 guys that can still win this tournament going low,” Langer said. “We can’t afford to sit on our laurels and make pars and hope to win this tournament. You’ve got to go low tomorrow to have a chance to take the trophy away.”