By John Strege
It won’t be known for a while, but if the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai is a harbinger of the PGA Tour Champions’ season ahead, it will be a memorable one.

Four World Golf Hall of Famers were tied for the lead at one point on the back nine at Hualalai Golf Club on the Big Island of Hawaii on Saturday, but it was an interloper, Miguel Angel Jimenez, who emerged the victor in a playoff with Ernie Els and Fred Couples.

Jimenez, 56, holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to win the event for the second time.

Early on the back nine, Els, Couples, Bernhard Langer and Retief Goosen, all World Golf Hall of Famers, were tied for the lead at 12-under. Goosen was first to bow out by running out of holes and tied for fourth. Langer was next to go when his tee shot at the par-3 17th got caught in the wind and drifted left and onto the lava. He eventually made a double-bogey there and bogeyed the 18th to fall to a tie for sixth.

Couples faltered on the first playoff hole when he missed a three-foot putt for par, leaving Jimenez and Els the last men standing.

Els, perhaps, came up one day short. Senior events — other than the senior majors — are 54-hole affairs and as such are more a sprint than a marathon. He nervously stumbled in his first round, shooting a 72, which put him eight shots back of the lead.

“From the first day it was pretty disappointing,” Els said. “I was almost last in the field. Then I got myself back up and played some really good golf. Disappointing obviously. I would have loved to got it through, but I had a couple of chances, didn’t quite get the right speed or the right line.”

Els played his way into contention with consecutive 65s on the weekend to get into a playoff with Couples and the interloper, Jimenez, who is not in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Many would argue, however, that he is a Hall of Famer of some sorts, given his popularity and renown in golf circles as the most interesting man in the world.

Jimenez, who shot a final-round 68 for a 54-hole total of 14-under par 202, caught a huge break on the par-3 17th. His tee shot went left and bounded off the lava and back into a bunker from which he was able to save par.

“I was very, very lucky there,” he said.

The PGA Tour Champions was fortunate, too, to open its season with a show featuring a star-studded cast.

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By Alex Myers
With Phil Mickelson approaching his 50th birthday in June, some might say he’s getting a bit long in the tooth. But the five-time major champ insists it’s his length off the tee that still makes him a threat on the PGA Tour. To the point that he hasn’t given much thought about transitioning to the senior circuit yet.

Mickelson will kick off his 2020 at the American Express this week, but before the PGA Tour’s annual Palm Springs event started, he was asked about potentially starting his PGA Tour Champions career later in the year. Here was his ‘phantastic’ answer.

“When I stop hitting bombs I’ll play the Champions Tour,” Mickelson said. “But I’m hitting some crazy bombs right now.”

You can’t script “Phil being Phil” any better than that.

Of course, there was more. Here’s the rest of Mickelson’s response:

“No, I still have speed, I still, there’s no reason I couldn’t play out here. I hit the ball every bit as far. Usually as guys get in their 40s they regress, I had a five, six-mile an hour clubhead speed increase last year. A little bit of commitment in the gym, a little bit of work ethic and all of a sudden there’s no reason that physically I can’t do today what I did 15, 20 years ago, in fact I’m doing more.”

“So the realisation about what the game of golf means to me and how competitive I am and how much I thrive on that challenge has hit me and it’s led to a greater work ethic, a greater commitment to physical health and well being and a greater quality of life. But I also enjoy this challenge. So I’m curious to see how the first six months go. And then I’ll start to weigh some decisions. But there’s a chance that if I do what I expect then I may end up competing for years out here. And there’s a chance that maybe I am misguided in my thinking and that I should move over. But a lot will be decided or seen in the first six months, because I feel like I’m ready to play.”

OK, so we’ll have to see what these first six months bring, but it sure doesn’t sound like Mickelson plans on playing in the U.S. Senior Open, which is scheduled the week after he turns 50 at the regular U.S. Open.

Mickelson’s confidence certainly isn’t a surprise considering he nearly won in Palm Springs last year and picked up a 44th career PGA Tour title at Pebble Beach the following month. But he struggled the rest of 2019, falling out of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in 26 years and failing to make his first U.S. team since 1993.

