By John Feinstein
Brian Gay is keenly aware of the fact that he’s 48. He also knows that he’s competing with players on the PGA Tour who can hit their golf balls into the next county while his don’t come close to the county line. And yet, on Sunday, he found out that he can compete with them—and, on occasion, can still beat them.

Gay came from nowhere—both in 2020 and on the back nine to win the Bermuda Championship, shooting a seven-under-par 64 on Sunday, then beating Wyndham Clark with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff for his first win in more than eight years.

“It’s easy to doubt yourself,” said Gay, who had missed the cut in nine of his last 11 tournaments and trailed Clark by three with nine holes to play. “The players are so good and so young. A lot of them are my daughter’s age.”

The older of Gay’s two daughters, MacKinley, is 21—the same age as Matthew Wolff, who has already won on tour and finished second at this year’s U.S. Open and T-4 at the PGA. Collin Morikawa, who won the PGA, is 23. Bryson DeChambeau is the old man among the tour’s galaxy of young guns—he’s 26.

But while a lot of people are panting—understandably—about the kids, there are still old guys proving they can still teach the kids a thing or two about competing—and about winning.

So far in this weird 2020-2021 season, three of the eight winners have been 40-somethings.

After the tour’s annual three-day offseason following the Tour Championship, Stewart Cink won the Safeway Classic. This was a story that should have had Disney producers scrambling to start the movie: Cink hadn’t won since the 2009 British Open, when he played the black hat to the white hat of then-59-year-old Watson, beating him in a playoff. Not only had he not won in 11 years since then, he and his family had to endure his wife Lisa’s battle with stage-4 breast cancer, which is just a tad more difficult to live with than a putting slump.

Sergio Garcia’s win at the Sanderson Farms Classic three weeks later may not have been as melodramatic, but it was certainly full of emotion. Garcia hadn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2017 Masters and he revealed after the round that he had recently lost two uncles to COVID-19.

And now there’s Gay’s victory—his fifth on tour. He hadn’t won since 2013, when he won what was once the Bob Hope Desert Classic under some other corporate name at that time. As a bonus, Gay will get to go back to the Masters—next April—because Bermuda became a full-fledged tour event this fall when the HSBC event in China was cancelled. Gay has played in the Masters only twice—missing the cut in 2010 and finishing T-38 three years later. No doubt he thought his days teeing it up at Augusta were behind him.

John McEnroe, who won seven major singles titles in his Hall-of-Fame tennis career, once said players go through three stages with fans during their careers. “When you’re young, everybody loves you because you’re something new and you’re the underdog, playing against the older guys. Then, when you become a star, people root against you because they want to see the underdog win. And then, when you’re old, they love you again, because you aren’t supposed to be good enough to win anymore.”

Right now, golf is in a period where it has very good players at all three of the McEnroe stages. There are the talented youngsters like Morikawa, Wolff, Victor Hovland and Jon Rahm. All are 25 or under. Then there are the guys just coming into their prime who are already stars: Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and DeChambeau come to mind. Jordan Spieth is still only 26. He’s won three majors, and when he finds his missing game again it will be a huge story. The barely into their 30s set includes Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed, Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler—who doesn’t have the record of a star, but has the charisma and sponsor list of one. Throw in Webb Simpson at 35 and Dustin Johnson at 36. Then come the old guys, one of them being Eldrick Tiger Woods, who will be 45 in December.

Sam Greenwood
Sergio Garcia celebrates after making birdie on the 18th green during the final round to win the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Woods isn’t close to being the player he was when he was the best in the world—and arguably in history—but he found lightning in a Rae’s Creek bottle a year ago in April to win a fifth Masters and will be the biggest story when the Masters begins next week because he is always the biggest story whenever he tees it up, whether his golf game merits it or not.

Until he’s out of contention—IF he’s out of contention—Woods will have everyone in TV and the media panting about his every swing, putt and utterance.

And, let’s not forget Phil Mickelson, whose days as a factor on the PGA Tour MIGHT be over at 50, but will undoubtedly make headlines playing with the over-50 set. He’s played twice, won twice on that tour. Knowing Mickelson, he will find a way to compete at least once more either at Augusta or, in another potential Disney movie, at a U.S. Open.

The point here is that golf has probably never been more flush, not just with good to very good to great players, but with wonderful stories.

