Surging eight spots up the leaderboard with a final-round 66 on Sunday, Ernie Els won a tight SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club.
Ernie Els saved his best for last.
Surging eight spots up the leaderboard with a final-round 66 (his best score of the weekend), Els came from behind Sunday to win a tightly contested SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club. The South African now has a second PGA Tour Champions win to add to a resume that includes 19 PGA Tour victories and 47 international titles.
Els shot 70 and 68 respectively the first two rounds, and a bogey on No. 3 Sunday did not help his chances of making a comeback. But the 50-year old proceeded to rattle off three straight birdies on Nos. 6-8 and add four more on the back nine. He finished the weekend 12-under par, one shot clear of the field.
“I had 64 in mind,” said Els when asked if he had a particular target score for the day. “You know, especially on the final round, there were so many guys bunched. I was coming from 6 under, I reckoned 14 under was maybe a good score, but then the conditions helped out and it became really tough. So 66 was just, just squeaked in there.”
Second-place goes to Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, who was tied for pole position going into the final round. Although the 57-year old had won seven times before on the PGA Tour Champions (and 42 times abroad), he was unable to take advantage of the opportunity. Montgomerie fired a 2-under 70 (three birdies, one bogey) to finish 11 under.
After rising past 12 opponents during Saturday’s third round, Vijay Singh secured third place at 10 under with a 70 of his own (four birdies, two bogeys). The Fiji native added another top-5 finish to a decorated career that includes 34 PGA Tour wins, 22 international victories and a FedExCup title in 2008.
Although he just missed the podium, Gene Sauers of Georgia went on quite the Sunday run. The 58-year old’s seven-birdie, two-bogey performance vaulted him 18 spots up the leaderboard, where he T-4 along with Robert Karlsson, Kirk Triplett, David Toms and Woody Austin.
The PGA Tour Champions will return Oct. 16-18 in Richmond, Virginia for the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.
Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie and Woody Austin are tied for first at the SAS Championship. They are 9 under going into Sunday.
Darren Clarke jumped six spots up the leaderboard on Saturday to tie Colin Montgomerie and first-round leader Woody Austin for the lead at the SAS Championship. All three now sit at 9-under par going into Sunday’s final round.
Clarke was mostly solid on Friday, but a double-bogey on the par-4 sixth marred what was otherwise a competitive five-birdie effort. The 52-year-old from Northern Ireland cleaned things up during the second round, posting five birdies on the back nine and six total. With 15 international victories to his name, Clarke is looking for his first PGA Tour Champions win.
“I was playing okay sort of all day and I kept telling myself ‘just be patient’ and stupid old thing, I kept waiting for something to happen,” Clarke said. “The greens are so pure that the subtle breaks, you’ve got to hit it really close to make — you’re not going to make a lot of bombs here really from 20, 30 feet all day, so I just took wedges in my hand, hit it a little bit closer there towards the end.
“Made the most of it, which is nice.”
Montgomerie, 57, found himself T-4 after the first round. Bolstered by strong iron play, he shot five birdies and remained bogey-free for a Saturday 67 that propelled him three spots up the leaderboard. The golfers whom Montgomerie had been tied with — Kirk Triplett and Marco Dawson — faltered during round two. Respective scores of 70 and 71 meant that Triplett fell back five places to T-9 and Dawson 11 to T-15.
“I’ve been changing my swing,” revealed Montgomerie, owner of 42 international wins and seven Champions Tour wins to date. “I’ve lost a little weight and I put a little bit on again. American food, you can’t help it.
“I’ve been coming more inside on the backswing, or it feels like that, it might not look it on the screen, but it does definitely feel. So I’ve got a better launch, I’ve got a better trajectory, just the whole thing’s better than it was.”
Austin held ground against his surging opponents, although his second-round effort wasn’t as sharp as his opening-round 66. Two bogeys against five birdies left the 56-year old with a 3-under 69.
Also in the hunt are David Toms (United States), Bernhard Langer (Germany) and Vijay Singh (Fiji), all of whom are T-4 at 8 under. Toms, 53, carded six birdies against one bogey to move ahead three spots with a 67. He is looking for his second PGA Tour Champions victory.
