TIRED IS AS TIRED DOES: 5 UP AND 5 DOWN

TIRED IS AS TIRED DOES: 5 UP, 5 DOWN

A topic on which I am an expert, the Champions Tour, just finished the annual qualifying process out in Scottsdale, Arizona yesterday.  The top 5 players earned a “full exemption” onto the Champions Tour which basically means they have avoided Monday qualifying for most of a year.  The top five all have a great upside in front of them; about 17 senior events with no cut; guaranteed money if you will.  The catch for the top 5 is that they are not permanently exempt.  If they don’t finish in the top 30 on the 2010 money list they will be right back at qualifying school next fall because they are not on the all time money list.

The top 5; Peter Senior from Australia, Ronnie Black, Joe Ozaki from Japan, Jim Roy, and Steve Haskins are a very viable group of golfers.  Jim Roy qualified for the PGA Tour in the fall of 1982 and along with Russ Cochran and I made our Tour debut together at the 1983 Tucson Open.  I honestly don’t know where Jim has been for the last 20 years, but I do know he is a good player.  Ozaki and Black are Champion Tour veterans now and both have had moderate success on the senior circuit.  I would especially expect Ronnie Black to have a good year in 2010 since his best friend Phil Blackmar won and will gently; well maybe not so gently push Ronnie to match the feat.  Peter Senior is going to be a Champions Tour star.  I predict that by year’s end Peter will challenge Loren Roberts, Bernhard Langer, and Jay Haas for the best senior golfer in the world.  The reason for this is down under Peter has still been beating the kids and he has the right temperament.

That leaves Steve Haskins who is one of golf’s most amazing competitors.  Haskins whose father was the legendary coach of Texas Western basketball, later UTEP, breaking the color barrier and winning an NCAA Championship with black players, is all heart and grit.  His game is perfectly suited to Champions Tour golf; straight off the tee, precise irons, and a streak putter.  He is a lot like Fred Funk in skills.  It has been said Steve played more Nationwide Tour events than anybody, and maybe so.  (Ben Bates?)  His path to the Champions Tour reminds me of R.W. Eaks and Bruce Vaughn, players who always played just never really played the Tour.  I believe Steve Haskins can be the surprise of 2010 if he gets comfortable being there.  Watch for him.

The five down are what I really want to talk about though.  These are 5 guys with whom I have traveled, battled, dined, laughed, cried, and shared the last four years of pursuit.  Tim Conley, Javier Sanchez, James Mason, Dave Rummells, Jim Chancey and I have played almost every week together trying to make the Champions Tour.  We have done qualifying, mini-tours, money matches, and the like all over the country.  These guys can really play and as a group they are passionate about professional golf.  Of the five Mason has done the best and will get some starts next year because he finished 50^th on the 2009 money list.

As a group the scores, performance, and finish at Q-School was mediocre at best.  Why?  In a word these guys, my friends, are tired.  The system got old.  The endless battle to achieve something that is so close yet so far wore them down.  The scores I see these guys post and having been through exactly what they’ve been through tells me here at the end of the day they are tired.  Tired is as tired does in Tour life golf.  The top 5 all are fresh.  This group is not. 

I do not know how or what my tired friends are going to do for 2010.  I would expect them to keep pursuing.  For the most part, that is all these guys do; professional golf.  If you don’t play you don’t earn.  Knowing that fatigue set in, and knowing that the return on investment for senior golf other than the Champions Tour is low I wonder why would we keep pursuing?  Better yet, I am going to scheme to find a way to be fresh when it counts in 2010 and if I am fresh go after it again.  If I figure that out I’ll let you know.  Tired players just don’t perform.  Another life lesson learned this time late.

David Ogrin