Tag: Dominion Energy Charity Classic

Bernhard Langer defeats Doug Barron in a playoff at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic

The first of three Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs went to overtime in Richmond, Virginia.

“I gotta go play in playoff, I think,” Doug Barron could be heard on Golf Channel telling a group of young fans as he signed autographs after his final-round 68 at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

Barron had minutes before birdied the par-5 18th hole at The Country Club of Virginia to take a one-shot lead over Bernhard Langer, who then matched Barron with a birdie on the last to force extra holes.

They played the 18th hole again, and each missed the green with their second shots. Barron’s settled left of the green while Langer’s missed to the right. After Barron chipped on, Langer putted from off the green. They then faced similar birdie putts, with Barron going first but he watched his putt lip out. Langer then drained his, letting his putter fall to the green and raising both arms in celebration.

Langer, 64, is the oldest player to win on the Champions tour. He also earned his 42nd Champions title, which draws him within three of Hale Irwin for most all-time wins. Langer had lost his last five playoffs but is now 7-9 all-time on the circuit.

The Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs points leader also extended his lead in the points as he seeks his sixth Schwab championship and first since 2018.

Notables in the field

Ernie Els shot 70-72 before closing with a bogey-free 63, a round that included nine birdies and goes down as the best round in tournament history.

Jim Furyk, second in the points race, 69-68-69 and finished tied for eighth. He had a tap-in birdie to close with a 69 and finish 10 under but lost ground to Langer in the points.

Phil Mickelson was attempting to become the first Champions tour golfer to win four of his first five events on the circuit, but he shot 71-74-71 to finish tied for 47th. For the second straight day, Lefty posted a quadruple-bogey 9 on the ninth hole, which was his final hole of both his second and final rounds. He started his final round with seven birdies in his first 12 holes but also had a double bogey five holes before his second quad in two days.

Tom Byrum eagled the 18th hole for a 70 and a tie for 16th place. That moved him into the 54th spot in the points, which just squeaks him into the next round of the playoffs at the TimberTech Championship in Boca Raton, Florida, in two weeks. The field will then go to 36 for the playoff finale, Nov. 11-14 at Phoenix Country Club.

Shot of the day

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Steve Flesch leads, four within three shots after the second round of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic

“I’m not overthinking it at night. I’m just playing golf, having fun out here. That’s really all I’m doing.”

Steve Flesch has been approaching golf more relaxed recently, and it’s paying off this week at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at The Country Club of Virginia.

“I’m not overthinking it at night,” Flesch noted after his first round Friday. “I’m just playing golf, having fun out here. That’s really all I’m doing.”

He entered Saturday’s round just one shot back of Steven Alker, and his day started slowly making the turn with a pedestrian 1-under 35. Back-to-back birdies on 10 and 11 got him right back in the mix and another circle on 15 propelled him into the lead. The American would add another birdie on the par 5 last to get to 13 under.

Coming into the week, Flesch had eight finishes of T-13 or better in his last 10 starts on the Champions tour, including a solo third a few weeks ago at the Constellation Furyk and Friends.

“I’m not hitting shots I don’t feel comfortable hitting. I’m just kind of, I hate the term ‘playing within myself,’ but I’m just hitting shots I know I can pull off and I’m not taking unnecessary chances,” Flesch mentioned after his Saturday 67.  “It’s kind of how I’m playing. And the putter’s hot, so I just want to get the ball on the green and give myself a chance to run it in.

“That’s kind of the game plan and that will be the plan tomorrow. It’s working, so I’m going to stick with it.

He’ll enter the final round with a two shot lead.

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Bernhard Langer entered the second round three shots back of the lead and closed the gap quickly playing his first six holes today 4-under. He would cool down, however, closing out the rest of his round with two birdies and a bogey for a Saturday 5 under 67.

“Not pleased with my par-par-par finish, two par 5s,” Langer said after his round. “Wish I had made one birdie at least, but just lack of length off the tee put me in a position where it wasn’t easy but still could have made one birdie somewhere and I didn’t.”

“I’m going to go as low as I can because I’m going to have to. There’s a lot of guys right there and thereabouts and that’s all we can do.”

