This is just the second time in the tournament’s 37-year history that the champion was decided in fewer than 54 holes.
Sunday’s final round of the Chubb Classic on the PGA Tour Champions has been canceled due to inclement weather.
Stephen Ames, who held a three-shot lead over former Naples resident Rocco Mediate following Saturday’s round, has been declared the 2024 Chubb Classic champion.
This is just the second time in the tournament’s 37-year history that the champion was decided in fewer than 54 holes. In 1995, Bob Murphy won the Chubb Classic at Vineyards Country Club in Naples after 36 holes when rain forced the cancellation of the final round.
SUNDAY FINAL ROUND CANCELLED
Due to overnight rains and worsening conditions, out of an abundance of caution, tournament officials have cancelled today’s final round of the Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO.
Stephen Ames has been declared the 2024 Chubb Classic Champion.
— Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO (@ChubbClassic) February 18, 2024
The Chubb Classic tournament staff will be in touch with ticket holders who purchased tickets to today’s final round of play.
Last year, 56-year-old Steve Stricker turned in a season for the ages.
Last year, 56-year-old Steve Stricker turned in a season for the ages (and the aged) on the PGA Tour Champions in 2023, winning six tournaments, including three majors, notching five runner-up finishes and placing inside the top-10 in all but one of his 16 starts.
Stricker set Champions season records for both lowest scoring average (67.54) and money earned ($3.9 million). Last June, he also broke the PGA mark with his 55th consecutive round of golf at par or better on a sanctioned tour, topping a guy named Tiger Woods.
“You know, every tournament that I showed up at I had a feeling that I could get in there and have an opportunity to win,” Stricker said Thursday at the Chubb Classic in Naples. “Some of them I did; some I got close. But it was, it’s a great feeling.
“When you’re playing the game of golf, it’s a silly game where you can get on those runs and maintain them and then there are times you’re like what the heck happened and why can’t I get it in the hole,” Stricker said. “Got to ride it out and not think too much about them and keep it rolling. That’s what I did for the most part of the year.”
This weekend, the former part-time Naples and Quail West Golf & Country Club member returns to familiar territory. Stricker won the 2021 Chubb Classic at Tiburon Golf Club by one shot over Alex Cejka and Robert Karlsson and last year finished tied for second behind back-to-back Chubb champion Bernhard Langer.
“We took up residence here for a few years and it’s a nice spot, nice people,” Stricker said. “Beach is right around the corner.
“Tiburón has been a place we’ve played quite a few times over the years, so it’s always fun to come back and play and participate here.”
Stricker opened the 2024 Champions season with a third-place finish at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, five shots behind tournament champion Steven Alker, the 2022 Champions Player of the Year.
Steve Stricker of the United States poses with the trophy after winning the Regions Tradition at Greystone Golf and Country Club on May 14, 2023, in Birmingham, Alabama. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
“He hit the shots, made the putts when he had to, and neither one of us – you know, I guess we gave him a little run for a little while, but he pulled away there at the end,” Stricker said of Alker. “Yeah, he’s in shape, which means a lot out here. He’s got a good game and he putts it well. So pull all that together out here, that’s going to be a tough guy to beat.”
So too is Stricker, who said he’s looking forward to trying to build upon his amazingly successful 2023 season.
“I’m excited to play,” he said. “I’m excited to continue to work on my game to try to keep that ball rolling like I had it going last year, to try to continue that feel.
“I still have a lot of drive and motivation to prepare and get ready.”
Sister tandem wins First Tee Champions Challenge
Sophia and Stella Travlos of the First Tee – Metropolitan New York chapter captured the 17th annual Golf to Paradise – First Tee Champions Challenge, played Monday through Wednesday as part of the Chubb Classic.
The 16-year-old Travlos sisters finished with a score of 105, five shots better than Marty Burns and John Diamond of Philadelphia. Braden Miller and Harrison White, representing First Tee of Naples/Collier in the competition, shot 115 to place fourth.
Five First Tee chapters participated in the event, playing three different formats on three separate courses. The two-person teams played a four-ball format at Tiburón Golf Club on Monday, a scramble at Wyndemere Golf Club on Tuesday, and a modified alternate shot at The TwinEagles Club on Wednesday.