The big movers, though, were Langer and Singh, who both rocketed 12 spots up the leaderboard. Langer, 63, got there by shooting 66 on the day — bettering his first-round performance by four strokes. He fired seven birdies against just one bogey, with four of those birdies coming on the back nine. Langer, a two-time Masters winner and an icon in the golf world, boasts 41 Champions Tour victories and 61 international titles.
Meanwhile, the 57-year old Singh shook off an early bogey on No. 4 to card a 66. He pulled it off in dramatic fashion with two eagles on the day: one on the par-5 seventh and another on the par-4 18th. Singh, the 2008 FedExCup Champion, has 34 PGA Tour wins and 22 international titles under his belt.
Woody Austin leads by one at this weekend’s PGA Tour Champions event in Cary, North Carolina. He fired an opening round 66.
Woody Austin owns the early lead at the SAS Championship, this weekend’s PGA Tour Champions event in Cary, North Carolina. Austin is seeking his fifth career victory on the senior circuit as he fired an opening-round 66, good for 6-under par and a one-shot lead at the Prestonwood Country Club – Highlands Course.
The Tampa, Florida, native more than made up for a bogey on the fourth hole with seven birdies — two of them coming late on No. 17 and No. 18. He credits his short game with keeping him in it, especially early.
“I putted better than I have putted in a long time for the first nine holes,” said Austin, 56. “First nine holes I looked like Brad Faxon out there today. It was a bad start, but the putter kept me in the game. Then I finally started to hit some good shots.”
One shot back of Austin is the duo of Gene Sauers and Corey Pavin, who both carded 65. Sauers, from Savannah, Georgia, kept himself clean but managed just one birdie in the first 11 holes. The 58-year old vaulted himself into contention by calmly depositing an uphill eagle putt at No. 17. So far, he has only won once on the PGA Tour Champions.
Pavin, 60, is the most decorated of the three. The Oxnard, California, native has 15 PGA Tour victories under his belt and was named the 1991 PGA Tour Player of the Year. Like Sauers, he is looking for his second Champions Tour victory and went bogey-free on the day. Of his five birdies, three of them came at the par-3 holes (No. 3, No. 8 and No. 11).
“You know, I like this golf course,” Pavin said despite his inconsistent play at Prestonwood in earlier years. “I thought with the bent greens they were — it was like dartboards and now you’ve got to really think about your iron shots and what it’s going to do once it hits the green. You’ve got to shape your shots.
“Today, I just went out and just tried to play golf and not worry about anything but try to hit my golf shots and wherever it went, it went. Just kind of went from there and it worked out OK.”
Rounding out the top six are Kirk Triplett, Marco Dawson and Colin Montgomerie, who find themselves T-4 at 4-under. Triplett faltered out of the gate with bogeys at the first and third, but righted the ship with six subsequent birdies. The Moses Lake, Washington, native owns eight PGA Tour Champions wins.
Dawson, an American born in Freising, Germany, played a very different round from Triplett. The 56-year old ripped off six birdies, four in the front nine, but set himself back with a frustrating double bogey at No. 13. He has a chance to win his third Champions Tour event this weekend.
Montgomerie of Glasgow, Scotland, has been prolific abroad, with 35 of his 42 international wins coming on the European Tour (good for third all-time on that circuit). He has seven PGA Tour Champions victories and counting to add to that resume.
Like Triplett, Montgomerie had to overcome early bogeys at the third and sixth, but did the job with six birdies. The 57-year old is poised to push his American counterparts for the title at Prestonwood. Round 2 of the SAS Championship will take place on Saturday.
Jim Furyk has won his first two starts on the Champions Tour. This week at the SAS Championship, he’s going for three.
Last season on the PGA Tour, Jim Furyk earned $224,450 in 13 events. In two events on the Champions tour, he’s won $630,000.
The 50-year-old Furyk is having a rookie season to remember on the senior circuit.
The 17-time winner on the PGA Tour won his Champions debut in August at the Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Michigan, followed by another win in September in his second start at the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach.
While he still plans to play occasionally on the PGA Tour, the former FedEx Cup Champion said the Champions Tour is calling his name a little louder these days.
“I think this is going to be my home and just excited to play some golf,” Furyk said Thursday. “It was fun to compete, get in contention for two weeks. I’d definitely like to get that feeling again.”
Furyk still plans to occasionally compete in Tour events. He last competed on Tour at the 2020 Safeway Open last month and finished T-46. Last season on Tour, he competed in 13 Tour events, earning two top-25 finishes and making six cuts. His last top-10 was his second-place finish at the 2019 Players Championship.
