Hold on to your hats. This week’s Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club in Parker could turn into a battle of attrition.
With most of the players relatively unfamiliar with a course that features very difficult green complexes, and with the wind continuing to buffet the area, the 71st Senior PGA could be a bear. The tournament, marking the first major on the 2010 Champions Tour schedule, begins Thursday and runs through Sunday.
“This is a different week,” said Champions Tour rookie Fred Couples, a three-time winner this year. “It has nothing to do with being a major. This is just a big-time course where I think we’re all going to struggle. But that’s OK. It’s not supposed to be easy. When you play any course when the wind blows it’s hard. But this is going to be brutal. “¦ You can make a lot of high scores out there.”
And many of Couples’ fellow competitors concur.
“I think the championship here is going to prove to be a very difficult venue,” said four-time Senior PGA winner Hale Irwin, a former University of Colorado athlete. “There will be no doubt about that. “¦ If we have wind like we had on Monday (gusting to 50 mph-plus), it will be impossible to play. If we have winds like (Tuesday), it will be very difficult to play.
“It’s a very challenging course and a new venue to many of us. So it’s sort of a grab-bag out there as we speak now with a lot of guys comparing notes and wondering where to go and what to do, and trying to pick up all the nuances. It’s not easy to do. So I think we’ll be challenged.”
Forecasts call for winds ranging from 15 to 25 mph throughout the championship days. And that’s not taking into account more powerful gusts.
Throw in a course that reaches 6,200 feet in altitude at spots, and all bets could be off if weather conditions are difficult.
“It’ll be interesting to see how they set up the golf course,” said Tom Watson, winner of eight major championships and five senior majors. “They’re going to have to use some good judgment setting up the course if they know the winds are going to be blowing this way.”
Even without the wind, the course could prove formidable.
“I love the design and the layout and all that (but) I think some greens are a bit severe,” said two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer. “The greens are extremely extreme, let’s put it that way. Just very severe.”
Many of the competitors are impressed with the work Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore did in designing the 3½-year-old Colorado Golf Club. But because of the high winds this week, a lot of the players haven’t gotten the chance to thoroughly learn the ins and outs of the course. Colorado Golf Club will be 7,490 yards — the longest layout in Senior PGA history — but the thin air at altitude makes the length far less of an issue than the wind, severity of the green complexes, altitude and general newness of the course.
“The formula gets complicated,” Watson said. “To get the ball to come out right is a real challenge. I’ve always felt that challenge is the biggest part of the game. If you add wind, elevation, and get the ball to go the proper distance, that’s where you win, that’s where you pick up strokes. That’s what you have to do to beat the wind.”
But Crenshaw believes play around the greens at Colorado Golf Club will be the key this week.
“Short game is going to be paramount this week,” he said. “People are going to miss some greens, and you have to have a good imagination and touch to retrieve that lost stroke.”
Couples, who finished sixth in the Masters at age 50 last month, and Watson, the runner-up at the 2009 British Open just shy of his 60th birthday, figure to be the fan favorites this week — and good bets to win the tournament. Couples has won three times in six Champions Tour events this year, while Watson beat him once early in the season.
“When Freddie was playing last year, I said, “˜Oh, no, he’s playing pretty good against the kids (on the PGA Tour)'” Watson said. “How far he hits the ball, there’s a little bit of an advantage there.”
Though Couples noted that earlier this year marked the best golf he’s played since he was 30, he admits his game is not in peak form anymore. After playing six straight weeks, he’s taken three weeks off, and his ongoing back issues are ever-present despite the recent rest. And walking the hilly Colorado Golf Club won’t help matters.
“My back just feels horrible,” he said. “I took three weeks off and it doesn’t feel any better than when I stopped playing before (The Players Championship). I don’t think I’ll be playing six weeks in a row ever again. I think I kind of overextended it.”
Besides Couples and Watson, pre-tournament favorites include Nick Price, two-time 2010 winner Bernhard Langer, Jay Haas and Dan Forsman (see handicapping chart below).
“¢IRWIN WILLING TO HELP COLORADO LAND CHAMPIONS TOUR EVENT: Hale Irwin, a graduate of Boulder High School and the University of Colorado, indicated Wednesday he’s working behind the scenes in hopes of bringing an annual Champions Tour event back to Colorado. Though there have been senior majors held in the state in the last two decades — the 1993 U.S. Senior Open at Cherry Hills, the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor and this week’s Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club — a regular Senior/Champions Tour event hasn’t been contested in Colorado since the Champions of Golf was held in Denver or Castle Rock from 1982 to ’87.
“I will be selfish and say the PGA Tour/Champions Tour should be here,” Irwin said. “Any tournament here would be fantastic. The (PGA Tour’s) International (in Castle Rock from 1986 through 2006) was a wonderful event. I think we should be here in this land. It’s such a sports mecca, Colorado is. And the (golf tournaments) are well-supported. It’s documented. All you have to do is look at the number of championships won around here, and I think golf should be part of that landscape.
