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Every once in a while, I’ll tune in to a Pandora music channel which I have labeled as “Beach Boys Radio”. In addition to playing those great summer surfing songs of the 1960’s and beyond to lift my mood, the station provides non-stop music from some of my favorite artists’ songs first heard during my growing-up years.
This weekend about forty miles north of Houston at TPC of The Woodlands, the Insperity Invitational was able to mix golf’s favorite oldies together into a fantastic weekend of entertainment. The entire golf field was age 50 and older as part of this popular PGA Champions Tour event.
These guys are still exceptional golfers as attested by Sunday’s winning score of 18-under par (in just three days) by one of the least known players in the field – Steven Alker of New Zealand. He is a young 50-year young lad who spent most of his career playing golf in Australia, Europe, and in the PGA Tour’s developmental league. Alker’s took home his third win in six months since joining the PGA Champions tour. He’s on fire!
Taking nothing away from the PGA Tour’s weekend stop in Mexico, the line-up of legendary golfers who played in this weekend’s senior event near Houston was much more appealing to most golf fans. Let’s compare the top finishers in both tournaments this weekend.
Other former PGA stars in the Champions Tour field this weekend included Fred Couples, Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Colin Montgomery, David Duval, John Daly, and Jim Furyk. It’s literally “golf heaven” at this senior tour event!
A friend of mine and I spent Friday’s first round walking the entire 18 hole layout (which remains in magnificent condition) alongside the threesome of Tom Byrum, Chris DeMarco, and Joey Sindelar. Though these golfers are still quite capable of shooting an under par round on a given day, they also realize that this encore golf league has become a very special place.
The senior golf stars demonstrate a lot of camaraderie as you observe them warming-up on the practice tee and the putting green. Since golf is a sport where your weekly paycheck depends on beating your other opponents, the younger PGA players tend to be a little “stiff” on the primary golf tour as the golfers must score well enough week-to-week to retain their playing card for the next season.
Though it’s nice to see that these more mature competitors on the PGA Champions Tour have become a little friendlier over the years, it quickly becomes evident that the golfers still have a very competitive fire burning, too. Just like in the PGA Tour events, the senior professional golfer’s weekly paycheck depends entirely on his tournament total score on Sunday afternoon.
The quality of golf is every bit as good as the younger bucks on the PGA Tour – just without those 300-yard “Ouch -my back hurts just watching that hard golf swing” tee shots. Watching these senior golfers hit a precise iron shot from the fairway to the proper level of the green and then have nerves of steel on fast greens is quite impressive.
My friend and I spent a few holes pondering the thought, “Why do some of these guys still do this at age 60 and older?” In some cases, playing in golf tournaments has become a weekly habit since they were in high school and college. Though an easy going professional such as David Toms (who lives in Shreveport, LA and played collegiately at LSU) could easily be offered a job of head professional at any number of exclusive country clubs, he would also have to deal with the politics of the job on a daily basis.
Teaching golf to the likes of Thurston Howell III and his wife Lovie might be more challenging than facing 70 other golfers on tour.
Perhaps a senior professional might enjoy coaching a college golf team full of accomplished and talented former high school players. That, too, would probably entail more hours dealing with the team’s administrative details than providing instruction to a group of young college golfers.
My friend and I finally agreed that the golfers we were watching play on the PGA Champions tour are still going at it week-to-week, because it’s the one job where they feel the most comfortable. The pro golf tour has become their “Happy Place”.
These pro golfers obviously like the routine of preparing for and playing competitive golf at the highest level. As long as the quality of their own golf game remains high enough to retain their annual playing cards, this smaller traveling tour of elite older professional golfers simply loves to compete against each other while they play some of America’s finest golf courses.
As a special treat, the Insperity Invitational holds a special “3M Greats of Golf” competition on Saturday afternoon. All of the men who participate in this 9-hole event are now all over age 65 and do not compete regularly against the other younger “senior” golfers anymore.
In addition to the feature group (more in a moment), the field highlighted a couple of University of Texas golf legends in Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite. The “Greats of Golf” tournament put together four teams (consisting of three men and a woman) in a 9-hole scramble format.
This year’s feature group was called “Team Majors” and consisted of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player, and Annika Sorenstam. Jack and Lee are now 82 years young while Gary is now a very spry 86. Annika is now 51 years old and still plays well enough that she is planning in compete in this summer’s US Women’s Open.
For an old golfer like me, just hearing the player introductions brings back a flood of fond memories.
Lee Trevino (still just as quick with a quip as ever) had the crowd laughing when he said, “Today is the first time in nearly three years where I’ve worn a pair of slacks!”
Seeing Annika Sorenstam (a 72-time winner on the LPGA Tour with 10 major championships of her own) on the tee box joining three of golf’s greatest men’s players for the introductions on Saturday afternoon was an incredible moment. The other LPGA players competing in Saturday’s “Greats of Golf” were Pat Bradley (now age 71), Juli Inkster (age 60), and Great Britain’s Laura Davies (age 58).
I’m old enough to remember seeing the two women with more LPGA wins than Annika. Kathy Whitworth (now age 82 and winner of 88 women’s events) and the late Mickey Wright (82 LPGA wins including 13 majors) would have been very proud to see how far women’s golf has come in the past 50 years.
The late Arnold Palmer was a regular at this annual “Greats of Golf” outing (joining Nicklaus, Player, and Trevino) prior to his death in 2016 at the age of 87. Since most of us guys are fortunate to live past age 80, I make it a point to come to this event almost every year to see my generation’s golf legends tee it up one more time.
Jack Nicklaus admitted that he hasn’t played much (if any) golf this year and appeared to be having quite a bit of difficulty with his back on Saturday. So, who do you think rolled in the 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole to get his team to -7 and lift his team to a one-shot victory?
As Verne Lundquist might say, “Yes, sir!”
This weekend in The Woodlands, Texas, professional golf’s “Oldies but Goodies Show” kept playing the hits for thousands of adoring golf fans and provided yet another entertaining show. Let’s do this again next year!