The young golfers also participated in a special youth clinic with Champions player Notah Begay III and did a volunteer clean-up service at the S.S. Jolley Bridge near Marco Island.
Work is what’s enabled Alker to become one of golf’s greatest second acts.
With Bernhard Langer’s quest to become the first golfer to win three consecutive Chubb Classic championships derailed by an Achilles injury, Steven Alker’s quest for his own three-peat takes center stage this weekend in Naples.
The 52-year-old New Zealand native will go for his third consecutive PGA Tour Champions victory after capturing January’s season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai and the 2023 season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship last November. He would become the 10th player in Champions Tour history to win three straight events.
“Obviously the wins build confidence, so I’m just feeling good about my game,” Alker said Wednesday at Tiburón Golf Club. “I’ve worked on my game and my swing, and just everything is good, kind of where I want it. This is the strongest field we’ve had for a while, so just got some work to do and go low.”
Work is what’s enabled Alker to transform what was once a middling pro career into what’s rapidly becoming one of golf’s greatest second acts. Alker earned his PGA Tour card three times but never recorded a top-10 finish in a PGA event. He won four events on the Korn Ferry Tour but also endured a stretch where he missed the cut in 21 consecutive starts.
As he approached 50, Alker stayed in excellent physical condition and continued to work on his game in preparation for the Champions Tour. After becoming eligible in July 2021, he played his way into his first Champions event via a Monday Qualifier, which launched a run of six consecutive top-10 finishes.
Since then, he’s been one of the senior tour’s most successful players. In 2022, Alker was named the Champions Player of the Year after winning four times and finishing top-3 in 13 of his 23 starts. Overall, he’s ended up first (8) or second (10) in exactly one-third of his 54 Champions events with 40 top-10 finishes.
Along the way, Alker’s become a golfing example of the power of perseverance.
Steven Alker of New Zealand reacts after winning the PGA TOUR Champions Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golf Club on January 20, 2024, in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
“It just goes to show if you just kind of keep dreaming and just keep chasing it then yeah, good things can happen,” he said. “I’ve been around the game a long time and gained a lot of experience. If I can pass some of those experiences on to help people speed up the process, all the better.”
Alker, who carded top-10 finishes in his two previous Chubb Classic appearances, said while the long layoff between his recent wins has been challenging from a momentum standpoint, it also has some benefits.
“It’s a little bit tough with the start-and-stop schedule at the moment, but I think having that break rather than just mentally being kind of worn down … that’s probably a good thing,” he said.
Langer, the winningest player in PGA Tour Champions history, congratulated Alker on the 18th green following his victory last month in Hawaii. Alker said he’s picked up a few key lessons competing alongside the legendary Hall-of-Famer the past three seasons.
“He’s always just striving to get his game in shape every week to try and have a chance to win,” Alker said. ”He just does that very well.
“He’s got everything, and mentally he’s very strong, so that’s a good thing to learn from, too.”
Alker hopes to utilize those lessons gleaned from Langer at this year’s Chubb Classic to make a little history of his own.
Langer had previously announced that the 2024 Masters would be his last one.
The winningest golfer in PGA Tour Champions history is going to miss significant time because of an injury.
Bernhard Langer, 66, announced Friday he tore his Achilles tendon during a training exercise Thursday in Boca Raton, Florida. Two weeks ago, he finished T-22 in the PGA Tour Champions 2024 season opener in Hawaii.
“I will have surgery today to repair the injury, which will cause me to miss time playing competitive golf as I recover,” Langer said in a statement. “Throughout my career, faith and family have been my bedrocks, providing me strength and guiding me through difficult times. I will lean on both as I work towards a return to competition.
“I appreciate everyone’s support during this time, and I look forward to seeing the fans and my fellow competitors back on the course soon.”
He has 46 wins on the PGA Tour Champions, the most all-time, and 12 senior major championships.
The Achilles is the tendon that goes up the back of the ankle and connects the foot to the leg. It runs from the heel bone to the bottom of the calf muscle. It directs movement from the leg to the foot, including pointing and flexing.
Full recovery from an Achilles tendon injury can take up to 12 months, meaning it’s unlikely we see him play at the Masters.