Morikawa’s victory at Harding Park was something to behold and so was DeChambeau’s victory at Winged Foot, although if he becomes the next role model for young players the average tour round five years from now will be about seven hours.

Ezra Shaw
Collin Morikawa kisses the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the 2020 PGA Championship.

Forgetting the TV executives’ Fantasy Island wishes of a Woods or Mickelson victory at Augusta consider a few possibilities: McIlroy closing out the career grand slam; DeChambeau overpowering the course, forcing the members of lengthen it to about 8,000 yards; Morikawa adding a second major before turning 24; Spieth making a comeback on his favourite golf course; Garcia winning a second major; Koepka finding health and his game; Rahm winning his first major and joining Seve Ballesteros and Jose-Maria Olazabal as Spanish winners at Augusta.

The list goes on.

And it isn’t just at Augusta.

Tournament sponsors tend to think they need the biggest names to play to give their tournaments legitimacy and to ensure TV ratings. No doubt stars on the leader board help TV ratings and, even now, all numbers double if Woods is involved.

But there are new stars now—different ones popping up all the time. If you don’t want to see Morikawa play, you don’t like golf. Same for Wolff, Rahm and Hovland. DeChambeau is certainly unique.

Years ago, the PGA Tour put together a series of PSA’s with the slogan, “These Guys Are Good.”

That has never been truer than it is right now. Gay proved it again on Sunday. He beat Clark—who is all of 26, but certainly not too old to date his daughter. He’s not the only one Gay is competing with who can make that claim. All these guys are good—old, middle-aged and young.

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By Brian Wacker
Ever since the Brysonball Brand launched (Established: Sept. 20, 2020, Mamaroneck, N.Y.), there has been no shortage of discussion over how distance is dominating the game and whether anything can/should be done to keep bombers from overpowering professional golf. The usual solutions have all been offered up: Roll back the ball. Limit the size of drivers. Narrow the fairways and grow the rough.

But on Sunday in Bermuda, Brian Gay proved that on rare occasion there’s still a place in the game for the little guy, and the old guy, too. All it took was the PGA Tour playing on a windswept island in the middle of the Atlantic with none of the game’s top players showing up. Two days after 64-year-old Fred Funk made the cut in the Bermuda Championship, Gay, who ranks 136th on tour in driving distance and turns 49 in December, beat long-hitting 26-year-old Wyndham Clark to win the fifth title of his PGA Tour career and first since 2013.

“I did wonder [if I’d win again],” Gay said. “I’ve struggled the last few months and been quite miserable on the course at times. Everyone around me kept telling me you’re still going to win. My wife says you’re still going to win, do it again. Just kept at it. Crazy game, you never know what’s going to happen.”

That was certainly true down the stretch on Sunday.

Doc Redman entered the final round at Port Royal Golf Course leading by one stroke and was among 10 players separated by four shots who had never won on tour. That included Clark, who showed little in the way of anxiety in reeling off five birdies in his first seven holes to move in front by one. Then he added two more, on Nos. 10 and 11, to stretch the advantage to three.

But Clark’s game cooled in the breezy conditions as he was trying to win for the first time on tour. On the par-3 16th, he took too short of a swing on a long bunker shot and left his ball in the rough. He made bogey to fall back into a tie with Gay, who was on his own heater with four birdies in his previous six holes. Gay ran into troubles with a sloppy three-putt bogey on the par-5 17th but bounced back with a birdie on the 18th, where his wedge from a hanging lie right of the cart path stuck to within a few feet of the cup.

Still, Clark had a 10-footer for the win on the final hole of regulation but missed, so he and Gay headed back to the 18th, where Gay rolled in a 10-footer, Clark missed from seven feet and that was that.

It wasn’t just Gay who tried to show short and steady can still win the race. Stewart Cink (tied for 113th on tour in driving distance in 2019-’20) and Ryan Armour (271st on tour so far in 2020-’21 after ranking 182nd last season) both posted top-10 finishes this week.

But how much longer guys like Gay can succeed in the modern game is a question worth asking.

Gregory Shamus
Gay ranks 193rd on the PGA Tour this season in driving distance with his 293.1-yard average.