Langer currently leads the Charles Schwab Cup points list and is well within striking distance going into Sunday’s final round tied for second, sitting two shots back.

Alker, the 18-hole leader, cooled off a bit today pairing four birdies with two bogeys for a Saturday 2-under 70.

“I didn’t quite obviously putt as well. Sixty-three, you’ve got to putt well, so it wasn’t quite there, but I didn’t give myself as many chances,” Alker said following his second round. “Wedges weren’t as close. Kind of struggled on the back nine a little bit, I missed some approaches, just didn’t have the yardage, so that kind of held me back.”

He’ll have to turn it back on tomorrow to catch Flesch as he sits two shots back with Langer.

Notable names in the field: Jim Furyk (T-8, 7 under), Ernie Els (T-36, 2 under), Phil Mickelson (T-49, 1 over), Vijay Singh (T-52, 2 over), Davis Love III (WD), and John Daly (WD).

Shot of the day

 

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How Jim Furyk realized the PGA Tour Champions was ‘where I wanted to be’

“It’s not as mentally and physically taxing, yet it’s still extremely competitive.”

RICHMOND, Va. — Last year Jim Furyk was anxious to give the PGA Tour Champions a shot.

He picked his first two starts strategically. First up in August 2020 was the Ally Challenge in Michigan because he loved the golf course, Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club, former host of the PGA Tour’s Buick Open (which Furyk won in 2003). Next up was the Pure Insurance Championship, an easy choice because as he said, “everyone likes going to Pebble Beach.”

Furyk took home the hardware from both events, joining Arnold Palmer and Bruce Fleisher as the only golfers to win their first two starts on the senior circuit. He then finished up his PGA Tour season and decided he wanted to come out and join his fellow 50-plus players on the Champions tour, and he hasn’t looked back since.

“It was just very apparent playing in (Champions tour) events, I enjoyed it. I didn’t have a lot of success here last year. I played solid, I finished 13th, but still really enjoyed the tournament, enjoyed the golf course and kind of had the feeling this was kind of my – where I wanted to be,” said Furyk ahead of this week’s Dominion Energy Charity Classic, the first of three events in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

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“It’s fun. It takes a little bit less out of you,” Furyk continued. “A three-round golf tournament, we’re in carts for the pro-am and for the practice rounds – that’s a great invention, by the way – then I walk during the three days, but instead of walking five or six rounds a week, I’m walking three. It’s not as mentally and physically taxing, yet it’s still extremely competitive.”

Plus he’s gotten the chance to get reacquainted with his 8-iron, 9-iron, and wedges again.

“I missed those guys for about four or five years on the PGA Tour,” joked Furyk.

Earlier this month the 51-year-old hosted the Constellation Furyk and Friends, won by none other than 2021 PGA champion Phil Mickelson, who’s set to defend his 2020 Dominion title this week after a war of words online regarding the USGA and R&A’s new local rule for club length. A week after Furyk and Friends at the SAS Championship, the event’s namesake was without longtime caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan due to an injury. Instead, his son Hunter was on the bag, and the pair finished tied for third.

“Better. I’m actually surprised at how well he’s gotten around this week,” Furyk said of Fluff’s status. “He really was hobbled last week and wasn’t able to bear a lot of weight. He’s still got a little bit of a limp to his gait, but we went on — he was on the cart today for the pro-am and he put the bag on his shoulder a significant amount … He’s limping a little bit right now. I’m sure it’s a little sore. I’m sure he’s hiding it a little bit, too. He seems to be all right, thinks he’s going to be good to go.”

Furyk will need his right-hand man to be on his A-game this week as the pair take on the top-72 players from the season-long Schwab Cup points list, especially at 54-hole Champions tour events that are more of a sprint than a marathon compared to the 72-hole Tour stops.

“You can have a bad nine holes out on the PGA Tour, you’ve got seven more to kind of catch up. Out here you play a bad nine holes, you feel like you’ve put yourself behind the eight ball,” said Furyk, who enjoys the pressure and chance to be aggressive.

