Tag: Tommy Armour III

Jim Furyk one off lead in Champions debut at Ally Challenge; Brett Quigley leads

Furyk, who sits at 10-under par and trails Brett Quigley by one, likened the experience to the first day of school — but with a twist.

Like many before him, Jim Furyk’s indoctrination into the world of the Champions Tour has been welcoming.

Old friends. Old course. And the advantage of going from being one of the oldest bodies on the PGA Tour back to young-pup status.

Playing Warwick Hills outside of Flint, Michigan — the course that housed the PGA Tour’s Buick Open for years, and where he made the cut in all 15 of his starts in that event — Furyk looked right at home, posting a bogey-free 66 that puts him one off the lead heading into Sunday’s final round.

Furyk, who sits at 10-under par after two rounds, likened the experience to the first day of school — but with a twist.

“It’s been fun. It’s been great to be back at a golf course that I always
enjoyed playing when we were here on the PGA Tour and great to see some old friends,” Furyk said. “I told my wife, I always feel like the first round — I probably said it earlier in the week, the first round of the PGA Tour every year is like the first day of school, you get excited, you get a little nervous.

“Coming out here on the Champions Tour, I told her it was like the first
day of high school but I had been homeschooled the last five years. Lots of folks I hadn’t seen in a lot of years and a lot of good friends, and so just good to say hello to everyone.”

Furyk won the Buick Open at Warwick Hills in 2003, finished second twice and placed in the top 25 in all but three of his appearances in Grand Blanc.

Meanwhile, Brett Quigley raced in front of the pack during the second round, posting eight birdies in his first 14 holes during Saturday play, then cruised home to 11 under with a series of pars to take the one-stroke lead into the clubhouse over Furyk, Carlos Franco and Tommy Armour III. Quigley has picked up right where he left off before the break, but he admitted during Saturday’s round that he was too keen to get going on Friday and needed a day to settle in.

“I was trying to shoot 20 under the front nine yesterday. I was just trying to force everything after being off for so long. I was like, oh my gosh, now I’ve got to go bogey the first hole. And I was like, what am I doing out here?” Quigley said. “And really struggled the front nine and brought it together the back nine, and then came out today and played a little bit more like I’m capable of playing.”

The resident of Jupiter, Florida, said he wasn’t sure the Champions Tour would resurface this summer, so any opportunity to play is something of a bonus.

Quigley won his second start, in Morocco on Feb. 1, then added another top-10 finish and was second on the senior circuit’s money list (to Bernhard Langer) with $481,687.

“It’s almost like winning the lottery, because we just weren’t sure we were going to play. Other sports, PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champions, have done such a great job getting us back and getting us back playing and keeping us safe, keeping us tested, and keeping everybody with the appearance of being healthy,” Quigley said. “So it’s great. It was a tough one to sit down, but certainly great to be back and back playing and thankful that we are.”

Other prominent names looming include Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer, Kirk Triplett, Tom Lehman, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els, all at 6 under.

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Ernie Els makes hole-in-one; Billy Andrade, Tommy Armour III in Ally lead

Els recorded his 17th hole-in-one and finished the day at 3-under, just three shots behind leaders Billy Andrade and Tommy Armour III.

It didn’t long after the restart of the Champions Tour season for Ernie Els’ bar tab to grow.

Els, who has a win and a place in his previous three Champions Tour starts, wasn’t particularly pleased with his opening round at Warwick Hills G&CC as part of the Ally Challenge, the senior tour’s first event back after the pandemic stop.

But on his next-to-last hole of the day, Els turned his fortunes around, dropping a hole in one — his first in two years and the 17th of his career — at the course near Flint.

“Ricci (Roberts), my caddy, said, ‘you know, that was a nice golf swing,’ ” Els said. “The ball was in the air and the next thing, it was in the hole.”

Els finished the day at 3-under, just three shots behind leaders Billy Andrade and Tommy Armour III.

Andrade got hot on the back nine en route to the top of the leaderboard. He shot a 32 after the turn, burying birdies on Nos. 10, 13, 14 and 15. Although he insisted that he had been practicing in advance of the trip to Michigan, Andrade said it took the realization that the Champions Tour was returning to get his competitive juices flowing.

“Well, I think the biggest thing was the first two or three months,
there was no starting point really. And once we knew, OK, hey, we’re going to start at the Ally Challenge, we hope, OK, so now you have a starting point and then you can start vamping up your practice. But we’re over 50. It’s not like we are practicing a ton. But it’s nice to have a goal to work towards versus when this pandemic started,” Andrade said.  “It’s like we are definitely not playing, so it’s very, I think very difficult for professionals to get jazzed up to go out and play if you have nothing to work for. You know what I’m saying?

“So I think once we knew we were coming here, we were so excited, let’s get this thing started, let’s get the ball rolling. And I think all of us are really, really excited about being here and getting back into playing again.”

Bernhard Langer,  Wes Short, Jr. and Tom Gillis are tied at 5 under while Jim Furyk is 4 under in his first Champions Tour event.

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