Still, to his main point, the suddenly fitness-focused Mickelson can still move the golf ball. Granted, he’s only played four events in the 2019-2020 season, but he’s averaging a career-best 307.2 yards off the tee so far. Expect to see some “crazy bombs” in the desert this week.

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By John Strege
It took more than aging to slow down Bernhard Langer’s ongoing assault on the PGA Tour Champions. It took an injury.

Langer announced on Wednesday that he would be unable to play in the Cologuard Classic at Omni Tucson National in Tucson, Ariz., this week, citing an injury to his rib and stomach area.

“It happened last Wednesday at home [in Florida], practicing,” he said in a PGA Tour Champions news release. “I didn’t practice much after that, just chipping and putting. I had some treatment and took some medication and I thought it was getting better, and when I got here yesterday, I got even more treatment and was able to play eight holes.

“Then on the ninth fairway I re-injured it again. When I talked to my doctor, he advised that I not play the next several days to allow it to heal.”

Langer, 61, has played in all three previous senior tournaments this year, winning one and finishing second and third in the others. He has been the PGA Tour Champions’ player of the year five straight years.

“I was hopeful the injury would feel better by today, but unfortunately that has not been the case,” Langer said.

He was replaced in the field by Fran Quinn Jr.

The field still has a marquee name on board, though he is not a tour member. John Smoltz, a Hall of Fame pitcher and now a professional golfer, will be making the first of three senior starts in the Cologuard Classic.

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By Kent Gray
All good things come to an end eventually but Roger Chapman is far from done even if his Champions Tour status is dusted.

The Kenyan-born, Ascot-based Englishman’s five-year exemption on the U.S. senior circuit, courtesy of his back-to-back major wins at the 2012 Senior PGA Championship and U.S. Seniors Open, expired last July. The 58-year-old saw out the season in America but there was no late Schwab Cup surge to secure a U.S. stay-of execution as he finished 79th placing in the standings with $111,628.

Fortunately, the PGA Tour Champions loss is the Staysure Tour’s fulltime gain with Chapman committing to the former European Senior Tour in 2018, starting with the $425,000 Sharjah Senior Golf Masters from Thursday.

“It was nice to come back to Europe and play [last year]. It was a good change to travel on a Wednesday and come back on a Sunday night, whereas in America, Cathy, my wife, and I would travel from April until July – three months living out of a suitcase,” said Chapman.

Related: Dennis a happily marked man heading into Sharjah

“We had a good 5-6 years out in the States but it’s nice to come back to Europe and play with my good friends again. I was always a bit more relaxed playing in Europe. I was playing a bit better and got some confidence going and played OK.”

Four top-5 finishes and another three top-15s in 11 starts last year saw Chapman claim13th place in the Staysure Order-of-Merit with €110,338. One of those top-5s was in the season opener at Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club and has Chapman eyeing loftier goals in 2018.

“I’m aiming for a top five finish on the Order of Merit and now that I’m committed to playing a full [Staysure Tour] schedule I believe that’s within my grasp,” he said.

“I really enjoyed the tournament last year. None of the players really knew what to expect with it being held on a nine-hole course but I thought the layout was very good, the holes were great, the variation on tee positions on the par-3s and par-5s made it feel different on each nine and it was a good test of golf.”

Chapman banked in excess of $2.5 million in the past five years in the U.S. but $1 million of that came in his breakout year of 2012 when he finished 4th on the money-list; his next best season with 49th in 2014. Before the 50+ retirement plan, the 1979 English Amateur Champion finished in the top-100 of the European Tour in 19 of 21 campaigns spanning two decades but managed only one win, the Brazil Rio de Janeiro 500 Years Open in 2000 when he edged Padraig Harrington in a playoff.

His major wins likewise came over quality opposition; he beat American John Cook by two strokes for the PGA title and Fred Funk, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Corey Pavin by the same margin at the U.S. Senior Open.