The odds of injuring an Achilles tendon increase with age, according to the Mayo Clinic. Most Achilles injuries happen between the ages of 30 and 40. Men are five times more likely to experience the injury than women.
Langer is the defending champion at the Chubb Classic, Feb. 16-18, at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, as well as the U.S. Senior Open, which was his record-setting Champions victory last summer.
He wrestled second place away from defending champion and 2023 Player of the Year Steve Stricker.
If his first start of the new year is any indication, former University of Texas star Harrison Frazar might be in for a mighty big 2024.
The Dallas native, who captured his first PGA Tour Champions victory at the end of 2023 in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at the Country Club of Virginia when he edged Richard Green in a playoff, picked up where he left off last week at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
Although New Zealander Steven Alker cruised to a four-stroke win, Frazar came through in the clutch as he needed a birdie on the tournament’s final hole to wrestle second away from defending champion and 2023 Player of the Year Steve Stricker. His reward was a handsome $200,000 check for being runner-up.
For Frazar, whose lone victory on the PGA Tour came in Memphis, the win in October has been a big boost.
“I’ve always had confidence in my ability to play, but doing that in October has given me confidence to know that I can close it when it matters,” Frazar said in Hawaii. “These guys out here, they’re called champions because they know how to win, they’re not going to make mistakes. I need to not make mistakes. So yeah, I feel like I can do it.”
Although his PGA Tour was plagued by numerous injuries, Frazar still played in 409 events on Tour, posting 19 top-5 finishes and cracking the Top 10 on 37 occasions. Not bad for a guy who was an honorable mention All-American three different times while with Texas, but didn’t plan to pursue a pro career until fellow Longhorn Mark Brooks convinced him to do so.
Of course, playing in Hawaii also isn’t a bad way to spend a week in January.
Alker won at the course where Sam Workman caddied for him a year ago for the last time before dying of cancer.
Steven Alker picked up right where he left off, winning the PGA Tour Champions’ season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Ka’upulehu-Kona, Hawaii.
Alker, who won the Charles Schwab Championship to wrap up the 2023 season in November, fired a second straight 9-under 63 at Hualalai Golf Course on Saturday to shoot a 54-hole total of 25-under 191, and win by four strokes over Harrison Frazar and five over last year’s Charles Schwab Cup champion Steve Stricker.
“I knew Stricker and Harrison were going to come at me, so just kept the pedal to the metal,” Alker said.
It wasn’t lost on Alker, 52, that a year ago he finished tied for second on the Big Island with caddie Sam Workman on the bag. Less than three weeks later, the 55-year-old Workman died on Feb. 6 of cancer. When Alker arrived at the course on Tuesday, he was greeted by a rainbow in the sky and during the final round he was the beneficiary of a fortuitous bounce at the par-5 seventh hole when his second shot, a 4-iron from 218 yards, sailed right of the green, bounced off the cart path twice and ricocheted off lava and on to the green about 40 feet left of the hole. He proceeded to drain the putt for an unlikely eagle. Alker couldn’t see it from his vantage point but when he was shown video of the shot later, he credited “good karma.”
Exactly one year ago, Sam Workman caddied for Steven Alker here (Hualalai) in what turned out to be Sam’s last event ever. He passed away a week later from cancer. This morning, we were greeted with this rainbow #SamWorkman#TeamAlker#Hualalaipic.twitter.com/Ws01q8Jukd
“Someone said it kind of kicked off the path and rolled up and went left. Just a fortunate break,” he said. “I was surprised to see it on the left side of the green. Thought it must have hit either someone or something. It could have gone anywhere.
“As I said in my speech, sometimes it goes one way and last year, a couple years ago it goes the other way, so it all kind of works out in the end,” he added. “Made that putt, which was huge.”
Said Stricker, who collected his PGA Tour Champions Player of the Year Award earlier in the week: “You get a bounce like that, and capitalize like that, it’s kind of your day.”
With veteran caddie Troy Martin ably filling the shoes of Workman on the bag, Alker followed up the eagle at seven with a birdie at eight to build a three-shot cushion and never looked back, matching the low 54-hole score in PGA Tour Champions history.
