Tag: Ernie Els

John Daly among five major champs committed to upcoming PGA Tour Champions event

Reigning champ Bernhard Langer will not have a chance to defend his title as he recently tore his Achilles.

Five past major champions, including John Daly, are among the latest collection of golfers to join the field for this year’s Chubb Classic, set for Feb. 16-18 at Tiburón Golf Club in Naples.

Daly, the 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 Open Championship winner will make his first appearance at the Chubb since 2020. The perennial fan favorite recorded a hole-in-one at the 2018 tournament en route to an eighth-place finish, his best showing at the Chubb.

Also announced Wednesday as tournament commits: Ernie Els, David Toms, Mike Weir, Steven Alker, and Stephen Ames.

Els, a two-time U.S Open (1994, 1997) and Open Championship (2002, 2012) winner and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has more than 75 professional victories worldwide during his illustrious career. He finished tied for 10th place at the 2023 Chubb Classic.

Toms, the 2001 PGA champion and 2018 U.S. Senior Open champion, finished tied for sixth place at the last year’s Chubb. Including the U.S. Senior Open, Toms has four PGA Tour Champions victories, including two in 2023.

Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, will be the first Canadian to captain the International Team at the 2024 Presidents Cup, which will take place at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Quebec.

Alker, the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship winner, 2022 Charles Schwab Cup winner, and 2023 Charles Schwab Cup runner-up, also has two consecutive Champions victories: last year’s Schwab Cup Championship and this year’s season-opening event, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.

Ernie Els
Ernie Els plays from the fairway on the 18th hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament at Harbour Town Golf Links. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Ames, the 2006 Players Championship winner, is a six-time Champions winner, including four victories in 2023.

They join a group that features World Golf Hall-of-Famers Davis Love III, Colin Montgomerie and 2024 inductee Padraig Harrington as well as former World No. 1 ranked players and major champions David Duval and Tom Lehman.

Reigning champ Bernhard Langer will not have a chance to defend his title as he recently tore his Achilles.

Past Chubb champions Steve Stricker (2021), Miguel Angel Jimenez (2019), Joe Durant (2018), Lee Janzen (2015) and Kirk Triplett (2014) have also committed to play in the event. One former winner who won’t be competing is two-time defending champion Bernard Langer. The winningest golfer in Champions history tore his Achilles tendon in a training exercise last week and will be unable to pursue his sixth Chubb Classic title.

The final members of the tournament field will be announced at 5 p.m. Friday. A total of 78 players will compete in the 54-hole championship for a share of the $1.8 million purse. All three rounds will be shown live on the Golf Channel.

Tickets are now on sale for the 2024 Chubb Classic, including exclusive hospitality and general admission. All 2024 tournament tickets will be completely digital and will be emailed after purchase. E-tickets can be viewed on either a mobile device or printed out to be scanned at the main gate.

Now in its 37th year, the Chubb Classic is the longest-running Champions Tour event in the same metropolitan area, getting its start in Southwest Florida at The Club Pelican Bay in 1988 and has been at Tiburón since 2021.

 

Sick of the cold? Check out this $8.7M island retreat on an Ernie Els-designed golf course (with an amazing pool and ocean views)

What about permanently relocating to a place you can enjoy year-round?

Windy, wild weather has taken much of the country by storm this week. And while it’s fun to think about a short golf getaway to somewhere in warmer climes, what about permanently relocating to a place you can enjoy year-round?

Such is the case on the tiny island of Mauritius, a tiny island off the African coast that’s home to about 1.2 million residents and some of the most beautiful views on the planet.

This villa boasts sea, golf and mountain views, all alongside the Ernie Els-designed Anahita Golf Club. When you’re done with 18, it’s easy to dip in the 25-meter pool that could entertain quite the crew of golf buddies.

From the listing at Sotheby’s:

Located next to the stunning swimming pool, the large open plan kitchen and living space are the heart of this exquisite villa. Each of the rooms has been individually decorated and feature bespoke, locally made furniture throughout.

With beautifully designed spaces inside and out, Villa Extraordinaire is the perfect space to bring the whole family together.

Foreign ownership: access to Mauritian residence permit and a favourable fiscal climate.

And of course, there’s the weather. With temperatures in the summer hovering in the 80s and in the winter still jumping consistently into the 70s, this could be the perfect place if you’ve had enough shoveling.