Drive for show, putt for dough, someone once said. These days, it’s drive for dough, and putt for even more dough. Exhibit A: DeChambeau and his U.S. Open victory in September. Exhibit B: On Sunday, it was Clark, who ranks sixth on tour in driving distance, nearly winning.

Even Gay, a notoriously short hitter who has leaned on a deadly short game long enough to have never lost his card in 23 years, knew he had to up his game. Though he ranks well down the list in driving distance at 298.4 yards this season, that’s still 23 more yards than he averaged the last time he won in 2013.

“I’ve been fighting,” Gay said. “The guys are young and hitting it really far, so I’ve tried to do some things in the gym and some stuff with my swing to get some more distance to try to stay out here longer. I want to stay past turning 50.”

Whether he’ll be able to or not is another matter. The victory gets Gay into next year’s Masters, PGA Championship and Players. He’s also exempt now through the 2022-’23 season.

As for whether Gay thinks tour pros known for his style of play can still exist years from now?

“I certainly hope so,” he said. “I think it’s better when everybody in the field can compete and have a chance to win.”

Amen.

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By Christopher Powers
We often hear about how young the PGA Tour has become and how many young players are so good so quickly. While that’s true, the early portion of the 2020-’21 season has proven that the old guys should not be slept on.

The latest 40-something to get it done was Brian Gay on Sunday at the Bermuda Championship, which featured a leader board stuffed with younger players looking to breakthrough. But the wily, 48-year-old veteran ultimately pulled out the unexpected victory with some unbelievably clutch shots down the stretch. Experience still plays on tour, evidently, and Gay has plenty of it.

Here are our takeaways from the final round at Port Royal.

Brian Gay ends seven-year drought
Stewart Cink, Sergio Garcia, Brian Gay. What do the three have in common? They’re all 40-plus and they all have a win in 2020, yes, but all three have also shown their incredible longevity this season. Gay’s first of now five PGA Tour victories came in 2008, and 12 years later he was victorious again. No, he’s not a major champion and we’re not saying he’s had the career of a Garcia or a Cink, but Gay has made $22 million on tour and keep his card ever since he first earned it in 1999. No doubt he’s been a solid player for a very long time.

What made his Bermuda win so impressive, however, was the fact that no longer seemed to be the case. Gay’s all-world consistency finally took a dip in the second half of the 2019-’20 season, which got off to a strong start with a T-7 at the Shriners and a T-3 in Bermuda in 2019. After that, though, he missed 15 of his next 20 cuts, including two to start the 2020-’21 season, posting just one finish in the top 20. Even Gay knows this came out of nowhere.

“This is absolutely insane,” Gay said after holing the winning putt on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff with Wyndham Clark. “I’ve been playing awful since COVID, it’s been a struggle. Been trying to work hard and get back. I love this place. Came here last year and finished third, so I had good feelings coming in.”

After shooting rounds of 70, 68 and 67, Gay saved his best for last, shooting a seven-under 64 to match Clark’s 72-hole total of 15 under. It looked like he let it slip away at the par-5 17th, which he three-putted for his second bogey of the day. The timing couldn’t have been worse, but at the 18th, after a long discussion with his caddie over club selection, Gay struck a perfect approach and asked for it to “go in the hole” as he sailed right at the pin. It nearly did, spinning back to tap-in range. He birdied the hole again in the playoff, then watched Clark’s birdie effort slip past the left edge, Day him his first win since the 2013 Humana Challenge.

“Look, I know I’ve got the game to compete out here,” Gay said. “But it’s certainly easy to doubt yourself. The players are so good and so young, a lot of them are my daughter’s age, so, it’s pretty unbelievable.”

The win earns Gay an invite into the 2021 Masters, a tournament he has not played in since 2013. Gay’s only appeared in three majors since that year, an Open Championship in 2016 where he missed the cut, and the 2018 U.S. Open (T-20) and 2018 PGA Championship (79th). Every win is the proverbial “this must be the most special one,” but in Gay’s case, it’s actually true.

Gregory Shamus

Wyndham Clark let one get away
That may sound harsh, but all you need to do is look at his face in the above photo. That’s Wyndham Clark’s reaction to his missed putt on the first hole of sudden death, and it’s a face that screams “how did I lose this one?” At one point, Clark had a four-shot lead on the back nine, and was primed to cruise home. He shot a front-nine 31, then made back-to-back birdies at the 10th and 11th holes. Every swing was pure, every putt was pure. All he had to do was not beat himself.

