NOW AND THEN
Fred Funk has plenty of good company. Here, the 12 other players who have won a PGA and Champions Tour event on the same course.
PLAYER COURSE TOURNAMENT YEARS WON Tom Watson Muirfield British Open 1980 Gullane, Scotland Senior British Open 2007 Tom Watson Turnberry (Ailsa) British Open 1977 Turnberry, Scotland Senior British Open 2003 Doug Sanders Quail Hollow CC Kemper Open 1972 Charlotte, NC World Seniors Invitational 1983 Don January LaCosta CC MONY Tournament of Champions 1976 Carlsbad, CA MONY Senior Tournament of Champions 1987 Billy Casper Silverado CC Kaiser International 1971 Napa, CA Transamerica 1989 Al Geiberger LaCosta CC MONY Tournament of Champions 1975 Carlsbad, CA Infiniti Senior Tournament of Champions 1992, 1993 Lee Trevino Tanglewood GC PGA Championship 1974 Clemmons, NC Vantage Championship 1993 Jack Nicklaus LaCosta CC Tournament of Champions 1971, 1973, 1977 Carlsbad, CA Mercedes Championships 1994 Kermit Zarley Silverado CC Kaiser International 1968 Napa, CA Transamerica 1994 Mike Hill Golf Center at Kings Island Ohio Kings Island Open 1977 Mason OH Kroger Senior Classic 1995 Bob Murphy Upper Montclair CC Thunderbird Invitational 1968 Clifton, NJ Cadillac NFL Golf Classic 1996 Hale Irwin Pebble Beach GL Bing Crosby National Pro-Am 1984 Pebble Beach, CA Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach 2005 Hale Irwin Riviera CC Glen Campbell Los Angeles Open 1976 Pacific Palisades, CA U.S. Senior Open 1998 Jay Haas Oak Hills CC Texas Open 1982, 1993 San Antonio, TX SBC Championship 2005
CROWD PLEASERS Jay Haas and Toby Keith with amateur playing partner (middle). Funk victorious at 18. Opposite, the Fab Four.
O
ther tournaments may have had finishes last year as dramatic as the Insperity Championship presented by UnitedHealthcare, where Fred Funk birdied three of the last four holes to edge Tom Lehman, capped by a brilliant 5-iron shot over a lake to a foot on the final hole. For instance, there was this event in Augusta, Georgia, where the runner-up made a historic double eagle and the winner, Bubba Watson, hit a recovery shot for the ages out of the pine trees on the first playoff hole, becoming an instant folk hero. Yeah, that wasn’t bad. Other tournaments had weekend crowds as big as the Insperity Championship’s, where an estimated gallery of 40,000 poured onto The Woodlands Country Club near Houston for The event has the second round. Still, that crowd an air of history. made it one of the most remarkable days in the Champions Tour history. The Woodlands course was But here’s where the big drum roll home to the PGA Tour’s comes in. No other tournament could Houston Open from 1975 match what the Insperity Championthrough 2002 and featured ship enjoyed one Saturday last May winners such as Gary Player, on the 18th green. It was there that Lee Elder, Curtis Strange Arnold Palmer, dressed in his signa(three times), Raymond Floyd ture pink, sank a curling 25-foot putt and Payne Stewart. and drew a thunderous ovation. It was there that Jack Nicklaus shook his hand and Gary Player patted him on the back. And it was there that the legends once known as The Big Three played one more round together—maybe their last … who knows?—as a three-man scramble team in an exhibition that will be remembered for a long time. Let the record show that The Big Three won, beating two other three-man teams that featured the likes of Lee Trevino, Gene Littler and Dave Stockton. “We didn’t make it too serious,” Arnold Palmer said, “but we didn’t want to come in second, either.”
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IN PLAY, SPRING 2013
SPRING 2013, IN PLAY
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