Here are some stunning images of the property:

These are the six golfers who have won the Hawaii Double (Sentry, Sony) on PGA Tour

Chris Kirk now has a chance to join the short list.

The PGA Tour’s 2024 season is off and running.

The first event of the new year is in the books with Chris Kirk winning The Sentry on the Plantation course at Kapalua in Maui. He bested a field of 59 golfers who vied for a $20 million prize in the first signature event of the new year.

With that victory, Kirk now has a chance to join a short list of golfers who have put the career Hawaii double dip on their resumes.

Here’s a closer look at the six golfers who have won both The Sentry and the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Check the yardage book: Albany for the 2023 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas

Check out the details of the course where Tiger Woods makes his comeback to competitive golf.

The golf course at Albany in New Providence in the Bahamas – site of the 2023 Hero World Challenge – was designed by Ernie Els and opened in 2010. The layout ranks No. 25 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of top courses in Mexico, the Caribbean, the Atlantic islands and Central America.

On the island of Nassau, Albany’s layout features five par 5s and five par 3s. Part of a resort community, it plays to 7,449 yards with a par of 72.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the players – including Tiger Woods in his comeback to competitive golf – face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.

Steven Alker wins 2023 Charles Schwab Cup Championship for seventh PGA Tour Champions win

Alker’s win vaulted him into second place in the season-long points race.

PHOENIX — Steven Alker tore up the first nine holes at Phoenix Country Club during the first three rounds of the 2023 Charles Schwab Cup Championship. He was 14 under on the front over 54 holes, compared to 3 under on the back. That was a big reason why at 17 under, he held a four-shot lead heading into the final round.

Sunday, though, was a different story. Alker, who birdied Nos. 1, 4 and 5 in each of the first three rounds, parred the first and fourth and bogeyed the fifth in the final round. He was even through eight holes before finally getting a second Sunday birdie on the ninth to make the turn at 1 under on the day, and that allowed a few others to make up ground.

Ernie Els, who opened his week with a 63, the low round of the tournament this year, was 5 under through eight holes Sunday and at one point trimmed Alker’s lead to just a shot.

Els’ round then cooled off as he parred eight straight holes but on 17, Els got to 17 under with a long birdie putt, and was once again a shot back of the lead. But on the par-5 18th, Els found trouble, hitting into the greenside lake after bouncing his second shot off the slope near the green. He would go on to make par to shoot 65 and finish 17 under. Stephen Ames also shot a 65 and tied Els at 17 under.

Photos: See the action from Phoenix Country Club

That left Alker needing just to par out on the last three holes to clinch the tournament. On 16, he powered his birdie putt three feet past the hole but he made his par, his lead still one. On 17, he missed the green with a wedge but putted onto the green and then tapped in for a par. On 18, his drive skirted but missed a fairway bunker. He was 201 yards out and chose to lay up. As he was lining up his third, Lanny Wadkins on the Golf Channel telecast said Alker needed to be short and left with his approach but he just about flew green, his ball trundling down the backside into the second cut of rough.

Needing to get up and down for par to win by a shot, Alker, who was 13 for 16 scrambling up to that point this week, chipped on to about two feet. With Ernies Els on the practice green and Stephen Ames sitting in the clubhouse waiting, Alker drained the putt to finish it off.

“It’s another win, that’s the first thing and that’s huge,” he said. “To beat these guys, it’s hard to win out here. To get another one, stuck on six for a while, but to get another one is great. It means a lot obviously with family and friends here.”

Alker won the season-long title a year ago and he now leaves Phoenix Country Club two years in a row with some hardware in his adopted home state. The New Zealander has lived in Scottsdale for the last 21 years.

He also choked up a bit when he spoke of his former caddie Sam Workman, who died in February.

“Troy [Martin], after Sam passed, he’s been a stud, he’s been a stud. I’m glad I got a flag for him today, it was huge.

“You see the signs around and people talking Go Sam and Go Astros,” Alker said of Workman’s favorite baseball team. “We heard a lot of that this week. Yeah, he was here somewhere.”

As for Els, he spoke of his putting, which faltered a little after Thursday.

“The first day I putted so beautifully and then I missed a couple and it put a little doubt in me, to be honest, for the rest of the week,” he said. “I kind of fought it well. When you’re a little unsure, you’re unsure about the line and I was kind of hoping for that putt [on 9] to turn left which it didn’t. That slowed me down, slowed the momentum down. I can look back at those.”