This week during the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club, the 2010 PGA Tour Player of the Year will attempt to win his first three starts — something no one’s ever done on the Champions.
“It’s real easy to get kind of caught up and think about trying to win, but I didn’t get to this position doing that,” Furyk said. “I got in this position really just worrying about my game and going out there and playing the best I could and playing a good Friday round, setting it up, playing a good Saturday round, getting myself in contention, and then kind of going through that same routine on Sunday. You know, I was fortunate to end up on top.”
If Furyk wins three in a row after this week’s event, it would the first time in a decade a golfer won three straight events on the Champions. Fred Couples won three consecutive starts in 2010 during his rookie season.
While Furyk answered the three-in-a-row question stone-faced like the veteran he is, there’s still some excitement to starting this new chapter of his career.
“When you get on a good roll like that, when you’re playing well and you’ve got some momentum, it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “Now the goal’s to try to keep that going. … I didn’t know six months ago when I turned 50 whether I was going to commit to playing the PGA Tour or the Champions Tour and, you know, coming out here and having some success but seeing some friends, seeing golf courses that are 7,000 yards, I kind of like the atmosphere, I’ve been enjoying it.”
Jim Furyk after winning the 2020 Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan. (Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
Furyk isn’t the only PGA Tour alum to dip his toe into his senior pool of late. Phil Mickelson won his Champions debut in August by four shots at the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National. This week, Mickelson committed to his second Champions event Oct. 16-18 at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic. Furyk will also compete at The Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course.
While Furyk looked forward to joining Mickelson next week, the 2003 U.S. Open champion is first focused on this week’s event in Cary, North Carolina.
Among his 80 competitors, Furyk will face reigning champion Jerry Kelly. The two even played a practice round on Tuesday which helped the Champions rookie get a lay of the land.
“Prestonwood’s a pretty straightforward golf course,” he said. “It’s well-bunkered off the tee. Using the yardage book I got a feel real easy of where I was supposed to put the ball, and playing with (Kelly) helped out definitely to kind of just get around the golf course and see it a little bit.”
Furyk, Ernie Els and David Toms tee off their first rounds Friday at 11:40 a.m. from the first tee.
Phil Mickelson is scheduled to make his second start on the PGA Tour champions tour at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.
After winning in his Champions Tour debut, Phil Mickelson is back for more.
The 50-year-old will make his second PGA Tour Champions start Oct. 16-18 at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at The Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course.
The event will be Mickelson’s first individual start in Virginia since the 1993 Michelob Championship at Kingsmill in Williamsburg. The five-time major winner also played on four U.S Presidents Cup teams at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, in 1994, 1996, 2000 and 2005.
The 54-hole Champions event is usually the first of three Charles Schwab Cup playoff events at the end of the season, but due to changes in scheduling from the coronavirus pandemic, the event will be played next week without fans on-site.
In his Champions Tour debut in August, Mickelson won the Charles Schwab Cup Series at Ozarks National by four shots. The 44-time winner on the PGA Tour finished the event 22-under 191 to become the 20th player to win his first Champions start.
Joining Mickelson in the field at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic are Ernie Els and Jim Furyk. Els, 50, tied for second in his Champions debut in January and won his third start at the Hoag Classic in March. Furyk, 50, won his tour debut at the Ally Challenge in August and won again in his second start at the PURE Insurance Championship last month.
The Dominion Energy Charity Classic can be watched live on Golf Channel Oct. 16 from 2-5 p.m. EDT and Oct. 17-18 from 2:30-5 p.m. EDT.
Jim Furyk claimed his second PGA Tour Champions title, winning the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach.
Jim Furyk is racking up the PGA Tour Champions wins.
The 50-year-old made his debut on the over-50 tour back in August, winning the Ally Challenge. On Sunday he earned his second win in as many starts, claiming the title at the Pure Insurance Championship at 12 under after a one-hole playoff against Jerry Kelly at Pebble Beach.
Furyk, a 17-time winner on the PGA Tour including the 2003 U.S. Open, won the tournament with a birdie on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th. Kelly made par. Ernie Els finished third at 11 under, followed by Mike Weir and Retief Goosen T-4 at 9 under.
Champions Tour: Jim Furyk holds a one-shot lead after the first round of the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach.
