With his 64th birthday not too far off, lifetime Georgia PGA member and veteran Champions Tour player James Mason still has enough game to compete at the national level.
Mason made a run at winning the PGA Senior Professional National Championship in south Florida in mid-November, finishing in a tie for 2nd. Mason was one of three Georgia PGA members to finish in the top 35 and earn spots in next year’s Senior PGA Championship, with that tournament appearance extending Mason’s Champions Tour career for at least one more event.
Joining Mason in the 2015 Senior PGA Championship at Indiana’s French Lick Resort will be fellow Georgia PGA member/tour player Sonny Skinner and Marietta Country Club Director of Golf Stephen Keppler, who will be making his first start in a Tour event since the 2001 PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Craig Stevens, an instructor at Brookstone G&CC, also was among the top 35, finishing in a 7-way tie for 32nd. The seven players went to a playoff for the final four spots available in next year’s Senior PGA Championship, and Stevens was eliminated after four of the seven parred the first extra hole.
Mason shot 12-under 276 on the Ryder and Wanamaker courses at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., to finish in a 3-way tie for 2nd, four strokes behind New Jersey’s Frank Esposito. Mason began the final round five off the lead, and got within two shots with two holes to play.
Esposito birdied the 72nd hole and Mason bogeyed to lose sole possession of 2nd place. The bogey was the only one for Mason over the final 36 holes, as he closed with scores of 66 and 70.
“I drove the ball really well,” Mason said after arriving at his home in Dillard the day after his runner-up finish. “And I putted good enough. The third round I made a good leap. I played without a bogey and I usually do pretty good when I don’t make a bogey.
“I didn’t make a bogey the last day until the last hole.”
That bogey cost Mason a little money, but he still returned to his northeast Georgia home with a nice check of around $13,000.
Mason opened with scores of 69 and 71 before moving into a tie for 3rd after 54 holes with a bogey-free 66.
Skinner was tied for 7th after back-to-back scores of 69 the first two days, making just one bogey over his first 36 holes. Five bogeys in the third round left him with a 73 and dropped him 10 shots off Esposito’s lead, but he came back the final day with a 71 to place 10th at 6-under 282.
Keppler, competing in the PGA Senior PNC for the first time, shot 69 the second day to move up to a tie for 25th at 3-under 141, and ended up tied for 18th after scores of 73-71 on the weekend.
Stevens tied for 6th in the 2013 PGA Senior PNC, and joined Mason and Skinner in a tie for 15th after an opening 69. He narrowly made the cut after a 75 the next day but came back with a 70 in the third round highlighted by a 5-under 31 on the back nine, going 5-under for a 5-hole stretch capped by a an eagle.
He finished the round at 70 to move back up into a tie for 30th, and closed with a 73, carding a birdie at the 17th to finish among the top 35. Stevens qualified for this year’s Senior PGA by tying for 6th in the 2013 PGA Senior PNC.
Five other Georgia PGA members competed in the Senior PNC but did not make the 36-hole cut.
River Pines head professional Phil Wagoner shot 71-74—145, missing the cut by one. Crooked Oak head pro Winston Trively shot 71-75—146 and missed the cut by two. Also missing the cut were Mark Anderson of Brunswick CC, Bent Tree head pro Russell Smith, and Griffin City GC head pro Charlie King.
Prior to joining the Champions Tour in 2002, Mason was a long-time Georgia PGA member, working as an instructor as he neared 50, and was among the top players in the Section in his late 40s.
Mason won his first Georgia PGA event at the age of 46 in 1997 and won six Section events between ’97 and 2000, including three Georgia PGA Championships. He earned Player of the Year honors in 1997, ’99 and 2000, and collected wins in the Section’s top two senior events in 2001.
After he turned 50 in early 2001, Mason began attempting Monday qualifiers on the Champions Tour. In his seventh start in a now-defunct event in New Jersey in 2002, he became a rare Monday qualifier to win an event, and was a tour regular for the next decade, placing between 40th and 75th on the money list 10 straight years although he was fully exempt only in 2003.
By 2011, Mason was an infrequent competitor, but he nearly revived his career in Hickory, N.C., shooting a final round 65 to get into a playoff. He lost the playoff and hasn’t been able to get into more than seven events in a season since, making just seven combined starts in 2013 and ’14.
Mason still feels a little pain about his close call in 2011 at the age of 61.
“I shot 19-under for three rounds and I’m not that good a putter to shoot that low. I wasn’t even thinking about winning. I got in my own world and didn’t worry about outcomes.”
Mason elected not to attempt Champions Tour qualifying for the first time in years, and says he will play in Monday qualifiers next year only when they’re within driving distance.
Because of his tie for 2nd in the PGA Senior PNC, Mason will play in next year’s Senior PGA Championship, and will do so with the realization that it could be his final Champions Tour start.
“The end is near,” Mason admits. He says he will leave the Champions Tour “when I know that I definitely can’t compete at that level.
“My scores will tell me when it’s time to quit. But I just shot 12-under for four rounds and I still feel competitive. I still feel I’ve got enough game, but the access is so hard. It’s just a matter of getting out there and playing. ”
Mason played in just three Champions Tour events this year, two of them majors. He made it into just one tournament via Monday qualifying, and said he missed five times “either by one shot or a playoff.”
The one time he Monday qualified, he recorded a top-30 finish in Quebec, and he also made the cut in the Senior PGA after a strong showing in the 2013 PGA Senior PNC .
Mason describes his 13-plus years on the Champions Tour as “a fantastic run. I never dreamed I’d do what I did. I can’t really put it into words.”
Along with the occasional attempt to play on the Champions Tour this year, Mason will compete in Georgia PGA events and teach at the Orchard in Clarkesville, which was recently acquired by the group that owns Indian Hills CC in east Cobb.