Gwinnett Championship Returns to TPC Sugarloaf
The Champions Tour began its 2014 season with a schedule that is almost identical to that of 2013 and a familiar cast of characters among its leading players.
The few changes impacting the tour’s schedule and its player roster involve Georgia, which lost one of its two stops on the Champions Tour. But the state is adding several new names to the list of players who have celebrated their 50th birthday and are looking to transition from the PGA Tour, Web.com Tour or semi-retirement.
Georgia gained a new Champions Tour tournament in 2013, as the Greater Gwinnett Championship made its debut at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, the former host course for the PGA Tour BellSouth Classic, which was last played in 2008.
The state also lost a Champions Tour event in 2013, as the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, the event that started the tour in the last 1970s, was played for the last time after spending more than a decade at Savannah Harbor.
Last year was just the second time Georgia had ever hosted two Champions Tour events in one year, and like the first time, it only lasted for one year. The Legends of Golf was played in Savannah for the first time in 2003, the same year Columbus hosted a tour event at Green Island in Columbus.
The Columbus tournament, which came into existence after the PGA Tour event at nearby Callaway Gardens met its demise the previous year, did not last long. Tournament officials were unable to secure a title sponsor, and the event dropped off the schedule as quickly as it appeared, never returning for an encore.
The Champions Tour first visited Georgia in 1986, making the first of three stops at Horseshoe Bend Country Club in Roswell. The tour returned to the North Fulton suburbs in 1991, with the Nationwide Championship a staple on the schedule for 10 years – the first four at Country Club of the South, the last six at Golf Club of Georgia.
After two years without a Champions Tour event, Georgia welcomed two tournaments in 2003, with the :Legends of Golf the state’s lone tour stop for a decade, other than a little noticed tournament for the tour’s “Super Seniors,” who played a short-lived event at Hawks Ridge in Ball Ground.
Unlike the Columbus Southern Open, the Greater Gwinnett Championship is returning for a second appearance, with this year’s event scheduled for April 18-20.
With three weeks off prior to the tournament and an unexpected break in the schedule the following week due to the end of the Legends, the Greater Gwinnett Championship will feature an outstanding field, including two Atlanta area residents who are among the tour’s “rookie” class of 2014.
Long-time Atlanta resident Billy Andrade turned 50 recently and made his Champions Tour debut in February after playing little tournament golf in his late 40s. Andrade won four times on the PGA Tour between 1991 and 2000.
Andrade’s first start on the Champions Tour was uneventful, but he followed with a tie for 8th the next week in south Florida, and should be a very competitive player on the tour.
The other Georgia rookie is Duluth’s Scott Dunlap, who was either a PGA or Web.com Tour member from 1996-2013. Dunlap, who still has exempt status on the Web.com Tour, made his Champions Tour debut late last season, tying for 15th in San Antonio after playing his way into the field in a Monday qualifier.
Unlike Andrade, Dunlap was not exempt for the Champions Tour, and had to go through qualifying to earn one of five available spots on the tour this season, winning a five players for two spots playoff.
Dunlap got his 2014 season off to a rousing start, shooting a 63 in the first round in Boca Raton, Fla., that was overshadowed by Michael Allen’s 60. Dunlap remained in second after a 67 the next day, but a final round 76 dropped him to a tie for 15th, and he did not play well the next week.
A third Georgian will turn 50 the Sunday before the Champions Tour event in Gwinnett tees off, but it is highly unlikely he will be in the field at Sugarloaf. St. Simons Island resident Davis Love will make his Champions Tour debut at some point this year, but will be playing most of his golf on the PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour event being played the same week as the Greater Gwinnett Championship is the Heritage Classic at Hilton Head. Love has won five times at Sea Pines, and as long as those two tournaments conflict, it may be a while before Love returns to Atlanta, where he lived as a youngster when his father was head pro at Atlanta Country Club. Love was an infrequent participant during the dozen years Sugarloaf hosted the BellSouth Classic.
