www.globalgolfpost.com
MAY 28, 2012
Roger Chapman
celebrates with
champagne after
winning the
2012 Senior PGA
Championship.
Tricky Greens
Trouble Players
Chapman Sups His Way
To Senior PGA Championship
BENTON HARBOR, MICHIGAN |
Not everyone had kind words for
Jack Nicklaus’ creation, the Harbor
Shores Golf Club, site of the Senior
PGA Championship. The amount
of movement in the greens was
especially troublesome to most of
the players in the field.
“I thought maybe we could
reverse the order and play the
greens as tees and the tees as
greens and it would be easier to
putt,” said Fred Funk.
While Funk and others thought
the course was spectacular from
tee to green, once they arrived on
the putting surfaces, the com-
plaints got louder.
“I’m not a big fan of the mod-
ern-era greens they’re designing
nowadays between a lot of the big
architects,” Funk said. “And I know
that is not a politically correct
answer and I’m probably going to
get hammered for it. You can hit
the wrong side of the bounce and
it feeds to the hole or it could feed
away or even off the green. I have
a problem with that concept.”
But not everyone saw the glass
half empty. “Well, it reminds me
a lot of Winged Foot in ‘74,” said
Hale Irwin, who was the winner
of the U.S. Open there. “Simply,
there was a lot of disgruntled
players in ‘74 and 70 percent of
them were out of the tourna-
ment before the tournament even
started.”
Irwin continues to amaze. At
66 – soon to be 67 – Irwin shot his
age in Friday’s second round at
the Senior PGA Championship and
found himself in third place after
the third round.
BENTON HARBOR, MICHIGAN | When
Roger Chapman walked into the Grande
Mere Inn for dinner last Wednesday
night, he was an unknown tourist. If he
walked in Sunday night – it would be
his fifth night in a row – the proprietors
might have a dish named after him.
Chapman could have the Senior PGA
Championship trophy in tow instead of
the book he carried into his evening meal
each night. Chapman dined at the Grande
Mere every night of the championship,
just to demonstrate how superstitious
tour pros can actually be.
In fact, he was invited to dinner on Sat-
urday night by fellow competitors David
Frost and Bobby Clampett, but declined
the invitation, avoiding the risk of tempt-
ing karma. Whether it was the fish or the
lamb, Chapman separated himself from
the field the first three days and hung
on in Sunday’s final round to win his first
senior title and his first victory since 2000.
The Englishman finished four rounds
at 13-under 271 at the par-71 Harbor
Shores Golf Club and won by two ahead
of John Cook, who had his fourth runner-
up finish in a senior major.
Chapman, 53, played 15 years on the
European Tour with one victory, in 2000
in Brazil. He had six runner-up finishes
on Tour, and when he finished his playing
career in 2006, he spent 18 months as a
European Tour rules official.
He turned 50 in 2009 and joined the
European Senior Tour, where he finished
second three times. He qualified for the
Champions Tour in 2010 but only got 11
starts in 2011.
Staff and Wire Reports