Jim Furyk finished strong in the opening round of the Pure Insurance Championship on Friday, birdieing three of his last four holes for an 8-under 64. For now, he holds a one-shot lead on Cameron Beckman, Ernie Els and Stephen Leaney, who are all T-2.
At 50 years old, Furyk is playing in just his second PGA Tour Champions event. The West Chester, Pennsylvania, native emerged victorious at the Ally Challenge on Aug. 2, becoming the first man in over five years to win his Champions Tour debut. Phil Mickelson followed soon after by copying the feat.
“Yeah, obviously real happy,” Furyk said about his opening-round effort at Pebble Beach, a course he has played more than 20 events at. “I got off to a good start on the back nine and kind of got things moving with some shots close to the pin. It’s just good to get off to a fast start.”
Furyk stumbled in the early going with a three-putt bogey at the third hole, but recovered with a birdie at No. 4 (one of nine he made on the day). He would end up needing every single one to stay clear of the hard-charging trio behind him.
Minnesota’s Beckman stayed bogey-free and carded seven birdies for an opening-round 65, as did Australia’s Leaney. Els, the South African, had just two birdies in the front nine but put himself in the conversation with a hole-in-one at No. 12.
“Yeah, it was a strange day,” remarked Leaney. “When I finished, I actually thought I’d shot 66. I had to look at the scorecard five times to convince myself that I actually shot 7 under, so it was a bit of a weird day. I didn’t drive it particularly well, but I missed it in spots that you need to miss it on and I birdied the holes I felt like I had to.”
Added Els: “Normally, you make a hole-in-one every three years. I’ve made one every two, three weeks, so it’s ridiculous. I should go to the casino because maybe there’s a bit of luck involved, I’m not sure.”
Champions Tour fans will be in for plenty of great second-round action. Dicky Pride and Doug Barron finished just two shots back of Furyk on Friday and look to join the trio of Beckman, Els and Leaney in the hunt. Defending champ Kirk Triplett wasn’t so lucky, as he finds himself T-64 after shooting 3-over in the first round.
Furyk’s career includes 17 PGA Tour victories, including a U.S. Open title in 2003. But, a victory this weekend would make him the third golfer in history to win his first two PGA Tour Champions events. Arnold Palmer did it first in 1980, followed by Bruce Fleisher in 1999.
“It will be good to get out there with some softer greens in the morning and hopefully some good weather,” Furyk said before the second round. “Really thankful to get off to a good start, but still have a great golf course in front of me and two more days, so I just want to keep trying to do the same thing and keep making some birdies.”
Furyk will tee off at 11:16 a.m. ET on Saturday alongside Billy Andrade, last year’s runner-up at the Pure Insurance Championship. Andrade managed a first-round 3-under and currently sits T-14. Golf Channel’s coverage will run from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET.
Kirk Triplett will face a legendary field at the PGA Tour Champions Pure Insurance Championship this weekend at Pebble Beach.
The 2020-21 PGA Tour Champions season continues this weekend with the Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Since 2014, the tournament has been played at both Pebble Beach and the neighboring Poppy Hills Golf Course, but due to COVID-19, it will be limited to a single venue this time around.
Kirk Triplett won this event last year, defeating Billy Andrade in a playoff after both finished the final round 9-under par. Having also won in 2012 and 2013, Triplett will look to add a fourth Pure Insurance title to his name. He has eight PGA Tour Champions wins and 62 top-10 finishes in total.
Pebble Beach holds a great deal of sentimental value for the 58-year old from Moses Lake, Washington, who became acquainted with the course nearly four decades ago.
“The first time I played it, we started at the bottom of Carmel Avenue over there at about nine o’clock at night, and jumped up and played six or seven holes in the dark ahead of the sprinkler guy,” Triplett recalled with a laugh. “A college teammate and I did that, probably 1981, ’82. I just fell in love with it down here.”
Ever since, Triplett has made it a point to compete in as many Pebble Beach golf tournaments as he can, from the U.S. Open to the AT&T Pro-Am. Yet he is disappointed that, due to COVID-19, this year’s Pure Insurance Championship will run without Impacting the First Tee, a unique pro-am event that sees each participating Champions Tour pro team up with a 14- to 18-year old junior and two amateurs.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have some great relationships with the kids that I’ve played with through the years,” said Triplett about First Tee, which has taken place since 2004. “I mean, to a person, the 81 kids that come through here, they get it. They’re hard workers, they come from all different backgrounds. There’s something about the game of golf that just brings out character.”
