Golf ’s golden oldies tee off in first major of season
The PGA Champions Tour — for the 50-and-older walkers without walkers crowd — has its first socalled major championship of the season this week.
The $2.2-million Regions Tradition tees it up at Shoal Creek in Alabama with the winner taking home $330,000. It’s the first of five majors on the Champions Tour, where Bernhard Langer leads the Charles Schwab Cup points race with 1,169 points.
David Frost is the defending Regions Tradition champion after edging out Saskatoon’s Synergy 8 friend Freddie Couples. Langer has six top-threes in his seven starts this season. Couples, who is second in the CSC standings, has finished in the top five in all five of his Champions Tour starts this season.
BYRON NELSON
It’s back to a Par 70 course on the PGA Tour this week when the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas plays host to the HP Byron Nelson Championship in Irving, Texas.
The course, with only two par 5s to capitalize on, features Bermuda grass tee boxes and fairways that lead onto bent-grass greens.
You can expect conditions to be dry, warm and windy this week at Las Colinas, where Sang-moon
Bae won last year. Among the favourites this week are Gary Woodland, Jordan Spieth, Martin Kaymer, Keegan Bradley, Jimmy Walker, Charl Schwartzel, Matt Kuchar, Marc Leishman, Jason Dufner, Rory Sabbatini, Dustin Johnson, Morgan Hoffmann, Ryan Palmer and Brian Stuard.
Dufner won the Byron Nelson in 2012 and Sabbatini did it in 2009.
Three of the last four champions were first-time winners: Jason
Day (2010), Bradley (2011) and Bae (2013).
GD TRACKER
Graham DeLaet, who has cooled off of late, is not considered one of the favourites this week.
He will tee it up Thursday, at 12:10 p.m. local time on Hole No. 10, in a group that includes Americans
Josh Teater and Chad Collins. DeLaet will be trying to shake off a disappointing second round last week in The Players at TPC Sawgrass, where a 5-over 77 included a pair of double-bogeys and four bogeys. As a result, DeLaet missed the cut despite an opening-round 3-under 69 that had initially put him in the mix.
Other Canadians playing this week include Mike Weir, Stephen
Ames and Brad Fritsch.
LPGA
On the LPGA Tour, South Korea’s Inbee Park retains her No. 1 Rolex world ranking despite a rather so-so season by her standards.
Park, who has career earnings of $8,212,454, is seventh on the money list this season at $488,111.
Stacy Lewis of the United States leads the LPGA with $833,976. Australia’s Karrie Webb is next at $581,035 and Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist follows at $530,285. Webb and Nordqvist both have two wins this season.
American Lexi Thompson ($524,233) and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko ($505,212) are also ahead of Park.
WEB.COM TOUR
The PGA’s Web.com Tour resumes play this week at the Thornblade Club in Greer, South Carolina, with the BMW Charity Pro-Am.
The $650,000 purse carries a winning share of $117,000.
If you take a look at the Web.com Tour top-100 money list, there are plenty of golfers who have played at Saskatchewan’s PGA Tour Canada event at Dakota Dunes.
Canada’s Adam Hadwin leads the way. He’s 4th overall with $173,289 and likely one good showing away from securing his PGA Tour card for 2015. Former Dakota Dunes champion
Andres Gonzales sits at No. 28 at $49,740 this season.
Mark Hubbard, a top-five golfer last season for PGA Tour Canada, is 23rd at $59,121.
Fellow American Nathan Tyler ($52,602) is No. 26 and Mexico’s Jose de Jesus Rodriguez is No. 41 at $35,641.
Tony Finau, who made his Dakota Dunes debut last summer, is No. 52 on the Web.com list, with $32,462 earnings so far this season.
Canadian Nick Taylor is No. 54 at $29,890.
Americans Rob Oppenheim (58, $26,867) and Byron Smith (66, $24,782) are next, followed by Chile’s Hugo Leon (No. 72, $21,278), a Dakota Dunes mainstay over the years.
Also in the top 100 are Aaron Goldberg (78, $19,847), Tom Hoge (85, $17,745), Canada’s Albin Choi (88, $16,055), Argentina’s Jorge Fernandez-Valdes (90, $15,946), Canada’s Roger Sloan (93, $15,820) and American Chris Epperson (97, $14,983).