“I would do whatever I could to encourage that. And, in fact, I’m sort of working in the background on that. We’re very encouraged to try and solicit some interest in it.”
Irwin said he’s aware of a company that’s looking to hold an event and is “financially ready to go. They need a venue, so I’m trying to help them explore those opportunities, whether it be in Colorado or not. In the economic condition we find ourselves in, if you have someone that says they want to put on a golf tournament, it behooves you to find him a spot.”
“¢BILL AND THE BOYS: Club professional Bill Loeffler of Castle Rock, winner of three Colorado Opens, was part of a high-powered group for a practice round Wednesday at Colorado Golf Club. The Colorado Golf Hall of Famer joined Fred Couples, Jay Haas and Bobby Wadkins for a wind-blown round on the eve of the Senior PGA.
“It was a great group, (but) it was blowing so hard, I wouldn’t say it’s much fun,” Couples said. “It seemed like it took eight hours to play golf.”
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HANDICAPPING THE SENIOR PGA
Odds of selected players winning this week’s Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club, as handicapped by COGolf.org writer Gary Baines:
Nick Price (7-1) — Finished out of top 13 just once this year
Tom Watson (8-1) — Wind this week is right up his alley
Bernhard Langer (8-1) — Two wins this year for meticulous German
Fred Couples (10-1) — Best player in field, but back is problematic
Jay Haas (12-1) — Has won two of the last four Senior PGAs
Dan Forsman (12-1) — No. 3 money-winner coming off win in Regions Classic
Ben Crenshaw (15-1) — Will first Champions win come on course he designed?
Michael Allen (20-1) — Defending champion trying to juggle two Tours
Hale Irwin (25-1) — Four-time Senior PGA winner almost 65
Fred Funk (25-1) — Just one top-20 finish this year
Eduardo Romero (30-1) — Won 2008 U.S. Senior Open at Broadmoor
Tom Kite (35-1) — Two years since his last Champions victory
Mark Wiebe (35-1) — No Champions Tour rounds in 60s since early March
Gary Hallberg (50-1) — Castle Rock resident familiar with Colorado Golf Club
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THE LOWDOWN ON THE SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
What: The 71st annual Senior PGA Championship, conducted by the PGA of America.
Where: Colorado Golf Club in Parker. The course opened in 2007 and was designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore. Par-72. 7,490 yards, which will be the longest layout ever played for the Senior PGA.
When: Championship rounds are May 27-30. Practice rounds May 25-26. Pro-Am rounds on May 25 will begin at 10 a.m. Note: The club is closed to the public on Monday, May 24.
Tournament Format: 72 holes of stroke play.
Purse: $2 million, with $360,000 going to the winner.
Field Size: 156 players, all age 50 and over. Cut to low70 players after 36 holes.
Defending Champion: Michael Allen.
World Golf Hall of Famers in Field: Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Bernhard Langer, Larry Nelson, Nick Price and Tom Watson. In addition, the field includes winners of 24 major championships, including 1992 Masters champion Fred Couples.
Current List of Player Commitments: CLICK HERE
TV Schedule: May 27 and 28 4-7 p.m., Golf Channel; May 29-30 1-4 p.m. NBC.
Players with Strong Colorado Connections in Field: Dale Douglass of Castle Rock, Colorado Spring native R.W. Eaks, Gary Hallberg of Castle Rock, former CU athlete Hale Irwin, Bill Loeffler of Castle Rock, Ron Vlosich of Lakewood, Mark Wiebe of Aurora, Mike Zaremba of Pueblo West.
Tickets: Available at seniorpga2010.com, at King Soopers stores, or by calling 1-800-PGAGOLF. A weekly grounds pass starts at $125, while a weekly clubhouse pass runs $225. Single-day tickets are $20 for each practice day, and $35 for each of the championship rounds. Youngsters age 17 and under will be admitted free with a ticketed adult, and active-duty military personnel with I.D. can purchase 2-for-the-price-of-1 daily tickets.
Parking: $5 per vehicle per day in the general parking lot. Shuttle service provided.
Tournament History: The Senior PGA Championship is by far the oldest tournament on the Champions Tour, dating back to 1937. In 1937 and ’38 it was contested at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, then the tournament wasn’t held outside of Florida again until 2001. This year will mark the furthest west the tournament has ever been played. Sam Snead holds the record for most Senior PGA Championship wins with six. Hale Irwin is next best with four titles (1996, “˜97, “˜98, 2004). The last PGA of America championship held in Colorado was the 1985 PGA Championship at Cherry Hills Country Club, where Hubert Green prevailed.
Previous Senior Majors Held in Colorado: 1993 U.S. Senior Open (won by Jack Nicklaus at Cherry Hills) and 2008 U.S. Senior Open (won by Eduardo Romero at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs).
For More Information: Go to www.seniorpga2010.com
