Ohio's Golf Magazine June 2009 : Page 8

Senior PGA Championship Roundup Canterbury Golf Club 6,895 yards – Par 70 Beachwood, Ohio May 21-24, 2009 By Eric Poklar, Ohio’s Golf Senior Writer Journeyman Allen captures Senior PGA Championship at Canterbury Wins in his Champions Tour debut M ichael Allen joined Arnold Palmer as the only players to win the Senior PGA Championship in their Champions Tour debut. It is probably the only time that Allen will be compared to Palmer. Allen has played in 334 PGA Tour events without a victory since turning professional in 1984. His best finishes were second place at the 2007 Turning Stone Resort Championship and at the 2004 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. “If you refer to me and Arnie, the only thing we had in common before was we liked to drink wine or something, I guess,” Allen said after the tournament. Allen shot a 74-66-67-67 (-6) at the par-70 Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood to take home the $360,000 winner’s check. His final round 67 was enough to hold off Larry Mize (-4) and Bruce Fleisher (-3), who posted their own 67s in the closing round and were the only other players to finish under par on the challenging Canterbury layout. Tom Watson had the low score in the final round (66), which matched the low round for the tournament, to finish alone in fourth place at even par. Watson made the turn in the final round at 4-under par, but could not make a move on the back side. Afterwards, Allen celebrated the end of a long winless drought with his wife, Cynthia, at his side. “It's certainly a relief to kind of get over it and finally win,” Allen said. “It's just been an awfully long time. It's kind of euphoria actually to win.” After playing mostly on the European Tour early in his career, Allen joined the PGA Tour in 1990 after winning the 1989 Bell’s Scottish Open. He found success in the States to be elusive. “I came over here and got my card and finished pretty well at (qualifying) school and I just, I just never played very well,” Allen said. “I wasn't really that good back then. I thought I was, but I 8 JUNE 2009 • WWW.OHIOSGOLF.COM Courtesy of the PGA of America Michael Allen with the Alfred S.Bourne Trophy just never really had it. Europe was so much fun, I loved traveling around, but when I got here and started playing against all these guys I had seen growing up; it was a different world to me.” Allen said he was discouraged enough in the mid 1990s to quit golf and try his hand at building homes and working as a PGA club professional. It was not long before he returned to playing profes- sionally. “After sitting out there and working for about three years you just kind of realize that it's hard to go out in the real world and make a hundred thousand dollars a year,” Allen said. “So to go out and have an opportunity to play golf; it has been a lot of frustration, a lot of good times, a lot of tough times. But in the end you're playing golf. And on the PGA Tour, you can make so much money. I can't make that money any other way in life. So to me it is a struggle, but it's a struggle that I enjoy every day.”