Despite the absence of the First Tee juniors, there will still be plenty of names to watch, including Andrade. The 56-year old from Rhode Island failed to break into the winner’s circle last year, but his second-place finish to Triplett was one of three such performances he managed in 2019. Andrade owns three PGA Tour Champions wins and 44 top-10 finishes.
Triplett and Andrade’s previous meeting at Pebble Beach was certainly memorable. Triplett overcame a four-shot deficit with three birdies at the 14th, 15th and 18th holes to shoot 67. Andrade bogeyed 14 and 15, but forced a playoff with a birdie at 18. Triplett won the playoff with a 10-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole.
Nine members of the World Golf Hall of Fame will be in action as well: Fred Couples, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Tom Kite, Bernhard Langer, Davis Love III, Colin Montgomerie, Mark O’Meara and Vijay Singh. They will be joined by former Pure Insurance winners Jeff Sluman, Ken Tanigawa, Bernhard Langer, Paul Broadhurst and Esteban Toledo. The victor will take home $330,000 from a purse of $2.2 million.
After the pandemic-related cancellation of 13 tournaments, the PGA Tour Champions has combined the 2020 and 2021 seasons into a singular campaign. This weekend’s field has been reduced to 80 professionals and 80 amateurs. Golf Channel’s live coverage of the event will run 4-7 p.m. ET on Friday and 3-6 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday.
Jack Nicklaus and Andy North took on Hale Irwin and Tony Jacklin in an exhibition as part of the Sanford Invitational with fans on hand.
If you attended the second day of the Sanford International at Minnehaha Country Club (and the improved weather resulted in a far larger crowd Saturday than for Friday’s opener in Sioux Falls, South Dakota), you might have found yourself with a difficult decision by the end of the afternoon.
Who to follow around the course at the PGA Tour Champions event, the first golf event with fans since the pandemic began?
You had the threesome of Steve Stricker, John Daly and Robin Byrd, with Daly clearly asserting himself as the people’s choice after this week’s bladder cancer diagnosis, which he’s promptly responded to with a stellar first two days, checking in at 6-under, three strokes off the lead heading into Sunday.
Stricker, the 2018 champion, shot a 64 Saturday to vault himself into a tie for the lead at 9-under.
Or you could’ve followed the threesome of Miguel Angel Jimenez, David Toms and Dicky Pride, who are all playing spectacular golf this weekend. Pride shot a 5-under 65 on Friday to take the early lead, while Jimenez produced a second straight brilliant round that puts him atop the leaderboard with Stricker at 9-under. Toms is not far behind at 7-under.
Then there was Darren Clarke, who carded a tournament-record 62 on Saturday to pull within one stroke of Stricker, tied with Kevin Sutherland and Fred Couples, who shot a 64 on Saturday, including the shot of the day when he eagled No. 9 with a “slam dunk” chip directly into the hole.
Jack Nicklaus dons a hat with a golden bear on it, emblematic of his nickname, in the EMC Legends Series at the Sanford International on Saturday, September 12, At the Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
And still, with all that going on, it was hard for the spectators not to turn their attention to the back nine at around 4 p.m., when the Legends Series teed off for their nine-hole charity exhibition.
Jack Nicklaus and Andy North took on Hale Irwin and Tony Jacklin. Nicklaus, considered by many to be the greatest golfer of all time, teaming with the two-time U.S. Open winner, and Irwin, the winningest player in PGA Tour Champions history teaming with Jacklin, a British legend and 1970 U.S. Open champion.
Steve Stricker tees off during the Sanford International on Saturday, September 12, At the Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls.
Nicklaus is 80, Jacklin 76 and Irwin 75, while North was the young pup of the group at 70, and the foursome put on a memorable show that left onlookers in awe throughout their 2½ hour round.
Jacklin and Irwin ended up winning the match play event, their prize being $20,000 to Sanford Children’s Hospital. It dropped North and Nicklaus to 0-3 in the event, a number they were having fun with in a group media session before the round and continued to joke about throughout their trip through Minnehaha’s back nine.
But while fun, camaraderie and charity were clearly the top priorities for the foursome, the exhibition of golf they put on, even in their 70s and beyond, was impressive in its own right.