Chapman headed to Dubai early to sharpen his game at the European Tour Performance Institute at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

“I had a couple of visits from my coach, Gary Nicol, who came down from Scotland and I have hit a few balls but the weather in the UK hasn’t been much good. Being in Dubai gives me the chance to get some sun on my back before I go over to Sharjah for the tournament. I’m looking forward to competing again and seeing how the tournament plays second time around.”

Related: McGinley one of 14 former Ryder Cuppers confirmed for Sharjah

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The victory was the first of his PGA Tour Champions career and came nearly a full year after he kicked away a two-stroke lead with three to play in his senior debut at Tucson National, losing to Tom Lehman by one.

“I came close here last year,” Stricker said earlier in the week. “I finished second here in my rookie year on [the Northern Telecom Open on the PGA Tour] in 1994, so I’ve been close here. Not that this place owes me anything, but I feel like I want to get it, I want to finally get this place.”

Stricker, 51, got what he wanted by virtue of a final-round four-under par 69 to win by two in his eighth senior start, an overdue victory. He’s finished in the top three in six of them and has now played all 22 rounds under par.

“Been a long time. I cry every time,” he said wiping away tears. Stricker challenges Bubba Watson for the most weepy winner in golf. “It means a lot. It’s hard to win. It’s hard to win anywhere and it was building on me.”

The victory was his first since winning the PGA Tour’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions in 2012. He still is capable of competing on the PGA Tour and has been splitting his time between the tours, likely having postponed his maiden senior win.

Related: Joe Durant’s strong finish deprives Steve Stricker of first senior win

Stricker began the final round trailing Tommy Tolles by a stroke. Tolles played his way out of contention on the back nine and tied for ninth. Stricker took a one-stroke lead over Scott Dunlap with a birdie on the par-5 15th hole and played the final three holes in even par, or two better than he had last year. He, too, made amends for the tee shot that cost him a chance at victory a year ago, at the par-4 18th.

Last year, he hooked a 3-wood that bounded into a pond left of the fairway. This time, he hit a 3-wood down the middle. “I was thinking of it all day today. It’s a hard one for me,” he said, explaining that he prefers to hit a draw that with a misguided effort can turn into a hook, a non-starter on 18 at Tucson National.

One other notable performance this week was that of Bernhard Langer, the most dominant player on the PGA Tour Champions over the last decade. Langer, 60, had the worst finish of his senior career, a tie for 54th. His previous worst was a T49 at the SAS Championship in 2011.

Langer was undone by four-over par 77 in the second round, then closed with an even-par 73.

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The eight-time European Order of Merit champion, making his first appearance in Dubai since the 25th anniversary edition in 2014, flew in via Hawaii where a last hole bogey gifted American Jerry Kelly the PGA Champions Tour’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship. 

But that was only half the excitement in Hawaii with the Scot unsure he’d make it to the Mitsubishi after a missile threat alert was issued across the island, necessitating some time in a different sort of bunker.

“It’s interesting, of all the places to go, Sarah and I, we landed on Friday into Kona and Saturday morning, someone’s going to blow us up, and I thought, well, that’s great,” Monty said in his typically droll Scottish way.

“Of all places to land, you know, you could pick anywhere, couldn’t you, really, and yet we picked the one place that was a missile threat.

Good to catch up with old friends in the media @EuropeanTour @OmegaDDC pic.twitter.com/r2vAeT3wYS

— Colin Montgomerie (@montgomeriefdn) January 23, 2018

“It was a weird sort of thing, because people were going down manholes and stuff. I mean, what the hell, that’s no use. If I was going to sort of know it’s going to end, I’d just about order a drink from the bar and sit on the beach and watch it happen, really. Because you’re going anyway, so you might as well just go out in style, other than down a bloody manhole. That’s not the way to go, is it?

“I mean, that’s bizarre, absolutely bizarre. But yeah, of all the places to go to, you’ve flown two days to bloody well get there and someone goes and blows you up. Perfect, [laughter] bloody perfect.”

Fortunately for the 31-time European Tour winner, the warning was a false alarm and he’s  made it to Dubai. It’s just not the golfing landscape the 1994 champion quite remembers even if “yeah, people seem to recognise me”.

