Australian Senior Golfer

Funk: "I love it too much."

AMERICA’S Fred Funk has fought back after three years of injury to win the US Champion Tour’s 2012 Insperity Championship in Texas.

The 55 year old birdied the final hole at The Woodlands Country Club to beat compatriot Tom Lehman by a stroke.

“I wasn’t sure whether I was going to have a career,” Funk said. “I’ve been really blessed with this opportunity to play again, and play at a high level. I didn’t want to give up yet. I love it too much.”

Funk developed a staph infection and had knee replacement surgery in 2009 and had two surgeries on his left thumb late last year.

Funk has a strong connection and obvious affection for the Woodlands course.

With his 16-year-old son Taylor carrying his bag, he birdied four of the last five holes to win on the same course where he won the 1992 Shell Houston Open.

That was the first of his eight victories on the regular PGA TOUR and he met his second wife, Sharon, at a post-tournament event the same year.

Sharon was the first person to run onto the green and hug him Sunday.

“It was a storybook-type week,” Funk said.

Australia’s Peter Senior staged his own mini-fightback on the weekend, improving from his opening 73 to post a 70 and then a final round 68. That was enough for a tournament total of 5-under and a share of 13th place.

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Norman back on the Champions Tour

AUSSIE golfing icon Greg Norman has confirmed as a starter in the 2012 Senior Players Championship at the Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pennsylvania in late June.

The event is the third of five Majors on the 2012 US Champions Tour schedule and will likely pit the Shark against old sparring partner Fred Couples, who is the defending champion.

In all around 78 top older golfers will take part in the event, including fellow World Golf Hall of Fame members Tom Kite, Hale Irwin and 2012 inductee Sandy Lyle.

“I’m looking forward to competing in the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship in late June,” Norman said this week. “This will undoubtedly be one of the more challenging fields of the year on a classic golf course at Fox Chapel. Combine that with the strong Pittsburgh fan base and the event is sure to be a huge success.”

Norman has had 11 previous starts on the Champions Tour, restricted to golfers 50 and over, with his best finish third at the 2005 Senior British Open Championship.

A win this year would see him join Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd and Couples as the only players to win both THE PLAYERS Championship and the SENIOR PLAYERS.

Champions Tour in Texas

Meanwhile, the tour moves to Texas this week for the 2012 Insperity Championship at The Woodlands Country Club.

Once again Peter Senior will be the lone Aussie and will battle a quality field that includes Couples, Charles Schwab Cup points leader Michael Allen, Kenny Perry, Bernhard Langer, Corey Pavin and Tom Lehman.

Live Television Coverage

The 2012 Insperity Championship is actually scheduled to receive live television coverage on Fox Sports at some very accessible times:

1st Round, Saturday 8.30 – 10.30am; 2nd Round, Sunday 8.30 – 11.30am; Final Round, Monday 9 – 11.30am.

2012 Insperity Championship Leaderboard

MICHAEL ALLEN has won his second US Champions Tour event on the trot, this time the two-man team event at the Savannah Harbor Golf Resort in Georgia.

Allen and teammate David Frost shot a better-ball 10-under-par 62 for a 29-under 187 and a one-stroke victory over John Cook and Joey Sindelar in the 2012 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.

For the team it was a sweet answer to a year ago, where they finished one shot out of a playoff, and even sweater for the resurgent Allen.

The 53 year old won his very first start on the 50-and-over circuit – the 2009 Senior PGA Championship – but had a lean period till last week when he took the Encompass Pro-Am in Tampa Bay.

“The last couple years I’ve played some good golf, but never have been able to win, so last (week) was a big breakthrough,” Allen said.

“And then this week I just felt very comfortable personally, and I know I’ve got one of the toughest competitors out there with David.”

Allen and Frost were flawless in rounds of 62-63-62 in the better-ball format, and spectacular when they needed to be late in the final round.