Senior PGA Championship Roundup

Eric Poklar

Michael Allen joined Arnold Palmer as the only players to win the Senior PGA Championship in their Champions Tour debut. It is probably the only time that Allen will be compared to Palmer. Allen has played in 334 PGA Tour events without a victory since turning professional in 1984. His best finishes were second place at the 2007 Turning Stone Resort Championship and at the 2004 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. “If you refer to me and Arnie, the only thing we had in common before was we liked to drink wine or something, I guess,” Allen said after the tournament. Allen shot a 74-66-67-67 (-6) at the par-70 Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood to take home the $360,000 winner’s check. His final round 67 was enough to hold off Larry Mize (-4) and Bruce Fleisher (-3), who posted their own 67s in the closing round and were the only other players to finish under par on the challenging Canterbury layout. Tom Watson had the low score in the final round (66), which matched the low round for the tournament, to finish alone in fourth place at even par. Watson made the turn in the final round at 4-under par, but could not make a move on the back side. Afterwards, Allen celebrated the end of a long winless drought with his wife, Cynthia, at his side. “It's certainly a relief to kind of get over it and finally win,” Allen said. “It's just been an awfully long time. It's kind of euphoria actually to win.” After playing mostly on the European Tour early in his career, Allen joined the PGA Tour in 1990 after winning the 1989 Bell’s Scottish Open. He found success in the States to be elusive. “I came over here and got my card and finished pretty well at (qualifying) school and I just, I just never played very well,” Allen said. “I wasn't really that good back then. I thought I was, but I just never really had it. Europe was so much fun, I loved traveling around, but when I got here and started playing against all these guys I had seen growing up; it was a different world to me.” Allen said he was discouraged enough in the mid 1990s to quit golf and try his hand at building homes and working as a PGA club professional. It was not long before he returned to playing professionally. “After sitting out there and working for about three years you just kind of realize that it's hard to go out in the real world and make a hundred thousand dollars a year,” Allen said. “So to go out and have an opportunity to play golf; it has been a lot of frustration, a lot of good times, a lot of tough times. But in the end you're playing golf. And on the PGA Tour, you can make so much money. I can't make that money any other way in life. So to me it is a struggle, but it's a struggle that I enjoy every day.” Allen has been resilient as a professional, making 13 trips to the PGA Tour Qualifying School finals and earning his card nine times at Q-School. He has won once in 127 events on the Nationwide Tour at the 1998 Nike Greater Austin Open and has more than $4.8 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour. This year he has made nine cuts in 12 tournaments on the PGA Tour, with one top-25 finish (T-22 at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am). Despite his quick success on the Champions Tour and the exemption that goes with his victory, Allen said he will continue to concentrate on playing on the PGA Tour for the immediate future. “This just gives me the exact scenario I wanted,” Allen said with a laugh. “Where I'm going to be the first guy ever to win his first tournament, win a senior tournament before he wins a PGA Tour event.” Ohio Pga Club Pros Fail To Make The Cut Gary Robison, director of golf at Brookside Country Club in Canton, posted the best finish of the four PGA club professionals from Ohio. But for the first time in five years, Robison failed to make the cut. Robison shot a 76-72 (+8) and missed the cut by one stroke. He said he would have made it to the weekend if his putting had been a little better in his opening round. “I played as good yesterday as I did today,” Robison said after his second round. “I just didn’t make any putts at all yesterday. And today I made a couple.” Other Ohio PGA club professionals and their scores were: Tom Herzan, a PGA teaching professional at Findlay Country Club (74- 77—+11); Cory George, PGA head professional at Valley View Golf Club in Lancaster (77-76—+13); Jim Logue, PGA Life Member and retired director of golf at Brookside (78-76—+14). The 68-year-old Logue, who was playing in his seventh Senior PGA Championship, was able to score well out of the fairway, but he struggled from the tall Canterbury rough. “You hit the ball in the rough, you’re just done,” Logue said after his second round. “On my 35th hole, I hit the best tee shot. I just stood there posing and the ball rolls one foot in the rough and I got no swing. I can’t move it a hundred yards.” George, who was playing in his first professional major championship, said he was a little more nervous than he anticipated. He hit his drive on the opening hole of the tournament to 77 yards from the green, but made double bogey after his next shot landed short of the green and rolled back down off of the false front. He settled down after that, but also struggled when he missed the fairways. “It’s my kind of grass, so no excuses,” he said after the first round. “I hit it in the rough probably six inches three times and every time it was a penalty, every time. I didn’t hit enough fairways.” Herzan struggled with some back pain that affected his swing, but he was pleased to return to Canterbury where he served as an assistant professional from 1983-1986. “It’s fun to be back,” Herzan said after his opening round. “I just ran into some members. When I was here they were young guys and now they are old guys like me. But it is fun to be back, and the members are great.” George said the experience makes him eager to qualify for next year’s tournament at the Colorado Golf Club outside of Denver. “Well, I want to do it again,” he said. “I would really like to do it again. Maybe be a little better prepared. I think the club pros can play with them; we just need to play a little more.” Other Club Pros Make Their Mark While the PGA club professionals from Ohio struggled, some of their counterparts had memorable tournaments. Robert Gibbons, PGA head professional at Arrowhead Golf Club in Molalla, Ore., found himself in a third-round threesome With World Golf Hall of Famers Hale Irwin and Greg Norman. Gibbons played in the 1989 PGA Championship but was making his first appearance in the Senior PGA Championship. He held his own, shooting a 75 in the third round to go with a pair of 73s for Norman and Irwin. “You can’t dream up playing with Norman and Irwin in a Saturday game,” Gibbons said. “The situation was a little different than I am used to. The first tee was really kind of tough. But after that I tried to stay calm and just go through my routine and tried to hit it in the fairway, tried to hit it on the green.” Gibbons finished at 13-over par (71- 73-75-74—293) to tie for 59th. This year, 40 PGA club professionals were in the 158-player field by virtue of finishing top-35 at the 2008 Senior PGA Professional National Championship or getting in as an alternate. Ten of the club professionals made the cut. One of the alternates, Chris Starkjohann, a 