Well that’s a relief. As that would have been rather unfortunate!!! #hawaii pic.twitter.com/y1IGySjFJ6

— Colin Montgomerie (@montgomeriefdn) January 13, 2018

“I don’t know, caddies wearing shorts, can’t recognise anybody, even [entertainer] Niall Horan. Terrible, isn’t it. Niall Horan [who is playing Wednesday’s Pro-Am with good pal Rory McIlroy], he has more Twitter followers than I have for sure.”

Done with being star-struck by pop stars populating the practice range, Monty divulged that if golf ever becomes too much of a challenge, he always has surfing. Yes, you read that right, surfing.

“Yes, well, I thought golf was very difficult, as I said on my Twitter and I felt, there’s got to be something easier than this. And somebody said that I needed a good core to allow myself to surf.

This must be easier than golf! @ChampionsTour @FSHualalai pic.twitter.com/OQb9AihdQq

— Colin Montgomerie (@montgomeriefdn) January 14, 2018

“So I thought it possibly was a bit harder than I gave it credit for. So I didn’t bother. And there was a bit of a reef out on the Hawaiian coast and I was told to not bother there because I would kill myself on that reef… if I wasn’t bombed, I would kill myself on the reef, so I haven’t done either.

“But it was a good idea until someone said I needed a strong core to do that.”

But seriously, how’s your game? You must be encouraged even with the last gasp bogey in Hawaii?

“Very much so. I’m very fortunate in my career to say that I haven’t, you know, messed up too often. I messed up the last hole, and you know, my own fault. A one-shot lead, playing the last, I should really wrap that up, but all credit to him. He made his birdie, and I drove into a bunker and made a bogey. That was that.

“So yeah, but looking on it, as a positive, it’s a very good start to the year. Two 65s to start the year with a nine-week break was good.

“I’ve been working with Kevin Craggs up near Edinburgh. He came down to Willesley a couple of times to work on my pitching and chipping, which has been poor over the last few years to be honest, and I had to improve that to save the shots, you know, to turn the 70s into 68s and that’s working already. It’s a long year and I look forward to it with a good, solid start behind me.”

Can you still compete with these young bucks?

“Yeah, it’s a good question. These courses, they are not pitch-and-putt courses, these. They are 7000 yards. They are decent courses. It will be interesting to see where I am in many ways, you know, because I’m playing okay.

“I’m hitting the ball well. I’m finding the fairways. I’m finding the greens and I’m actually holing out okay. It will be interesting to see how I fair under these conditions here. This course has got longer obviously, playing longer because it’s over-seeded, so it plays about 7,400 now, 7,500. It’s a much longer course, and of course the standard of golf, it will be interesting to see how you get on against these young guys that hit the ball well, well, honestly, 40, 50 yards past me.

“So it will be interesting to see if it is all to do with length off the tee or is it about trying to get the ball in the hole with the least number of shots. It will be interesting to see how I fare and how some other guys around my age playing here will do similar. Jimenez, Els is here, Bjorn, Clarke, these type of guys, to see how they do, as well. It’s a great field. We’ve got a great field assembled, great field.”

Arrived @ADHmontgomerie absolutely thrilled to see all 8 of my Ryder Cup bags on display #veryproud #RyderCup @EuropeanTour @RyderCupEurope pic.twitter.com/IjxDoqtoKG

— Colin Montgomerie (@montgomeriefdn) January 23, 2018

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By Ryan Herrington
Late last week, after having to withdraw after just nine holes at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, John Daly noted on his Twitter feed that arthritis and bone spurs on his knees were giving him problems. Still, he was hopeful that a cortisone shot could get through the remainder of the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup playoff run.

Thx 4 well wishes! Knee locked up 2day. XRays show cartilage is soft & 2 bone spurs w/massive arthritis-Cortisone to get thru next few weeks pic.twitter.com/ufmHEG3vIs

— John Daly (@PGA_JohnDaly) October 20, 2017

Unfortunately for Daly, however, it wasn’t enough. On Saturday during the PowerShares QQQ Championship, the 51-year-old fan favourite collapsed after teeing off on the 9th hole at Sherwood Country Club. Unable to put any weight on his right knee, he had to be helped off the course and withdrew from the tournament.