While Gay did enough to win, Clark did plenty to lose as well. His tee shot on the par-3 16th finding a greenside bunker, and then that bunker shot barely getting out of the sand and failing to get on the green will give him nightmares. And a poor drive at the par-5 17th forced him to lay up, taking eagle out of play and making him work for birdie. He didn’t make birdie, then missed two very makeable birdie putts at the 18th in regulation and in the playoff. He had ample chances to get it done, he just didn’t capitalise on them.

Gregory Shamus
Ollie Schniederjans comes up clutch

No, the former top-ranked amateur in the world didn’t get a win, but his solo third might have been just as big for him. In his first two seasons on the PGA Tour, Schniederjans lived up to the hype, collecting eight top 10s including three top threes in 2017 and 2018. But a woeful 2019 campaign saw him finish the season 178th in the FedEx Cup standings, relegating him to the Korn Ferry Tour.

It had to be a brutal blow for a player who had such promise, but Schniederjans accepted the challenge. In 17 KFT starts in 2020, the former Georgia Tech standout finished inside the top 12 eight times. He was second on the KFT in birdie average, 11th in scoring average and first in birdie or better conversion percentage. He brought that strong form with him to Bermuda this week, where he was making his first PGA Tour start since last year’s Bermuda Championship thanks to a sponsor’s exemption. Schniederjans believes it’s a sign of things to come.

“Obviously a win would change my whole situation more than these guys because I’m a sponsor exemption this week,” Schniederjans said. “I’m just lucky to get the opportunity and take advantage of it and have a chance. I mean, first time with my brother on the bag with a chance to win a PGA Tour event on Sunday is really fun. And I played great right off the bat, four under at the turn, I was right there on the back nine. So I can’t really … I don’t really have any regrets today. It’s just as close as you can get without getting it done. Just looking forward to Houston now, see what I can do. My game feels really good.”

Count us among those rooting for the hatless wonder to get back to his former stud self. The more young guns the better, even if the old guys are dominating them right now.

Gregory Shamus

The Stewart Cink resurgence continues
With a final-round 64, Stewart Cink locked up his third finish of T-12 or better in four starts this year. One of those, of course, was a win at the Safeway Open, Cink’s first since the 2009 Open Championship. At 47 years old, he’s playing some of the best golf of his life. What’s his secret?

“It’s been a couple of factors. Reagan caddieing for me, my son, we have great chemistry,” said Cink, who was supposed to go back to veteran looper Kip Henley after the Sanderson Farms Championship. “You know, half his DNA is mine and we just see things the same way on the golf course and we have really good communication out there on our shots. It makes me be really decisive and committed. That certainly helps when you’re searching for ways to separate you from the competition out here where everybody is so good. Those little things really, really matter, so that’s been a big factor.”

As good as the father-son partnership has been for Cink’s game, a key equipment change before the Safeway Open has been a massive help, too.

“I kind of lowered my spin rates through my whole bag, driver all the way down through my irons, and when we came here and we had the crazy winds there for a couple days, I think I was able to keep my ball sort of like mildly, you know, less out of control than maybe I would have before.”

The top-five finish in Bermuda moves Cink back to No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings. Yes, it’s still very early in the season, but being No. 1 at any point is always a good thing.

“Just to be looking at that list and seeing my name, it just continues to give me confidence over and over knowing that I’m doing the right things on the golf course and I just don’t plan to change anything.”

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Early in Sunday’s final round at the El Cameleon course in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, defending Mayakoba champion Matt Kuchar holed this shot on the par-3 eighth hole.

Wow!

Matt Kuchar dials up the perfect shot. ?#ULTRAace pic.twitter.com/AuP4HVXSdk

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 17, 2019

This video here didn’t capture the audio that Golf Channel cameras did, when you could hear Kuchar lamenting that it “didn’t go in but it’s close,” unaware that it actually had gone in the hole. Not until Kuchar got closer to the green did he realize the ball had indeed gone in.

Five minutes later, Brian Gay stepped to tee on the par-3 10th hole and watched as this happened.

