Hale Irwin Wins 2036 MasterCard Championship

Editor’s note: In honor of 65-year-old Hale Irwin being in contention at the Senior PGA Championship, this is a look back at a post inspired by his 2007 win at the the MasterCard Championship. It was his 45th Champions Tour title. Irwin was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992. I’m pretty certain he is going to play golf forever.

ON SUNDAY HALE IRWIN FIRED a final-round 68 to capture the 2036 MasterCard Championship by two strokes. It was a Champions Tour-record 73rd title for the ageless Irwin, and his first win since turning 90, making him the oldest competitor to win a golf tournament. (Or just about anything, for that matter.)

“I’ve lost about 10 yards off the tee,” Irwin said. “But my iron game is solid and the putts were dropping from everywhere this week.”

Irwin is also the oldest player to win the U.S. Open. He won his third national title in 1990 at 45, or half his current age. The tour veteran sank a 45-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole that tied him with journeyman Mike Donald. He beat Donald the following day in a playoff that went 19 holes at Medinah Country Club in the Chicago suburbs.

After sinking his final putt to clinch the MasterCard Championship in Hawaii, the jubilant Irwin ran along the ropes (actually he walked-jogged) slapping hands with the appreciative gallery.

“Winning never gets old,” he said.

−The Armchair Golfer

(This is an ARMCHAIR GOLF spoof.)

Ken Green to Play in This Week’s Senior PGA Championship

WHEN KEN GREEN TEES it up on Thursday at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, he will likely be the first amputee to play in the Senior PGA Championship. Green will be allowed to use a golf cart. The 53-year-old tour veteran was granted an exemption because he was a U.S. Ryder Cup team member in 1989.

“I’m really psyched about the opportunity to play in the championship, because it’s a wonderful venue and a wonderful championship,” Green said at PGA.com.

Good for Ken Green. The man has been through hell.

In June 2009 a right-front tire on Green’s RV blew out on a Mississippi interstate highway. Green and passengers tumbled down an embankment and struck a large oak tree, killing everyone except Green—his brother, his girl friend and his dog, a German Shepard that Green once rescued from an alligator attack in Florida. Not long after the former PGA Tour player lost his right leg below the knee and was fitted with a prosthetic limb. Green vowed that he would return to golf one day.

Then tragedy struck again in January 2010 when Green’s 21-year-old son was found dead in a dorm room at Southern Methodist University. An autopsy revealed that a combination of alcohol and prescription drugs was the cause of death.

Green’s golf comeback began about a year ago when he teamed with Mike Reid for a 26th-place tie at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf in Savannah, Georgia. He played in two more 2010 events and averaged just over 75 strokes per round. Not bad for an amputee competing on the Champions Tour, but certainly not the brash Ken Green who won five times on the PGA Tour.

The truth is, the scores and money totals don’t matter much now. Just playing again is a major victory for a man who has lost his son, girl friend, brother, dog and leg.

“I believe that my story may be good for someone who has suffered a similar fate,” Green said. “If I can serve as any encouragement to someone missing a limb or possibly a parent who may be able to bring a kid to the course, I feel my time will be well spent.”

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Keith Allison, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Calling in Sick to the Senior PGA Championship

THEY’RE PLAYING THE SENIOR PGA Championship this week near Denver and I was just noticing all the fellas who won’t be teeing it up for mostly health and injury reasons. At the risk of picking on the old guys (because I realize younger players also drop out each week at PGA Tour events), here’s the list of no-shows for the year’s first Champions Tour major:

Paul Azinger - flu
Hal Sutton – hip
Peter Jacobsen – illness
Jerry Pate – knees
Scott Hoch – wrist
Craig Stadler – medical reasons
Mark McCumber – back
Tom Pernice, Jr. – playing on PGA Tour this week

(Photo: Paul Azinger withdrew from Senior PGA / supergolfdude via Flickr)

So, Pernice is the only one playing elsewhere. Everyone else would need a note from their mother if they were skipping school. If you consider how much tournament golf those 50-something guys have played through the years, you can imagine the buildup of nagging aches, pains and injuries and why their bodies are wearing out. It’s not like the golf swing is a natural motion. It puts ridiculous stress on the back. Hands, wrists, shoulders, knees and hips are also vulnerable.

Years of travel, tossing around clubs and luggage, riding long hours in wheeled and winged vehicles, and sleeping on strange mattresses take a toll. Playing the tour looks glamorous, right? I guess it can be. It can also be drudgery—tough on bodies and relationships.

“Don’t ever get old,” muttered an aching Ben Hogan as he withdrew from the 1971 Houston Open, his final tour appearance. Fine, but that was before there was a Champions Tour with generous purses and a high-tech fitness trailer at every stop. Still, I can see Ben’s point.

−The Armchair Golfer