“We played solid golf this year,” said Frost, who picked up his second Champions Tour win. “If it wasn’t Michael, it was me; if it wasn’t me, it was Michael. So we played some great golf at different times every day.”

Australia’s Peter Senior teamed with two-time major winner Sandy Lyle to record rounds of 65, 66, and 66 for a 19-under total tied in 21st place.

Senior moves to 5th on the Champions Tour points table

Allen began the day with a tour record equalling five shot lead but dropped a few shots early to bring a clutch of other golfers into play.

“There was a little flutter of hope when he dropped a couple early, but he put that to rest pretty quick,” Senior said.

Allen fought back to close with a 3-under 68 for a three stroke victory over Kenny Penny (65) alone in second place on 9-under while Senior (67) was outright third on 7-under.

“It’s been a long time since I beat these guys,” Allen said. “I haven’t beat them very often. It’s very nice to get on 18 and finally go, ‘man, I got them all.’”

Allen won the 2009 Senior PGA Championship but hadn’t cracked it in 40 Champions Tour events since.

“To be honest, I’ve played a lot of really good golf out here and I knew it was going to come again soon,” Allen said.

He finished at 12-under after tying the tournament record for the largest 36-hole margin.

“I’ve never had a five-shot lead,” Allen said. “Fuzzy (Zoeller) told me to play like I was broke, so I tried to do that. You never quite know what you really have to do until it’s over.”

Allen bogeyed Nos. 3 and 4 at TPC Tampa Bay to cut his lead to one, but rebounded with birdies on two of the next three holes. He extended his advantage to four shots with birdies on 12 and 14.

While Allen has had four top-three finishes in six events this year it was Senior’s third top 10 in five starts.

The 52 year old Australian earned US$115,000 for his placing today and moved to outright 5th on the season long Charles Schwab Cup points table.

The US Champions Tour moves to Georgia this week for the 2012 Liberty Mutual Insurance Legends of Golf tournament at the Savannah Harbor Golf Resort.

2012 Encompass Insurance Pro-Am Final Leaderboard

PETER SENIOR will have another crack at his maiden US Champions Tour victory when the over 50’s juggernaut rolls into Tampa Bay this week for the 2012 Encompass Insurance Pro-Am.

Senior is Australia’s sole representative in the event which will again feature a high class field of well-known names.

John Cook is the defending champion in a field bristling with major winners including Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Bernhard Langer, Larry Nelson, Nick Price, Curtis Strange and Tom Watson.

The tournament will feature the Champions Tour debut of three-time PGA Tour winner Kirk Triplett.

Triplett became the oldest ever winner on the Nationwide Tour when he won the 2011 News Sentinel Open aged 49 years, 4 months, 25 days.

He’ll be itching to become just the sixth player to win on all three tours.

“I come to every tournament to try and win it,” Triplett said this week, while knowing full well he is not the biggest name in a field full of names from his past.

“My wife texted me and I said, this is really weird,” Triplett said. “It’s like being in a time machine.”

He’s hoping to have more success than he did on the regular tour.

“I had a few wins on Tour but it’s not like I was a world beater or anything,” Triplett said. “I was just a nice, consistent player. I’m looking to build on that and hopefully break through some barriers that I couldn’t break through on the regular tour.

“But these guys were beating me 20 years ago so I’ll have to do something different or it’s going to turn out the same way.”

The event, at the TPC Tampa Bay in Florida, is being telecast in Australia on Fox Sports with selected live coverage in the wee small hours and later replays.

Champions Tour 2012 Encompass Insurance Pro-Am Leaderboard

Champions Tour 2012 Encompass Insurance Pro-Am Leaderboard

FRED COUPLES might be a man on a mission after winning his seventh US Champions Tour title today.

The 52-year-old made a birdie putt on the final hole to win the 2012 Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic by one stroke over Michael Allen.

Couples shot a course record 9-under 63 in the first round and finished the third and final round with a 3-under 69 to be 14-under for the tournament.

