Ben Crenshaw and Steve Elkington will strike the first tee shots of the Champions Tour’s 34th season at 10 a.m. Friday, in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
In a field of 40 senior golfers, they are about the only ones who haven’t actually won on the tour. But they have won pretty much everywhere else, which brings them to the island of Hawaii.
Crenshaw, who turned 61 last Friday, won 19 times on the PGA Tour — enough to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. That total includes Masters championships a decade apart and a win at the 1976 Hawaiian Open. Until Sunday, when 23-year-old rookie Russell Henley seized the Sony Open championship, Crenshaw was the youngest winner at Waialae.
Elkington, who turned 50 last month, is making his senior debut. He won 10 titles on the regular tour, including a pair of TOC’s and Players and the 1995 PGA Championship. Bogeys on the final two holes of the 2010 PGA might have prevented him from becoming the second-oldest major champion.
They received two of the sponsor exemptions this year, with former Mitsubishi champs Hale Irwin, Tom Kite and Larry Nelson getting three more. Craig Stadler and Jim Thorpe, who have 21 Champions wins between them, got two others. Two-time U.S. Open champ Curtis Strange, looking for his first Champions win in his 104th try, claimed the other.
The rest of the field got into the 36th tournament of champions with wins the past two years, or major victories in the past five.
Hawaiian Open champs Brad Faxon, John Huston, Mark O’Meara, Jeff Sluman, Corey Pavin and John Cook are here. So are Tom Kite, Loren Roberts, Kenny Perry, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman, Bernhard Langer and Tom Watson, who has a home at Hualalai, along with nine top 10s in 12 starts.
2013 MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CHAMPIONSHIP AT HUALALAI
What: Champions Tour season-opening event featuring 40 past tour champions and sponsor exemptions
When: Starting at approximately 10 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Where: Hualalai Golf Club, Big Island (par 36-36—72, 7,107 yards)
Purse: $1.8 million ($307,000 first prize)
Defending champion: Dan Forsman (15-under-par 201)
Pro-am: 7:30 a.m., today
Tickets: $20 daily, $35 all week, 18 and under free with ticketed adult
TV: Golf Channel, 2:30 to 5 p.m. each day, with repeats |
Watson has won more than $1 million at Hualalai, with a victory in 2010. Hale Irwin, 67, making his 18th straight appearance, has collected more than $1.1 million, with two wins. He captured the first TOC here, in 1997, and the 2007 title was the last of his 45 on the Champions Tour. Lee Trevino is next on the all-time list, with 29.
The limited field will play for $1.8 million, with last place worth more than $10,000. Dan Forsman is the defending champion. With a wicked breeze attacking Hualalai on the final day last year, Forsman’s 15-under-par 201 total was the highest winning score since 2000.
Hualalai has been the Champions’ easiest course nine of the past 10 years. That might be why the tournament’s contract was extended through 2015.
Along with Elkington, Joe Daley, Willie Wood, Roger Chapman and 2012 Rookie of the Year Kirk Triplett are making their TOC debuts this week. Wood won the inaugural Pacific Links Hawaii Championship in September at Kapolei. That tournament will be back at Kapolei Sept. 20-22 this year.