As Alker, who earned $528,000 for the win, collected his tournament trophy on the 18th green, there was another one there for Steve Stricker, who clinched the series title after the first of three playoff events. He was an 11th-hour WD for Phoenix, pulling out the night before the first round after announcing that his dad was admitted into the hospital.

Bonus money

The top five finishers in the Charles Schwab Cup season-long race earned even more money Sunday.

  1. Steve Stricker, $1 million
  2. Steven Alker, $500,000
  3. Ernie Els, $300,000
  4. Padraig Harrington, $200,000
  5. Bernhard Langer, $100,000

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Perfect weather, low scores galore at Phoenix Country Club for 2023 Charles Schwab Cup Championship

A pair of golfers co-lead at 11 under, and there are 13 within four shots of the lead after 36 holes.

Padraig Harrington finished 27 under to win the 2022 Charles Schwab Cup Championship by a whopping seven strokes.

Ahead of the 2023 rendition of the PGA Tour Champions finale, he noted the layout probably won’t play as it did a year ago

“The course is in fantastic condition,” he said after the pro-am Wednesday. “Certainly seem to have tried to toughen it up a little bit this year. They don’t want to see 27 under par again.”

Halfway through this year, the leaders are on pace to get to 22 under, well shy of what Harrington got to a year ago but nonetheless, low scores were to be had Friday at Phoenix Country Club, where the temperature peaked at 77 under clear, sunny skies.

Harrington had the best round Friday with an 8-under 63, his scorecard featuring eight birdies and no bogeys. He was the first to get to double digits under par, and he’s at 10 under after 36 holes.

The co-leaders are Steven Alker and Marco Dawson, who each shot 64 to get to 11 under. Both golfers birdied Nos. 13, 16 and 18 coming down the stretch. Alker won the 2022 Schwab Cup series title.

“The greens seemed faster today. Ball was flying further for some reason, maybe I was hitting it better, I don’t know,” said Alker. “But it seemed to be going a long way.”

For Dawson, it’s been a while since he contended, he admitted in the media scrum after his round.

Q: When was the last time that you shared the lead, do you remember?

MARCO DAWSON: No, I don’t remember. Maybe at home with my buddies. (Laughs.)

Q: Did you win?

MARCO DAWSON: You know, I think I did.

Tied for third with Harrington is Harrison Frazar, who won the first of the 2023 Schwab Cup Playoff events three weeks ago; Alex Cejka, who posted a scorching back-nine 29. He had six birdies on the second nine, including four straight on Nos. 15, 16, 17 and 18; and Thongchai Jaidee, who closed with back-to-back birdies to shoot a 67.

Ernie Els, whose first-round 63 is tied for low round of the week so far, shot a 70 and sits tied for sixth at 9 under along with Richard Green and Stephen Ames.

There are 13 players within four shots of the lead.

The 72-hole, no-cut season-ender concludes Sunday. Steve Stricker, who won the season-long points race before the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs started, will not be there to collect his series trophy. He withdrew late in the day Wednesday after announcing his father was admitted into the hospital.

While the PGA Tour Champions season will come to an end Sunday, Harrington is moving on. He’s on the entry list for next week’s RSM Classic on the PGA Tour, the final event of the 2023 FedEx Cup Fall series.

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Pamp’s the champ: Rod Pampling goes wire-to-wire to win SAS Championship

“It’s just the fact that you’ve won on that day. In this game it doesn’t happen a lot, so you cherish every one of them.”

Rod Pampling birdied three of his first eight holes Sunday and went wire-to-wire to win the PGA Tour Champions SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, North Carolina.

The 54-year-old Australian held a one-stroke lead entering the final round and made sure it stood up by shooting 5-under 67.

“It’s all the hard work you put in, it’s nice for it to pay off,” Pampling said. “The guys out here now, they’re phenomenal players, they really are. You look at the field every week, we’ve got eight Hall of Famers out here and there’s another eight who are just playing phenomenal golf. To get out on top when the majority of the guys are here is awesome, it really is. It’s very rewarding.”

Pampling shot a 54-hole aggregate of 15-under 201, two strokes better than New Zealand native Steven Alker, who closed in 68. It marked Pampling’s second career victory on the senior circuit.

Inclement weather meant Pampling had to play 33 holes on Sunday, but he was up to the task.

“It mightn’t look it,” he said, “but I try to keep myself in shape.”