Steven Alker of New Zealand reacts as he sinks his birdie putt on the 18th green to win the PGA Tour Champions Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golf Course on Jan. 20, 2024 in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Among the well-wishers to congratulate the New Zealand native on his eighth career Champions Tour win in just 54 starts was Germany’s Bernhard Langer.
“Starting off the way you finished,” Langer said. “Good for you. Pretty special.”
“We’ve got the rust off anyway, Bernhard,” Alker responded.
“Well, I’ve got work to do, but you got it,” Langer said.
Alker, who has at least one win in each of his four seasons, dating back to 2021, has found that winning way.
KONA, Hawaii — Miller Brady points out in the distance at the Pacific Ocean as another stunning sunset unfolds and says, “Look, there’s a whale spout. It’s right in line with that palm tree.”
It never gets old for Brady, president of PGA Tour Champions, to start the new season at Four Seasons Hualalai, home of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship. This is the 28th consecutive year the senior circuit has kicked off the year here in paradise and the 17th in a row for Brady, who is in his sixth year leading the Champions Tour and embarking on his 25th year with the PGA Tour, the last 18 with the over-50 crowd.
“I had the chance to go to the regular tour a couple different times,” he said. “But I just sort of like this niche.”
It’s a niche playing for some $67 million this season, and its top players don’t need signature events or bloated FedEx Cup points to show up. A couple hours later, nearly all the stars of senior golf will attend the pro-am draw party and make their way to the stage when emcee Dave Marr III calls their name.
“It’s one of the coolest pictures you’ll see,” Brady said.
During a wide-ranging conversation, Brady shared why he’s bullish on the future for PGA Tour Champions, the back story on the change in title sponsor for one of its three playoff events and prepping for Tigermania at 50.
This will be the 45th year for the PGA Tour Champions.
Time flies.
It’s already been a month since Bernhard Langer and son Jason captured the silly season’s PNC Championship.
This week, Langer and the PGA Tour Champions are back in action.
Langer, the ageless wonder, is among the 42 golfers in the field at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Hawaii.
“One of the great traditions on PGA Tour Champions is starting each year on the Island of Hawaii at this one-of-a-kind setting,” said PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady. This marks the 28th straight year the circuit started at Hualalai. “We are proud to continue our partnership with Mitsubishi Electric as we kick off the 2024 season.”
This will be the 45th year for the PGA Tour Champions. Here are some of the key storylines for 2024.
Making a hole-in-one is an impressive feat. Doing it in 35-plus mile-per-hour winds? Even moreso.
That’s what Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion and 2024 International team Presidents Cup captain, did Tuesday during a practice round ahead of the PGA Tour Champions season-opening event in Hawaii.
Playing in a pro-am at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golf Course, Weir landed his tee shot on the green on the par-3 17th hole and then watched as the wind assisted in pushing his ball closer and closer to the hole before it dropped in the cup.
Weir got married in mid-November during the Champions tour offseason to Michelle Money, who was a contestant on The Bachelor. He has one win on the over-50 circuit.
Langer made his debut at Augusta National Golf Club in 1982.
Two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer will make his final trip down Magnolia Lane as a competitor this year.
Langer, 66, announced the 2024 Masters will be his last ahead of this week’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Hawaii, the first PGA Tour Champions event of the year.
“It’s exciting,” Langer told NBC Sports as part of a PGA Tour Champions season preview that will air on Golf Channel on Wednesday night, “but at the same time, I’m aware that I’m going to be hitting 3-irons and 2-hybrids when the guys are hitting 9-irons into the green, and that’s tough to compete against. But it’s a challenge, and I usually don’t shy away from challenges.”
The Masters champion in 1985 and 1993, Langer made his debut at Augusta National Golf Club in 1982 and will make his 41st career start later this year. The German has finished inside the top 10 eight times, most recently in 2014. His last made cut was in 2020.
One of 17 players who have won the Masters more than once, Langer is joined by the following two-time champions: Horton Smith, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Ben Crenshaw, Jose Maroa Olazabal and Bubba Watson.
Langer is a legendary pro who, after earning three PGA Tour and 42 DP World Tour wins, went on to become the greatest senior player the game has ever seen. He’s won a record 12 senior major championships and broke the record for Champions tour wins with his 46th victory at last year’s U.S. Senior Open.