Couples will switch back to the regular tour this week for the Shell Houston Open and then the US Masters the following week.

He’s no slouch at that event of course, winning the green jacket in 1992 and having 10 career top tens.

Importantly, he’s had two top 15 finishes in the last two years and with his troublesome back seemingly in good order, could give the tournament a real shake.

“I want to go into (the Masters) after winning a tournament like this feeling some confidence and I did get a lot today,” Couples said.

“I hit a lot of good shots. I would say I’ve got a lot to work on, but if I can drive it like that, the course will be easier.”

As he added later: “The bottom line is, you get a lot of chances to win if you play well.”

Couples earned US$240,000 for the win with Allen’s 66 putting him alone in second place while joint overnight leader Jeff Sluman (73) faded to finish tied for third on 10-under with Tom Pernice Jr. (69).

Senior finishes 10th

Australia’s Peter Senior was looking good in the earlier rounds, opening with a 5-under 67 and actually taking the outright lead midway through his second round.

He had a superb stretch with four birdies on the final nine holes of the first round and then continued with another five in the first ten holes of the second round but then bogeyed 11, 16 and 17.

He began the final round in seventh position but had bogeys on 4 and 10 with a lone birdie on 13.

Still, his 1-over final round 73 was enough to finish the tournament at 6-under, alone in 10th spot. Another top ten to join the ever growing list.

2012 Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic Final Leaderboard

HEAVY rain caused the cancellation of the pro-am but organisers are hoping for a brighter weekend when 81 of the world’s top older golfers line up for the US Champions Tour’s 2012 Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic this week.

Defending champion Tom Lehman, Fred Couples, Loren Roberts, Kenny Perry and Australia’s Peter Senior are among the chances at a rain-soaked Fallen Oak Golf Club in Biloxi.

The field includes 28 includes 28 of the top 30 from last year’s Champions Tour money list and 16 players in the field who won at least one major championship on the regular tour.

Last year, Lehman beat Jeff Sluman, Nick Price and David Frost by four strokes in nearly ideal conditions, finishing at a tournament-record 16 under. Lehman topped the Champions Tour money list last season at nearly US$2.1 million.

The 53-year-old Lehman is winless in four events this season.

“When the season kicked off I don’t know that I was quite as ready and quite as prepared as a year ago,” Lehman said. “That’s really changing now. I’ve been working hard on my game and feel like I’m back on track.”

The pro-am was canceled Thursday after nearly 4 inches of rain hit the course.

“It’s a very challenging golf course,” Lehman said. “I think you need to take advantage of the par 5s, but there are also some short par-4 holes you need to take advantage of. There are also some difficult holes where you need to just hold on and not lose strokes.”

Perry, who won the ACE Group Classic in Florida in February, said Fallen Oak reminds him of some of the more difficult PGA Tour courses because the penalty for missing the fairway is so severe.

“It’s a large golf course,” the 51-year-old said. “The worst, hardest bunkers I have ever seen, almost like hazards. Must stay out of the bunkers.”

Roberts, coming off a victory on Sunday in the Toshiba Classic, is hoping for a good personal showing with the weather expected ti improve over the weekend for the 54 hole event.

“This might be the toughest course on the Champions Tour,” Roberts said. “I really like this course for that reason.”

Couples is one of those with a hopeful eye being cast to the Masters in Georgia in two weeks time. He is scheduled to play in the Houston Open on the PGA Tour next week as a prelude yet another Masters start.

Peter Senior will be hoping to bounce back from what for him was a disastrous T43 finish in California last weekend.

The 2012 Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic is “scheduled” to be broadcast in Australia on Fox Sports: 1st Round, Saturday Noon to 1.30pm; 2nd Round, Sunday 3.30pm to 5pm; Final Round, Monday 3.30pm to 5.30pm.