Another one. ?@BrianGayPGA makes an #ULTRAace on the par-3 10th moments after Matt Kuchar’s hole-in-one on No. 8. pic.twitter.com/XUBlfHcv00

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 17, 2019

Obviously from his reaction, there was no doubt that Gay knew the outcome of his shot.

Pretty amazing, right? How often do you see a pair of holes-in-one in such a short span?

Well, actually it happened just two days earlier at Mayakoba. On Friday during the rain-delayed first round, Cameron Tringale and Chase Seiffert made holes-in-one on the par-3 fourth … in consecutive groups. According to PGATour.com, the last time players in back-to-back groups made holes in one came in the third round of the 2013 Northern Trust on the 14th hole at Liberty National (K.J. Choi and Greg Chalmers). Prior to that it had at the 2004 Masters with Padraig Harrington and Kirk Triplett.

The four aces made in Mexico nearly doubled the number recorded on tour during the fall season. In the first nine tournaments of the 2019-’20 campaign, there had been five holes-in-one made. Last season, there were 36 aces.

Meanwhile, less than an hour before Kuchar made his ace, Matthew NeSmith did this on the eighth.

Are you kidding? ?

You were robbed, @Matt_KneeSmith. ?#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/1bi78QH4rI

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 17, 2019

Ordinarily, we’d be pretty impressed. But given the success of his fellow tour pros, we’re not sure if this one even warrants a “Nice shot”.

Meanwhile, Gay’s effort won him more than applause. Because an ace on the 10th hole also meant the pro would win a Kia Stinger, Gay drove off with a new automobile.

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By Christopher Powers
Brandt Snedeker has done two of the hardest things in golf already this week in breaking 60 and then backing it up the following day with another strong round. Yet Sunday he faces his most daunting task this week following the suspension of the third round at the Wyndham Championship, where Snedeker played just seven holes on Saturday before inclement weather intervened. With 29 holes left for Sunday, his quest for career victory No. 9 just got that much harder.

Snedeker fortunately gave himself extra breathing room, playing the first seven holes at Sedgefield Country Club in two under on Saturday. The putter was rolling nicely once again, as Snedeker made a 59-footer from off the green at the par-4 second for his first birdie of the day. His second came at the par-5 fifth, where he laid up from the right rough and then stuck his third shot to nine feet and holed the putt. When play resumes on Sunday at 8 a.m. EDT, Snedeker faces the 374-yard par-4 eighth, where he’ll begin the day at 16 under, good enough for a three-shot lead over Brian Gay.

Gay, 46, posted an even-par 70 on Thursday, but has vaulted into contention by playing his last 30 holes in 13 under, including Saturday’s six under start through 12 holes that included a front-nine 30. The four-time tour winner has not won since the 2013 CareerBuilder Challenge, but has given himself chances at a fifth victory in what has been a late-career revival in 2018. He has finished inside the top 10 five times, including a third at the RSM Classic. His $1.8 million in earnings already is the most he’s made on tour since 2009, when he won twice and made more than $3.2 million.

Also through 12 holes and in the mix is Trey Mullinax, who is at 12 under thanks to a four-under start to his third round. He’s tied for third with Keith Mitchell (three under through eight holes), C.T. Pan (one under through seven holes) and D.A. Points (even through six holes).

The leader in the clubhouse is Michael Thompson thanks to his third-round seven-under 63 that saw him climb 34 spots on the leader board. He’s at 11-under 199 through 54 holes. Sergio Garcia is also at 11 under following a two-under 33 on the front nine, which was all he was able to get in.

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By Christopher Powers
When it comes to PGA Tour careers, you won’t find two on more opposite ends of the spectrum than those of Brian Gay and Austin Cook. Gay, 45, has won four times and is making the 523rd start of his career at the RSM Classic, while Cook, 26, is making just his 14th career start, and the fourth of his rookie campaign. After two rounds at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga., the veteran sits one shot back of the rookie, who has the solo lead at 14-under 128.

Gay’s round began at the par-4 10th of the club’s Seaside course, and he went to work in the windy conditions early, making four birdies on his first seven holes en route to a front nine, three-under 32. He backed it up with another 32 on the home nine, this one bogey-free for a six-under 64 to get to 13-under 129.

“Tough day today I thought, but I was able to hit a number of greens and stay out of trouble and the putter worked well,” Gay said.

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