“I think playing a golf course that’s 7,000 yards gives me a little more chance to be aggressive, fire at more pins. I’ve got a little shorter iron in my hand. When we’re playing out on Tour and we’re sitting at 73, 74 and I’ve got 5-iron, 4-iron in my hand a lot, I’ve got to play a lot more conservative. Conservative isn’t fun, aggressive is fun.”

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As the PGA Tour Champions grows, Bernhard Langer dishes on competing with the ‘young’ guns

Langer has run the senior circuit for a decade and a half, and he knows how to compete against the younger crop of players.

RICHMOND, Va. — After turning 50 in August of 2007, Bernhard Langer took his talents to the PGA Tour Champions where he has, over the last 14 years, solidified his title as the most decorated senior men’s player of all time.

How decorated? Two-time Masters champion (1985, 1993) and 42-time winner on the European Tour has amassed 41 wins on the Champions tour, including a record 11 senior majors.

Now 64, Langer knows he needs to step his game up to compete with the “young” guys on the 50-plus senior circuit. You know, players like Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Darren Clarke and oh yeah, 2021 PGA champion Phil Mickelson, who recently won the Constellation Furyk and Friends and will defend his 2020 Dominion Energy Charity Classic title this week at Country Club of Virginia.

“He’s had tremendous success. He’s only played, what, four or five tournaments and won three of them if I’m correct. That’s a very high percentage,” said Langer. “I just heard today that he won 10 days ago and he was 81st in driving accuracy, which blows my mind. If I was 81st in driving accuracy, I wouldn’t finish in the top 20 and he won the tournament.”

“Well, it’s been a very strong rookie class as we all know,” said Langer of his other competitors after a Wednesday practice round for the first of three legs of the tour’s season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs. “They’re proven champions, winners, major winners, and they’re going to have a big impact on this tour, no doubt about it, and we’ve already seen it.”

“What I notice is these guys hit it a lot further than we did 20 years ago, 10 years ago. So I used to be one of the longest guys out here about 15 years ago, 14 years ago, now I’m in the middle of the pack, trending the other way,” said Langer, who noted his drives top out around 280 yards these days. “So I’ve got my work cut out making up for that lack of distance somewhere else, either accuracy or better thinking or better short game or whatever, but it’s not easy because they’re good in all of that.”

The Champions tour is growing and becoming more competitive as the years go on, and the German who has been the man to beat for the last decade and a half is the first to admit it. Will the new names reach any of his marks? Depends how committed they are.

“Oh, they’ll all try and make a run. It all depends how committed they are to the tour and how much they play. We’ve seen Steve Stricker producing some tremendous results out here, but he hasn’t fully committed yet,” explained Langer. “Once he comes out here full time, he’ll win a bunch. I think Jim Furyk is fully committed and he’s going to continue his winning ways. So will Phil, I suppose, whenever that time comes from him.

“You have Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, they’re all working very hard. Mike Weir’s out here working his butt off, excuse my language, but so are many others,” he added. “They’re eager, they’re realizing there’s a second opportunity after the PGA Tour’s over now, and on the PGA Tour Champions they have another chance of playing some really good golf and showing how good they are for the next 10, 15 years.”

Langer drew the blueprint for how to find success in the next phase of his career, and some news players have hit him up for questions and advice on the transition to senior professional golf, not that he’ll tell you who asked or what was said.

“Not going to call any names now or whatever, but they asked what do you think and how did you feel and is there any difference. And there’s slight differences. Most of our tournaments are three days, so you’ve got to play aggressive from the get-go. You can’t afford to have a bad round and expect to win, that’s not going to happen when you play three rounds. That’s probably not going to happen when you play four rounds, but at least you have one more round to hopefully catch up,” said Langer, who has held the top spot on the Schwab Cup standings for 19 of the 36 regular-season weeks this year.

All without a win, shocking enough. Langer hasn’t lifted a trophy since the Cologuard Classic in March 2020, but he’s been in the mix, earning 26 top-10 finishes in 36 starts (with 36 cuts made) to top the season-ending points list with three tournaments to play. At the Country Club of Virginia, Langer has finished T-4 the past two years – runner-up in 2018 and he won here in 2017.

