Tag: PGA Tour Champions 2021

Steven Alker outduels Jim Furyk to win TimberTech Championship, earns spot next year on PGA Tour Champions

“I always know I’ve been good, but to play with these guys, it’s just a matter of feeling comfortable.”

BOCA RATON — Four months ago, few golf fans had heard of Steven Alker.

They’re going to be hearing a lot more from him.

Alker, who had zero status on the PGA Tour Champions when the New Zealander turned 50 in July, won the TimberTech Championship on Sunday by outdueling Jim Furyk down the back nine of The Old Course at Broken Sound Club.

Alker took the lead when he made a 25-foot putt at the 15th hole and added another birdie at the 18th hole to beat Furyk and Miguel Angel Jimenez by two shots. Alker shot a 4-under 68 to finish at 17-under 199 and end a seven-year winless drought.

Alker earned this victory – and a spot on next year’s PGA Tour Champions – through exceptional play. He Monday-qualified for his first event on the 50-and-older circuit in late August and rattled off six consecutive top-10 finishes to keep earning a spot in the next tournament. Sunday’s victory marked his eighth top-10 finish in nine starts.

“It’s just been building,” Alker said. “I’ve been having chances. You have a bunch of top-10s and you get in the thick of it and just try to get a ‘W.’ Not that the top-10s aren’t any good, it’s just that you get that win, and just glad I got one today.”

Alker won four times on the Korn Ferry Tour, his last victory coming in 2014, and three times on the PGA Tour of Australasia. His best finish in a major was 19th at the 2012 British Open.

He’s certainly not a household name – not even among professional golfers. But that will change.

“I didn’t know much about him, either,” Furyk said. “He doesn’t really seem to have any weaknesses. It’s bitter there, but kind of told him on the 18th green I was really happy for him.

“To kind of come from really no status out here on the Champions Tour to making the (Charles Schwab Cup Championship) in only nine or 10 events, that’s playing some good golf. He’s been knocking on the door and in the top-10 each and every week. Eventually you do that enough, you win a tournament.”

Alker thrust himself into contention during the second round of Saturday’s 36-hole marathon (caused when heavy rains postponed play Friday). He started the second round birdie-eagle-birdie and shot 29 on the Old Course’s back nine to sit just one behind co-leaders Furyk and Tim Petrovic entering Sunday.

He struggled on the front nine Sunday, playing his first six holes in one-over. But he made five birdies and no bogeys from there to earn the $305,000 first prize and improve from 46th to 22nd in the playoff standings.

Not bad for someone who had to wait until he turned 50 to get a tee time on the second-chance tour.

“I always know I’ve been good, but to play with these guys, it’s just a matter of feeling comfortable,” Alker said. “I think I’m comfortable right now playing with these guys, but giving yourself chances, I think that’s the biggest thing. Golf’s always about giving yourself chances and eventually it will happen.”

Jimenez gave himself a chance with three consecutive birdies on the back nine to get within a shot of the lead. But he made four consecutive pars before a birdie at the 18th gave the Spaniard a share of second place.

Ernie Els shot 71 and tied for fourth with Petrovic at 12-under 204. K.J. Choi (67) and Kirk Triplett (70) tied for sixth place.

Bernhard Langer finished T11 to maintain his lead in the playoff standings. Langer leads Furyk by 337,727 points entering next week’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix.

“Still got work to do.” Furyk said. “I would have loved to have won this event and then really made it probably a two-man race with Bernhard and I. Now there’s a lot more work to do. I’ll have to win in Phoenix.”

Meanwhile, Alker got his much-waited victory. With many more to come.

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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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Ahead of his PGA Tour Champions title defense, Phil Mickelson says driving accuracy is irrelevant: ‘I look at longest’

“If you want to look at stuff that’s irrelevant, have at it.”

RICHMOND, Va. — Do you think driving accuracy is important? Phil Mickelson sure doesn’t.

When the 51-year-old Lefty won the Constellation Furyk and Friends earlier this month for his third PGA Tour Champions win in just his fourth start (Fred Couples is the only other player to do so in 2010), he was 81st in driving accuracy.

“I look at longest, like I try to hit it the farthest out here and I was No. 1 in driving distance. That’s the way I look at it,” said Mickelson after his Thursday pro-am ahead of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, the first of three legs in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs. “If you want to look at stuff that’s irrelevant, have at it. What I’m looking at is distance, I want to hit it, I want to fly it 305 and try to – because I’m a really good wedge player, so if I get wedges in my hand, I’m going to be tough to beat.”

And that’s putting it lightly. Back at Country Club of Virginia’s James River course this week to defend his first senior victory at the 2020 Dominion, Mickelson has a chance to become the first player to win four of his first five starts on the senior circuit. Even though it’s the same course, Mickelson noted how different it’s playing this week compared to last year with firm and fast greens.

“I think from last year I’m able to take some of the subtleties and nuances of the golf course and have a better knowledge of where I want to be, where I don’t want to be and how I can play it aggressively,” said Mickelson. “So knowing those nuances is important. I think that if the course played like this last year, I don’t think I would have ended up winning, because you really need to know a lot of the subtleties and you could hit good shots and be in a bad spot if you didn’t know the golf course.”

But it won’t be without a little competition. The top-72 players from the Schwab Cup points list qualified for this week’s event, including three past champions at CCV: Miguel Angel Jimenez (2019), Woody Austin (2018), and Bernhard Langer (2017). Langer currently sits first in the standings and is looking for his record sixth Charles Schwab Cup.

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“There are a lot of really good players that are playing some really good golf. What you don’t see is how hard they work off the golf course, because as we all get older, to maintain flexibility, speed, strength, all those things, it’s a lot of extra work,” explained Mickelson. “Obviously Bernhard Langer’s the gold standard, right? That man at 64, what he’s been doing is incredible. That’s the guy to look up to to elongate your career, have a great quality of life.”

Langer, winner of 41 Champions tour events and 11 senior majors, had glowing things to say about all the new “young” players on the tour on Tuesday, especially Mickelson. The man to beat for the last decade and a half noted how eager the last few classes of PGA Tour Champions rookies have been, citing their realization that the senior tour is a second chance to compete at a high level. All that said, Mickelson is enjoying his time but isn’t ready to give the Champions tour his full attention.

“I’m using this as an opportunity to have fun, to be around people that I know, guys that I know. I’m using it as a chance to be competitive but in an environment that doesn’t beat you up,” said Mickelson. “I think it’s underrated how difficult the courses on Tour set up, how tough the pin placements are and you’re really not able to get away with a miss because the pins are so close to the edges. If you short-side yourself, you can’t get up and down.

“I like being able to play aggressive, so it lets me have fun and play the way I like to play out here, and then I try to take that back to when I play on the regular tour and try to implement that type of play. But I always have to dial it back on the regular tour and be more cautious, play to more center of the greens, have more 20-, 30-footers, because if you short-side yourself there, they’re so close to the edges, you can’t get up and down.”

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The 45-time winner on the “regular tour” said he’ll most likely play the season-finale Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix, but he’s unsure about next week’s stop in Florida for the TimberTech Championship.

“I feel like I’m playing a lot better than I have throughout the year, except for the PGA,” said Lefty with a laugh, “and I would like to test myself on the regular tour. So if there’s an event I could play, it might be the week of Boca, it might be the one down in Mexico. I’m not sure what exactly I’ll do, but I very well may go to Boca, we’ll see. That’s the only one I’m undecided on.”

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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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