Tag: The Woodlands

Steve Stricker hangs tough but there’s no stopping Steven Alker at 2022 Insperity Invitational

Alker has two wins and a tie for second in his last three starts on the Champions tour.

Steve Stricker, in his first competitive round of golf in almost six months after being struck with an illness that remains a mystery, was trying to write a storybook ending to his week at The Woodlands outside Houston.

Stricker opened with a 67 to tie for the 2022 Insperity Invitational lead after 18 holes. He then backed that up with a 65 on Saturday to remain tied atop the leaderboard. He was tied for the lead halfway through Sunday’s round but couldn’t maintain the pace.

There was simply no stopping Steven Alker.

Alker birdied the second hole but otherwise had all pars on his front nine. After a nearly two-hour weather delay because of lightning, Alker came back charged up. He posted three straight birdies on Nos. 11, 12 and 13 and then eagled the 15th for the second day in a row.

He tacked on another birdie at No. 16 and that put him four ahead with three to go. He cruised home from there to shoot a final-round 66 to finish 18 under to earn his third PGA Tour Champions victory. Alker now has two wins and a tie for second in his last three starts. Since joining the senior circuit in August of 2021, Alker has 13 top-10s and nine top-5s in just 16 starts. He has also pushed his career earnings above the $2 million mark on the senior circuit.

Brandt Jobe closed with 70 to finish 14 under. Stricker, a 12-time PGA Tour winner and seven-time PGA Tour Champions winner, also shot a 70 to finish at 14 under. Alex Cejka nabbed solo fourth at 11 under. Retief Goosen and Ken Duke tied for fifth at 10 under. Bernhard Langer finished tied for eighth at 8 under. Defending Insperity champ Mike Weir tied for 17th at 5 under.

Next up is the Mitsubishi Electric Classic at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Georgia.

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Steve Stricker co-leads Insperity Invitational in first round since major health scare five months ago

About five months ago, Steve Stricker came down with an illness that he says his doctors still aren’t sure what it was.

Steve Stricker captained the U.S. team to a 19-9 victory over Europe at Whistling Straits, in his home state of Wisconsin, to capture the 43rd Ryder Cup last September.

A couple weeks before Thanksgiving, he was struck with an illness that is still a mystery to him and his doctors.

On Friday at The Woodlands outside Houston, Stricker fired a 7-under 65 in his return to competitive golf to tie for the lead with Ernie Els and Steve Alker after the first round of the PGA Tour Champions Insperity Invitational.

It’s been a rough few months for Stricker, who was asked Thursday if his doctors ever determined what the illness was.

“No. Still don’t know to this day,” he said. “There’s a couple theories out there that it was a virus of some sort that they weren’t able to put a name to it or a reaction to the vaccine potentially. Yeah, I had the shot about four weeks prior to me starting to feel kind of crappy and then it went from there. I’m really not sure what it was. I’m over it really and I’ve kind of moved on and I don’t really care what it was really. At this point I’m just trying to focus on moving ahead and I’m feeling better and just hope it doesn’t happen again.”

Stricker, 55, said he lost considerable weight while suffering from a condition that caused inflammation around his heart. He spent 11 days at UW Hospital with an ailment that simply started as a cough. He shared further details with pgatour.com:

A pain in his side was soon a temperature of 103, a “jacked up” white blood cell count, and inflammation around his heart. Hospitalized two weeks before Thanksgiving, he began having problems with his liver. That turned into jaundice, and before long, he said, he was peeing what looked like Pepsi. He didn’t eat for two weeks; he lost 25 pounds.

His cardiologist originally said it could be six months before he could return to competition, but Stricker managed to speed up that timeline by a few weeks. He said it felt good to be back between the ropes.

“It was more emotional right away at the start. Getting some hugs from players that I hadn’t seen for six months, Freddie [Couples] and Mark [O’Meara] on the first tee saying how nice it was for me to be back. You get all this outpouring of support from people,” Stricker said.

Stricker also has family nearby. His wife is working as his caddie and his daughters were in the gallery.

“You know, a lot of the pressure was really off me today I feel like just because I hadn’t been out here for so long and I didn’t put a lot of pressure on myself to perform and shoot a good round. That helped today, too,” he said. “I just kind of went with the flow and didn’t expect a lot and just kept putting my head down and trying to hit a shot. So I kind of downplayed all this in my own mind to just kind of go out and have fun with it. I’m thankful to be here, I’m lucky to be here and I’m happy to be back out here.”

The Insperity is his first Champions event since October when he played in the Constellation Furyk & Friends in Jacksonville. His last Champions victory was at the Senior Players Championship last June. He has seven wins on the senior circuit and 12 on the PGA Tour.

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Massive course owner and operator ClubCorp announces company rebrand to Invited

“Invited is not just a name. It’s everything we are,” said Invited CEO David Pillsbury.

What’s in a name? ClubCorp thinks plenty.

Officials with the 65-year-old privately held lifestyle and hospitality company Friday announced a rebrand rolling out in the coming months with the name and fundamental belief that everyone is “Invited.”

The Dallas-based company includes a portfolio of 161 owned and operated golf and country clubs featuring 205 golf courses and more than 1,000 tennis and pickleball courts nationwide; 32 city and sports clubs; seven stadium clubs inside prominent college football stadiums; and six Big Shots locations around the country delivering a tech-driven entertainment and culinary experience.

“Invited is not just a name. It’s everything we are,” Invited CEO David Pillsbury said in a press release. “We are Invited because, from the golf courses to the tennis courts, from fine dining to family hang time, we connect and create communities attracting members from diverse backgrounds that share similar passions and pursuits. We create clubs and experiences that combine exceptional amenities and unmatched service with a friendly and welcoming spirit. We want our members, guests and team members to know that Invited is where they belong.”

Mission Hills Country Club
Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. (Courtesy of ClubCorp)

It’s an interesting move as the name ClubCorp held plenty of brand equity as the largest owner and operator of private golf and country clubs in the country, generically describing the business the company is in but failing to reflect the spirit of who company officials said they are and where they believe can go. The new name and brand speak to creating places where people are warmly welcomed and encouraged to enjoy each other’s company, and fit the modern, inclusive vision on display in the numerous programs that ClubCorp has instituted focused on bringing more women, girls and minorities to their clubs and into the game. These programs reflect this brand shift, the company said.

“Our clubs are the ultimate third place and play an integral role in the lives of our members. We are the place where they play, celebrate and build lifelong friendships,” Pillsbury said. “Invited, as a brand identity, reflects that connection and emotion of who we are, our dedication to our clubs and members and where we are headed as a company. We relearned the value of human connection during the pandemic and this new identity of an open invitation that brings people together and reflects those connections.”

The Dallas Morning News reported that the rebranding comes as the company’s owner, Apollo Global Management, is reportedly eyeing a deal to take the company public again as early as this year. Apollo paid a 31-percent premium (around $1.1 billion for the company) on then-ClubCorp’s stock price in 2017 to take the company private. Insiders estimate it could now be valued at about $4.5 billion in an IPO.

The Woodlands Country Club
The Woodlands Country Club in The Woodlands, Texas (Courtesy of Invited)

The rebranding announcement was made as the ClubCorp Classic, a new event on PGA Tour Champions, gets underway Friday near Dallas, and the new name will be trumpeted there this weekend. The tournament will be renamed the Invited Celebrity Classic next year.