53-year-old PGA teaching professional from Cardiff by the Sea, Calif., got word at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday that he would be filling in for Jim Dent. With his wife, Traci, serving as his caddie, he posted the best finish among the club professionals (T-5) despite never carding a round better than 74 or making the cut in his previous two Senior PGA Championships. Starkjohann (71-72-68-70—+1) won the crystal trophy for being the low club professional on the strength of his putting. He finished second in number of putts per round. “I didn't think about it (being low club pro) because I know James Blair is a good player, Bill Britton,” Starkjohann said after his final round. “I had some guys behind me and if I didn't play solid I was going to let it slip away. So I told my wife, I said, ‘You know, I missed the green on No. 2, and I'm the leading putter this week, why am I just not trying to hit the green?’” Starkjohann won the 1998 St. Louis Golf Classic on the Nationwide Tour and has played in a handful of events on the Champions Tour since 2006, but playing professionally has mainly been a second job. He is hoping the $65,500 check from the Senior PGA Championship might provide some momentum for his playing career. “I'm going to try and play Des Moines next week and Austin and then I was going to look at the schedule and see where we were financially and all that,” Starkjohann said. “We still got our business at home; we have a tee time service, so that still has to be done. But the goal is still to play. Always has been. Just work gets in the way sometimes.” Rematch John Cook and Mark O’Meara played in the same threesome in the first and second rounds, a rematch of sorts of their pairing in the championship of the 1979 U. S. Amateur that was held at Canterbury. O’Meara defeated Cook 8-and-7 in that 36- hole championship match. Cook, the defending U.S. Amateur champion, had just won the national championship at Ohio State and was riding a hot streak entering the tournament 30 years ago. “I had a real good summer in ’78 and then I had a real good summer in ’79, won every tournament that I played in that summer,” Cook recalled before the Senior PGA Championship. “So I definitely felt probably the favorite coming in.” Cook said he was tired from some tough early-round matches in the U.S. Amateur, but he ran into a buzz saw in O’Meara in 1979. “I got off to a fast start, but I kept pressing the gas pedal and nothing was coming out,” Cook said. “I was done, I was Cooked. And Mark played very well. He was making birdies. I just didn’t feel like I was hitting enough quality shots to make any birdies at all. And he had me two or three down after 18 and then just put the hammer down on the front side.” Cook turned pro later that year, and he and O’Meara went on to successful professional careers. Cook has 11 PGA Tour victories and two wins on the Champions Tour. O’Meara has 16 victories on the PGA tour, including the Masters and British Open in 1998. Joining Cook and O’Meara at the Senior PGA Championship this year were nine others who played in the 1979 U.S. Amateur at Canterbury: Scott Hoch, Larry Mize, Brent Murray, Joey Sindelar, Hal Sutton, Bob Tway, Dan Forsman, Ken Green and Gary Hallberg. Other notable participants in the 1979 U.S. Amateur include the late Payne Stewart, Fred Couples and Bobby Clampett. Cook took a lighthearted approach to his return to Canterbury and enjoyed the opportunity to play with O’Meara, whom he considers a friend. “It’s great to be back here and back to Canterbury, where I got my clock cleaned about 30 years ago,” Cook joked. “We play a lot together, but it was pretty special walking around here, 30 years after the fact.” Cook (73-69-73-69—+4) outplayed O’Meara in the first two rounds at the Senior PGA, but O’Meara (76-70-69- 68—+3) rallied over the weekend to finish ahead of Cook. O’Meara took home $33,000 for his T-14 finish, and Cook (T- 17) won $24,000. O’Meara was happy with his finish and was a little nostalgic after the tournament this year. “I got off to a rough start on the back side the first day and I could have packed it in, but I didn’t,” he said. “I didn’t win the tournament, but at least I fought back. And now here I am 30 years later, having won 30 tournaments around the world and 16 in the United States … I propel it all back to the Canterbury win here in ’79.” Sindelar Fades Late Former Ohio State golfer Joey Sindelar had a chance to win the tournament at the start of the final round. By the time he reached the third tee, that chance had vanished. Beginning the day at even par, three strokes back of leader Michael Allen, Sindelar posted a double bogey on the short par-4 opening hole and a bogey on the par-3 2nd hole. He bogeyed two more holes on the front and made the turn at 5-over par. Sindelar managed to shoot an even-par 36 on the back nine, but finished in 22nd place. He was in contention during most of the tournament, but Sindelar (69-72-69- 75—+5) never seemed to get comfortable with his swing or the course during the tournament. “Finishing up was good, the other part was really smelly,” Sindelar said after his third round. “This is an interesting course because the fairways are very fast, which is odd. So although they look wide, you have to have the ball going the right way to keep it in the fairway and I seem to be out of round on that a little bit.” Canterbury Gets High Marks By hosting the Senior PGA Championship, Canterbury became the second U.S. club behind Oak Hill Country Club to host all U.S. men’s rotating championships. Designed by Herbert Strong and opened for play in 1921, the course received raves from the players in the tournament. “The way they have the course set up right now, it could not be any better condition-wise,” said defending champion Jay Hass before the tournament. “You have to have all facets of your game working here. You can’t fake it around here.” “It’s a very good golf course,” said Tom Purtzer, who held the first round lead after shooting a 66. “It doesn’t necessarily fit my game, but I think that the key is to hit it in the fairway. Obviously it is not playing as a long golf course because the fairways are real firm, so you’re getting a good bit of roll. But you just have to hit it in the fairway. The key is hitting your second shot on the right spot on the green.” Canterbury has not hosted a major since the 1996 U.S. Senior Open, and the course is relatively short at just under 6,900 yards, but it was plenty of challenge for the players. The low round of the tournament was 4-under par by Tom Watson, Michael Allen, Scott Hoch, Tom Purtzer and Ross Drummond, and only three players finished the tournament under par. After getting tortured last year at Oak Hill, where Hass won with a 7-over par and the average score on the par-70 setup was 75.99, the players were quick to compliment Canterbury for being tough but fair. The average score this year was 73. 44. “They could torture us if they want to,” Joey Sindelar said. “But the course is set up very fair, it is not overly cooked. I can see 3s and 4s (under par), and if you don’t hit it well a 76 is possible.” “It played fairly fair, I think,” Ian Woosnam said after his opening round. “I didn’t think it was too unplayable. A good score was out there if you played well. I just made too many mistakes.”

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