One of those Hall of Famers Pampling was talking about included Ernie Els, who finished tied for third with Mario Tiziani at 11 under. Pampling, who had last won at the 2020 Boeing Classic, said winning never gets old.

“It can be a four-ball down the street with your mates or whatever it is, winning is phenomenal,” said Pampling, who won three times on the PGA Tour. “It doesn’t have to be for a lot, it’s just the fact that you’ve won on that day. In this game it doesn’t happen a lot, so you cherish every one of them.”

Ernie Els, Boo Weekley, other pros swing like Jim Furyk, explain why it works

Jim Furyk rode his unique swing to 17 PGA Tour wins and $71 million in career earnings.

He’s long had one of the more unusual swings in pro golf.

But players are rare to knock it because Jim Furyk made his unique approach to ballstriking work, his 17 PGA Tour wins and $71 million in career earnings are all the evidence you need.

This week, the three-time PGA Tour Champions winner is hosting his Furyk & Friends event on the senior circuit in Jacksonville, Florida. In advance of the event, some of his fellow pros talked about his swing, tried their best to recreate it and ultimately they all had nothing but praise for him.

“Just because it didn’t look like everything else doesn’t mean it doesn’t work,” said Rocco Mediate, who stressed Furyk was consistently getting the club in the right spot at impact.

The smooth-hitting Ernie Els tried to mimic Furyk’s signature move but the Big Easy’s swing is so buttery, he couldn’t quite contort himself enough to pull it off.

The funniest explanation, though, came through the thick Southern drawl of Boo Weekley.

This former PGA Tour venue has a stacked Champions field. Here are 9 players to watch at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open

The chase for top honors in the 16th playing of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open begins Friday.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The chase for top honors in the 16th playing of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open and the accompanying $315,000 cut of the purse begins Friday morning at En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott.

Back to defend his championship will be 51-year-old Padraig Harrington, whose Dick’s Open debut brought rounds of 66-67-67 and a three-stroke victory over Mike Weir and Thongchai Jaidee, with Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh another shot back.

One of the most-followed players across decades at En-Joie will not be in the field for the first time since his 2008 Dick’s Open debut.

Joey Sindelar, a long-time resident of nearby Horseheads and now residing in the Town of Lansing and twice a B.C. Open champion, has concluded his competitive playing career due to health reasons. He did, however, play in Dick’s Open Pro-Ams Wednesday and Thursday.

Here is a smattering of players to keep an eye on:

An aging Ernie Els went to lighter shafts — and now he’s got the 36-hole lead at a PGA Tour Champions major

The move to lighter shafts could help him in his quest to win his first major on the PGA Tour Champions.

The inevitability of growing older strikes all of us at some point. Even the Big Easy.

Now at the ripe age of 53, Ernie Els found himself looking for a little help when it came to his shafts, and he admitted after shooting a 66 during the second round of the Regions Tradition at Greystone G&CC in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday that he recently made a switch.

“I’ve got a kind of a new set in my bag, my clubs have new shafts and I’m getting used to them, but it feels good,” Els said. “I’ve been playing a lot golf lately so I know where my game is. I just want to get out there and do as best as I can, I’m in contention, and that is all you can ask for.”

Els hasn’t needed much of a boost, as he’s posted five top-10 finishes in seven starts on the PGA Tour Champions this year, including a win at the Hoag Classic in March. Sitting at 10 under after two rounds, Els has a one-shot lead over Paul Broadhurst and a two-shot edge over Stephen Ames, Steve Stricker and Tim O’Neal.

But the move to lighter shafts could help him in his quest to win his first major on the PGA Tour Champions. He has three victories on the senior circuit, but has yet to capture a major.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and then two weeks ago I started working on it and getting them into the bag, that’s fully fledged, every club is changed now,” he said. “It’s a little lighter shaft, I’ve been playing 140-range shafts and I went down to a little lighter shaft, I’m getting older.”

As for looking ahead to the final two rounds of play, Els knows there’s plenty of competition to face. Although Els has played well at this event before in two previous starts, he’s seen Stricker run away from the field both times.

This time, Els is determined to keep it simple.

“I just managed myself around the course well. I hit some shorter clubs off the tee to make sure I got it in the fairway, then the greens are putting beautifully and I made some putts, so it was a nice day to stay in it,” he said. “I felt like guys were going to shoot low today because of the rain we had last night so I wanted to get it somewhere in the 60s and that’s what we did.”

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