Jack Nicklaus plays in the EMC Legends Series at the Sanford International on Saturday, September 12, At the Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls.
Nicklaus, who won a battle with COVID-19 earlier this year, doesn’t move very quickly and his swing is an abbreviated version of itself, and that limited his distance off the tee. But the Golden Bear still put virtually every drive right down the middle, and saw a handful of difficult putts just miss giving the throng of fans that surrounded the greens the chance to erupt in celebration (as they so clearly wanted to).
Irwin, who was an all-Big 8 defensive back for the Colorado Buffaloes and later a three-time U.S. Open winner, looks about a dozen years younger than his 75 years and spent his round ribbing the other golfers, chatting with fans and media and making friends with Ben Wieman, the 10-year-old from Madison who was named the Sandford Children’s Hospital Ambassador.
Miguel Jimenez talks with his caddy before teeing off during the Sanford International on Saturday, September 12, At the Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls.
Wieman had been diagnosed with leukemia in 2017 and rang the ball at the Children’s Hospital on April 10 to mark the end of his cancer treatment. North had Wieman take his final putt on No. 18, and the youngster’s presence was extra special when the Legends finished their round and the gift to the Children’s Hospital was made official.
“I think it’s one of the highlights of the week to get three of the greatest players to ever play this game to come in here and spend nine holes having some fun and some laughs and get a chance to compete at whatever level we can compete now,” said North, who nearly chipped one in from 20 yards outside the green on No. 12. “We really do appreciate it.”
John Daly teed it up at the Sanford International Friday after news broke of his bladder cancer diagnosis.
The week after John Daly had surgery to remove the recently diagnosed cancer in his bladder was brutal.
Eight days of chemotherapy and surgery left the 54-year-old feeling tired Friday at Minnehaha Country Club. Despite his fatigue, Daly chose to compete at the Sanford International this weekend.
“(My doctor) didn’t really say just sit at home. He didn’t really recommend I be playing, either,” Daly said. “I figure I can’t just sit at home, it’s just going to get in my mind and it’s going to make me feel worse, so going to try to keep playing as much as I can. I’m going to go back home after this week and go see the doc again.
“I hate missing PURE Insurance and Pebble, but he wants to go and sit down with me and go through everything and set up an appointment sometime early November, right after the season, and go back in and check it out again.”
Daly played pretty well Friday, considering the physical and mental stress of the past few weeks.
He finished the first round 2-under 68 to sit T-11, one shot behind Steve Stricker and three behind a three-way tie for the lead. Daly, who won the 1991 PGA Championship and 1996 Open Championship, said the cold, rainy weather in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was “brutal” and the course didn’t play easily, but he was satisfied with his performance.
Daly, who withdrew from the field at the PGA Championship in early August due to health concerns, last competed on the Champions Tour in mid-August at the Charles Schwab Series at Bass Pro Shops Big Cedar Lodge. He withdrew from the tournament after two rounds due to illness. The last full event Daly played was the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, where he finished T-70.
John Daly on the 17th hole during the first round of the 2020 Sanford International at Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. (Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
The good news surrounding Daly’s diagnosis is the cancer has not spread to his kidneys, pancreas or liver. Daly said his doctors informed him the cancer is beatable if he changes some health habits.
“Learned an awful lot in the last week about it,” Daly said. “It’s something that a lot of people have beaten and can get through it but it’s going to be painful but three months, three months, six months, a year, it’s going to be pretty painful how they do the operations so 80-85 percent chance it comes back and I’ll be getting it done in November again.”
In November, Daly said he’ll check in with his doctor and if the cancer has returned, he’ll undergo another surgery to remove it.
“They’ll just cut it out again and keep cutting it out until hopefully one day it goes away,” he said.
John Daly shares details on his bladder cancer diagnosis.
One of the major changes Daly told Golf Channel he is trying to make in order to decrease the chance of a recurrence is drinking less Diet Coke and smoking less. Daly said he lit up a few cigarettes on the course Friday, but significantly fewer than usual.
“I feel confident if I do what they tell me to do — hell, I only smoked six cigarettes, not even six cigarettes out there today,” Daly said. “It’s usually about a pack and a half so I’m trying to slow everything down but I can’t just quit everything right now and (the doctor’s) cool with that.”
Same old John Daly.
Despite the uncertainty of his cancer diagnosis, the resulting surgery and chemotherapy, he’s still smiling.
