After illness, Sauers relishes chance at another U.S. Open
TOWN OF ERIN - Gene Sauers couldn’t recall the last time he played in a U.S. Open because, well, it’s been awhile. Thirty years, to be exact.
In 1987, Sauers, 54, played at Olympic Club in San Francisco and tied for 58th. That was his last time competing for America’s championship until his opportunity at Erin Hills.
“It’s going to be an experience,” said Sauers, who won last summer’s U.S. Senior Open to earn a spot in this week’s tournament. “I haven’t played in a regular event in a long time, so it’s going to be fun.”
Any golf is fun these days for Sauers, who won three times on the PGA Tour, most recently in 2002 at the Air Canada Championship. Years ago, he worried he’d never pick up a club again.
Speaking about that time, Sauers shook his head.
“The pain was horrendous,” he said. “I couldn’t hardly walk and then the burning sensation in my legs, it was like being in a fire.”
That was 2005, when Sauers was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which forced him to leave the game he loves more than almost anything.
In 2011, Sauers was hospitalized. His condition worsened.
“My legs were turning black and I didn’t know what was going on,” Sauers said. Doctors didn’t either.
After another check-in on Sauers’ condition, doctors realized they’d misdiagnosed their patient — Sauers had Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare disease that causes the skin to blister.
At the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Ala., recently, Sauers’ friend and Champions Tour foe Fred Funk put it bluntly. “He’s lucky to be walking on this side of the dirt,” Funk said. “He went through hell.”
Sauers didn’t think he’d play again, but in 2012, he proved healthy enough to return to the course as a member of the PGA Tour Champions, where he’s competed since.
In August 2016, Sauers garnered his first Champions Tour win at the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club in Columbia, Ohio. Sauers was tied on Sunday with Miguel Angel Jimenez when Jimenez missed a par-saving putt on the final hole while Sauers sunk a four-foot par putt for the victory.
“Gene is a great ball-striker and the fact that he’ll be representing us out there is really fantastic,” Funk said. “Everybody to a man was really happy for him because of what he’s gone through.”
Sauers is happy, too, and happy-go-lucky as he faces the 7,741-yard bear that is Erin Hills.
“I know I’m going to be hitting a lot of long irons. I just hope it’s hard and fast where I can get a lot of roll,” Sauers said. “It’s just a pleasure to be where I am, I would’ve never dreamed it. I’m just lucky to be alive, lucky to be walking, lucky to even be swinging a golf club.”