PARKER — A long, long time ago, a golf tour for the over-50 set was created, based on the premise of giving fans a chance to see the old, familiar faces — an Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus or Gary Player — play the game a bit longer.
Somewhere along the line, the Champions Tour lost that flavor, in part because after the Big Three exited, there wasn’t exactly an abundance of charismatic stars to fill the void and also because there just happened to be players who may not have had a name, but were certainly good enough to win in any given week.
Which brings us to this week’s Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club. There were more than 150 players who teed it up in Thursday’s opening round on the longest, perhaps most challenging course in Champions Tour history, but by sunset Friday, it seemed fairly clear where the tournament was heading — and who was behind the steering wheel.
Atop the leaderboard stood Fred Couples, winner of the 1992 Masters, his 7-under-par 137 for the opening two rounds putting him one shot ahead of Tom Kite, who just happened to win the ’92 U.S. Open. In third place stood Tom Lehman, winner of the 1997 British Open and lurking two shots behind that were a group that included Nick Price, who has, among his three major victories a PGA Championship won in 1992, and Bernhard Langer, a two-time Masters winner.
That’s not to say that golf is devoid of “Any Given Sunday” stories, and perhaps there may indeed be a fairy tale finish in the works for a Jay Don Blake, first-round co-leader Robin Freeman or Lu Chien Soon of Taiwan, who played five rounds here long before the tournament began in order to acclimate himself to the climate and the daunting challenge that CGC represents.
But according to Kite, you shouldn’t really count on it.
“I don’t think you’re surprised to see those names up there, are you?” Kite asked. “For the most part, when you get on a golf course that’s difficult like this and under the conditions that’s tough like this, you’re going to see a lot of the name players come up there.”
According to Couples, as far as hard golf courses are concerned, CGC “is a 10.” That hasn’t necessarily looked like it, particularly on the opening nine holes — Couples’ 7-under total has been built on the front side.
This event is Couples’ first senior major and he admits that he doesn’t know whether every one will be like this. But should that be the case, there will be a lot of smiling faces, not only here, but throughout the sport. It is Couples, after all, who is quickly emerging as the poster child for the Champions Tour, the player with the potential to put the organization on his sometimes-balky back, drawing eyeballs that may have been tempted to dismiss the over-50 set as a bunch of fogies trading in on days gone by.
But Couples didn’t win every tournament that he entered during his days on the PGA Tour and chances are he’s not going to be able to waltz through now — especially when golf’s biggest titles are being contested.
“Majors are majors,” Lehman said. “I don’t think that the Champions Tour is any different.”
As a defending champion, Couples will be welcome at Augusta National almost for as long as he cares to play there and the same is true for Langer; meanwhile, Lehman has peppered his name on a handful of leaderboards on the PGA Tour this season.
And in Champions years, the trio is regarded as mere pups.
But for the players in this week’s field who don’t put Augusta National on their schedules in ink, or aren’t really certain when or where that next/last shot of glory may come from, one could argue that winning a major now just might mean a little bit more.
“I’m to the point now where … there’s going to be more space between the wins,” the 60-year-old Kite said. “I think that at some point in time I will win in my 60s and I look forward to that day — I hope it’s this week.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