Both Andrade and Dunlap would like to match the rookie season on the Champions Tour enjoyed by Savannah’s Gene Sauers in 2013. Sauers had been out of golf for six years and battled a life-threatening illness before returning to the game in late 2011. He turned 50 in August, 2012, and after making a handful of Champions Tour appearances later that year, joined the tour full time in 2013.
Although Sauers was unable to win last year, he contended for victory on several occasions, highlighted by six finishes of 6th or better. Early in 2013, he enjoyed a sizzling stretch of play that included three top-3 finishes in four starts.
Sauers tied for 3rd in the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic and was in contention after 36 holes at Sugarloaf before a tough final day. He and partner Kenny Perry tied for 2nd in the Legends of Golf in Sauers’ hometown thanks to a final round 62, and Sauers lost in a playoff the following week in Houston.
For the season, Sauers earned almost $900,000 to finish 19th on the money list, and is off to a respectable start this year with a pair of top-20 finishes in his first two starts.
The last Georgian to win on the Champions Tour was Augusta native and Columbus resident Larry Mize in Montreal in 2010. Mize has been a solid player in his five years on tour, qualifying for the Schwab Cup in three of his first four seasons and placing 45th last year.
Along with newcomers Sauers, Andrade and Dunlap, Mize is the only Georgian on the Champions Tour under the age of 60.
Allen Doyle of LaGrange turns 65 this year, and made just eight starts in 2013, withdrawing from two of them. Doyle won 11 times on the tour, including four majors, from 1999 to 2006, but has not been really competitive since he celebrated his 60th birthday in ’08.
Marietta’s Larry Nelson remains a Champion Tour regular at the age of 66, but has been gradually slipping down the money winning list in recent years. Nelson collected 20 tour titles between 1998 and 2004, and remained a competitive player into his early 60s.
After a dozen years on the Champions Tour highlighted by a win as a Monday qualifier in 2002, Dillard’s James Mason is nearing the end of his days on the tour at the age of 63. Mason, a career Georgia PGA member, has made just 18 starts the last three years, earning most of his spots in fields as a Monday qualifier.
Although some prominent names have joined the Champions Tour in recent years, its top player remains Bernhard Langer, who has 19 victories since joining the tour in late 2007. Langer has won five of the past six money titles and is on his way to six of seven, winning the season-opening Tournament of Champions and tying for 2nd in Naples, one shot behind the winner.
Langer, who won the inaugural Greater Gwinnett Championship last year, was one of eight multiple winners, most of them players who fit into the journeyman category during their days on the PGA Tour.
David Frost, Michael Allen, Russ Cochran, Rocco Mediate, Esteban Toledo and Mark Wiebe all won twice on the Champions Tour last year, with non-journeyman Kenny Perry winning three times and giving Langer a run for the money title.
Other than an occasional challenge from Tom Lehman and Fred Couples, Langer has been the Champions Tour’s top player since he turned 50, with some potential challengers choosing to continue on the PGA Tour after turning 50.
Vijay Singh has played just one Champions event since turning 50 a year ago, and has shown no inclination he’s ready to join the over-50 set. Colin Montgomerie also turned 50 last year and has become a tour regular, but is still looking for his first tournament title in the U.S.
Love is the biggest name turning 50 in 2014, but has indicated that he will continue to play primarily on the PGA Tour.
Other than Langer, the other Champions Tour winners this year are Allen and Kirk Triplett, two of the tour’s players taking full advantage of their career mulligans.
Although Langer is the tour’s No. 1 player, Couples remains its biggest draw. But with his tender back and occasional PGA Tour starts, typically plays only around half the tournaments on the schedule.
Woody Austin, Jeff Maggert, Stephen Ames and Joe Durant also turn 50 this year. Like Love, all four still have status on the PGA Tour, and will have decisions to make regarding their 2014 schedules.