“They’re all special in their given time, but now being 64 years old, it gets harder and harder so it would mean a great deal, especially with the super season,” said Langer of the chance to win a sixth Schwab Cup. “You know, two years running to win one would be extremely special. But we’ve still got three big events ahead of us and I’m not going to get ahead of myself. Try and put my work in and hopefully get some good results.”

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Phil Mickelson trails only Mike Weir in second Champions start

A pair of lefties with green jackets lead at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Virginia.

To keep his perfect resume on the PGA Tour Champions intact, Phil Mickelson will have to leapfrog another former Masters champ on Sunday and then hold off the rest of the field at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Virginia.

Mickelson, who won his only other start on the senior circuit, notched seven birdies en route to a 66 during his second round on Saturday, good enough for the second spot on the leaderboard. Earlier in the day, Mickelson carded a 68 as Friday’s wet weather forced players into a Saturday marathon. A handful of players did not finish their second round on Saturday and will go off early Sunday.

While Mickelson played well, he didn’t play as well as 2003 Masters champ Mike Weir, who equaled Mickelson’s early round, but then fired a 63 in the afternoon to take a three-stroke lead into Sunday’s final round. Weir, who plays left-handed like Mickelson, stands at 13 under with 18 holes remaining.

Weir’s second round included nine birdies and no bogeys at the par-72 Country Club of Virginia.

Dominion Energy Charity Classic: Leaderboard

As for Mickelson, he said he’s trying to keep the pressure on, but his failure to hit fairways kept penalizing him.

“I’m trying, man. I’m trying to attack. I’m trying to hit drivers and get after this course, but … it’s hard to do from the rough. I let a few wayward shots get away from me,” Mickelson said. “Then when I hit a great drive like on 9 and all I’ve got to do is hit a solid 3-wood on the green and kind of flail it and didn’t make birdie, so I threw away a shot there. I’ve just got to be sharper.”

Weir wanted to get off to a hot start, knowing how much golf was to be played.

Mike Weir of Canada is all smiles on the eighth green during the second round of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic. (Photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

“My mindset going into today knowing we had 36, I wanted to get in a nice rhythm for the day because there’s so many holes. If you get in a nice rhythm, you can kind of ride it and I did that, I got in a nice rhythm,” Weir said.

“I kind of stumbled a bit on my 18th hole the first round, but maybe that gave me a jump start to just, like, not be too bothered and just say, ‘Hey, I’m playing good and let’s just keep the pedal down. Nice to see some putts going in and hit a lot of great iron shots, too.”

As for having the lead heading into the final round, Weir couldn’t recall the last time that was the case.

“It’s been a long time. It would take me a while to come up with when the last time that was,” he said.

“It’s been a long time, so it feels good.”

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54 holes in two days? PGA Tour Champions event gets rained out on Friday

The field features Phil Mickelson, looking to go 2-for-2 on the senior circuit.

The PGA Tour Champions event this week saw its first day get washed out by rain in Virginia. Now, the plan for the 50-and-over set is to get 54 holes in on Saturday and Sunday.

The Dominion Energy Charity Classic at The Country Club of Virginia in Richmond was a 54-hole event all along but was supposed to get started on Friday morning.

The field features Phil Mickelson, looking to go 2-for-2 on the senior circuit. Mickelson joked about playing this event instead of the PGA Tour stop at Shadow Creek, where he beat Tiger Woods in The Match in 2018 to bag a $9 million prize.

During his pre-tournament press conference, Mickelson was asked why he didn’t seek a sponsor exemption into the limited-field, no-cut $9.5 million event in Las Vegas.

“I felt like it would be better for me to play here,” he said. “I think last time I played at Shadow Creek, even if I beat all 78 guys, it would still be a letdown. I made so much more last time I played, that I just didn’t see the benefit. Sorry.”

Mickelson is set to tee it up alongside Jim Furyk and Miguel Angel Jimenez, the tournament’s defending champion. Furyk, like Mickelson, also won his Champions tour debut.

The first round is now scheduled to get going at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. Everyone will then take a short break before heading back out for the second round. They’ll play as many holes as they can before darkness sets in and then try to finish the tournament on Sunday.

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