2012 Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic Leaderboard

LOREN ROBERTS sunk a five foot birdie putt on the final hole of the 2012 Toshiba Classic today to take his first US Champions Tour victory in almost two years.

The putt gave him a final round 69 and a two shot lead over Mark Calcavecchia, Tom Kite and Bernhard Langer.

The 56 year old had made bogeys on three of the previous four holes and looked like blowing the buffer he had built up over the field at the Newport Beach Country Club in California.

“We did make it interesting,” Roberts said after finishing on 8-under. “We got off to the start you dream of doing, but hit a snag on the back.”

Roberts had begun the day two strokes behind Calcavecchia but made birdies on three of his first four holes.

“I kind of let everybody in the game,” Roberts said. “I got out of rhythm. I didn’t hit bad putts. The only bad putt I hit was on 12.”

Roberts now has 13 Champions Tour wins to add to his eight PGA Tour victories.

Australia’s Peter Senior (72) got his final round off to a good start with a birdie on the 1st but a double bogey on the par three 4th and further bogeys on 7 and 8 certainly slowed his momentum. He made another good start to the back nine with birdies on 11 and 12 and more on 15 and 18 but they were offset by bogeys on 13 and 17.

He finished on three over for the 54 holes tied for 43rd position, his worst finish on the tour for some time.

The Champions Tour moves to Mississippi this week for the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic in Fallen Oak, Biloxi, where Tom Lehman is the defending champion.

THE 2012 US Champions Tour is back in action this week with the Toshiba Classic being fought out over 54 holes at the Newport Beach Golf Club in California.

Australia’s sole representative is the evergreen Peter Senior who one of these days will be holding aloft his maiden Champions Tour title.

Standing in his way this weekend in the US$1,750,000 event are a host of the usual suspects including defending champion Nick Price, 2012 champion Fred Couples, Jay Haas, Corey Pavin, Germany’s Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Brad Faxon.

Senior has played just two of the three events on the tour this year with a 2nd placing and a top 10, putting him 9th on the season long Charles Schwab points table.

Toshiba Classic highlights are being telecast in Australia on Fox Sports: Round 1, Saturday 11.30am – 12.30pm; Round 2, Sunday 11.30 – 1pm; Final Round, Monday Midday – 1.30pm.

2012 Champions Tour Toshiba Classic Leaderboard

IN THE FIRST two rounds of the US Champions Tour event in Florida this week eventual winner Kenny Perry broke the tour’s record 36 hole lead after rounds of 64 and 62 put him at 18-under.

The wind blew in the third round and made scoring much more difficult at the ACE Group Classic played at the Twin Eagles Golf Club’s Talon Course but still Perry’s only fear in the final round was not getting to 20-under.

He hit a somewhat wayward drive at the last but still had six shots to play with.

“I really wanted that [final] putt,” Perry after taking his second Champions Tour title. “I really wanted to shoot 20 under. I didn’t want to fall back to 19 like I did at Colonial one year. I had a seven-stroke lead coming in and I doubled and I went from 21 to 19. I said, ‘I ain’t doing that this week.’ So, I was able to get that putt in. Ecstatic. It’s a great win for me.”

Perry, a 14-time winner on the PGA TOUR, birdied three of his first eight holes, and no one ever got closer than four shots after that.

Perry finished with a 70 to beat second placegetter Bernhard Langer (70) by five strokes, tying Allen Doyle’s 1999 tournament mark for the largest margin of victory.

In the process he also claimed 24 birdies, two short of the tour record for a 54-hole event. Perry’s bogey on the final hole dropped him into a tie with Langer for the tournament scoring record that Langer set last year at The Quarry.

Australia’s Peter Senior had one of his “worst” finishes for a while, with his 5-under total putting him at T28. Or put another way, he finished in the top 30 and had a very consistent tournament with rounds of 70, 70 and 71.

The next Champions Tour event is the Toshiba Classic at the Newport Beach Country Club in California from March 16 -  18.