Given how bad this looked, it’s pretty amazing to think Daly was four under at the time and in contention for the title. At day’s end, Bernhard Langer, David Toms and Miguel Angel Jimenez shared the lead at six under. (Equally amazing was the fact he was three under through nine holes the previous week when he had to WD)

Despite the withdrawal, Daly, who claimed his first senior tour title in May at the Insperity Invitational, should finish the event inside the top 36 on the Schwab Cup points list and be eligible to play in next week’s season finale—if his knee will allow it.

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By John Strege
The indomitable Bernhard Langer was forced to work overtime on Sunday, but still delivered a victory in the PowerShares QQQ Championship, his second straight win and third in his last four starts.

Langer, 60, holed a 30-foot double-breaker from an upper tier on the 18th green on the second playoff hole at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., to defeat Miguel Angel Jimenez.

He has now won the first two Charles Schwab Cup playoff events and will go for a sweep in the season-finale Charles Schwab Cup Championship in two weeks at Phoenix Country Club.

“It puts me at a great mind, at great ease,” he said. “I’m swinging the club fairly well. There were a few irons shots that leaked to the right and I’ll try to figure out why that is so. I think I know. And the rest of the game is pretty solid.”

Indeed, the victory was his seventh of the season, extending his career-high, and the 36th of his PGA Tour Champions career.

Langer nearly won on the last hole of regulation, when his 15-foot birdie putt caught a piece of the hole and did a 360 without falling.

On the first playoff hole, Langer had a similar putt to the one with which he won, but missed it to the right. On his second attempt, it went in dead center.

“The first one almost went straight,” Langer said. “The second one was a little different angle and We read it about a cup out and it broke nicely at the end.”

Langer and Jimenez, who along with David Toms were co-leaders through 36 holes, closed with the best rounds of the day, five-under par 67s, while Toms, a senior rookie still in search of a maiden tour victory, shot a 69 and finished third.

Meanwhile, Langer has to be the favorite to win a fourth straight Charles Schwab Cup and its $1 million bonus and a fifth cup overall. However, a points reset after the PowerShares QQQ Championship allows any one of the top five in the standings to win the cup with a victory in two weeks.

Langer leads the standings and is followed by Scott McCarron, Kenny Perry, Jimenez and Kevin Sutherland.

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By John Strege
Jerry Kelly was a moderately successful PGA Tour player better known as a tour leader in body English. His gyrations were on full display in the Boeing Classic, where on Sunday he recorded his first PGA Tour Champions victory.

Kelly, 50, who won three times and earned nearly $30 million on the PGA Tour, shot a final-round six-under-par 66 at the Club at Snoqualmie Ridge outside Seattle to defeat Jerry Smith by one stroke.

It was never easy. He and playing partners Smith and Billy Mayfair combined for 20 birdies and zero bogeys. Smith shot an eight-under-par 64 to put up the greatest challenge, but ultimately was defeated by Kelly’s birdies at 16 and 17.

“It was crazy,” Kelly said. “It has shocked me to no end the quality of play. These guys are shooting these numbers every single week.”

Kelly, whose best finish in 12 prior PGA Tour Champions starts was a third, in his debut at the Chubb Classic, was a wire-to-wire winner at the Boeing, posting a 65 in the opening round followed by a pair of 66s to finish at 19-under-par 197.

“I finally got off to a good start and kept things going,” Kelly said. “The game plan again was to try to keep it on the gas. I missed three or four opportunities early, but I did make two good par saves which kept things going.”

The par saves came at the fifth and ninth holes and were important, if not critical, in his quest to win for the first time.

“I did not want them to smell blood,” he said.

Bernhard Langer, meanwhile, shot a seven-under 65 and tied for third on his 60th birthday. He, too, played a bogey-free round. In fact, none of the top five players on the leader board made a bogey on Sunday.

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