“I drove the ball very well, which
made it possible for me to put some spin
on the ball from good lies on the fairway
and have a couple of shorter irons into
the greens,” he said. “It was a combina-
tion of tee shots and iron shots.”
Langer also was pleased that the
greens at Indianwood were not “ridicu-
lously” fast.
“The greens are very severe,” he
said. “If they would get them to 13 or
something (on the Stimpmeter), you
would see balls just keep rolling and
rolling. I think the setup is very good.”
“I felt like the Washington Generals
playing against the Harlem Globetrotters,”
Jacobsen said. “I was his towel boy.”
Kite’s 7-under-par 28 in the opening
round was the lowest-ever nine-hole
score in a USGA championship.
Damon Green, noted bag-toter for
Zach Johnson, is a very fine golfer in his
own right. After tying for 13th last year
at Inverness Club, Green was back for
another shot at the U.S. Senior Open.
Green’s strength is his length off the tee.
“It’s an advantage on these courses,”
said Green, 51. “My 2-iron goes about
what their drive does. I hit a driver 30
or 40, 50 yards ahead of them if I hit it
good. I’ve got shorter clubs into these
holes, and I can hold it. If I’m in the fair-
way, I think that’s a big advantage.”
Green kept a close tabs on Johnson
at the John Deere Classic.
“He called me and had some words
of wisdom,” Green said. “I wasn’t feeling
very confident. He just kind of cheered
me up a little bit and said, ‘You’ll hit way
more fairways than you think you will.
Just go out and have fun.’ ”
Green doesn’t get a chance to play
often. He’s too busy with his day job as
Johnson’s looper.
“I don’t play when I’m caddying,” he
said. “When I’m off, I play about three
days a week.”
For Joe Daley, his unexpected vic-
tory at the Constellation Senior Players
Championship was made sweeter by
the reaction of his peers.
www.globalgolfpost.com
JULY 16, 2012
championship, and I’m very proud to
have it in my case.”
In its early days, the window of
opportunity on the Champions Tour
slammed shut after five years. Once a
golfer reached 55, the likelihood of win-
ning dropped dramatically. It was simply
a fact of life on the Champions Tour.
Not anymore.
“Sixty is the new 40,” Kite said.
Michael Allen brought the champagne, others – including U.S. Senior
Open champion Olin Browne – reached
for the telephone to offer their congratulations.
overcome them and then keep applying
myself to improve and see how good I
could get. I’m on the right track.”
Today, the depth of field on the
Champions Tour doesn’t only mean
more golfers with a chance to win, it
means more older golfers believing
they can win.
For a journeyman whose professional career has been more grind than
gloss, the sentiments carried plenty of
significance for Daley.
Browne made some discoveries
during his year as U.S. Senior Open
champion.
“You start looking at the guys that
are out here, and they’re working at
it,” Kite said. “They’re staying in shape.
They’re working on their game. They’re
practicing.
“It’s spectacular,” Daley said. “I
mean, I’ve known a lot of these guys for
a lot of years. I played the regular Tour
for two years although I had status on
the Nationwide Tour since ‘95.”
Daley’s success resonates among his
peers because of what he’s gone through.
“What happened for me is the game
and the competition got incrementally
better over the course of time,” Daley
said. “But regardless of my status, I
would apply myself and put myself to
the test to get better year after year
after year. I dealt with injuries and
other disappointments and obstacles as
I went along, but I figured out a way to
“The last year has been really re-
warding for me,” Browne said. “It’s a
validation of a lot of hard work. It’s our
national championship for the over-50
set. That carries cachet. I’m proud to
have represented the USGA in the last
year, holding that trophy. Displaying it
in my home and taking it on the road a
little bit, sharing with some of the people
that have helped me along in my career.
“I think you’re going to see a num-
ber of guys in their 60s continue to
play well. Fifteen, 20 years ago, you
had about a five-year window that you
needed to capitalize on. Now, I think
that window is 10, 12, maybe even more
– look at Hale Irwin, 67 years old. He
looks terrific. He’s in great shape. He
feels good. He’s playing well.”
“So it has more legs than I thought it
would. I thought, you win a tournament
out here, it’s great. A couple of slaps on
the back, you’re after it the next week,
and you get after it down the road. This
is the one tournament that I think ev-
erybody really wants to win. It’s a major
Jay Haas is the oldest winner (
Principal Charity Classic) on the Champions
Tour this year. He’s 58. Loren Roberts
won the Toshiba Classic in March at 57
and Fred Funk captured the Insperity
Championship at 56. l
