Champions Tour star a threat at Colonial
With the Champions Tour on hiatus for the second straight week, eight members of the 50-and-over circuit — all former winners of the tournament now known as the Crowne Plaza Invitational — are in the field this week at Colonial Country Club.
Among those taking advantage of lifetime exemptions granted to winners prior to 2000 are Keith Clearwater (1987), Tom Purtzer (1991) and two-time champion Corey Pavin (1985, 1996).
| Up Next |
| Crowne Plaza Invitational |
| When » Thursday-Sunday |
| Where » Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth |
| TV » Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday); CBS (Saturday-Sunday) |
| FIVE TO WATCH |
| Zach Johnson |
| The defending champion is rounding into form, his two best finishes this year coming the last two weeks — T6 at Wells Fargo and T12 at the Players. The only other player on tour with at least one PGA win each year from 2007-10 is Phil Mickelson. |
| Steve Marino |
| Ranked No. 60, time is running out for Marino to make it into the top 50 and qualify for the U.S. Open at Congressional. Barring a strong finish this week, he will have to qualify via the Sectionals on June 6 in Ohio. He lost in a playoff at Colonial in 2009. |
| Adam Scott |
| His last three PGA Tour wins came in the spring in Texas — Shell Houston (2007), Byron Nelson (2008), and Valero (2010). With a victory at Colonial, Scott would join Arnold Palmer as the only other player with titles in all four Texas events. |
| Jason Day |
| He finished in the top 10 in last three events — Masters, Heritage, Players. Now, he comes home to Fort Worth to play where he has a membership. His last tour win came in the Byron Nelson. Day is in the most compelling threesome with Sergio Garcia and Johnson. |
| Hunter Mahan |
| Sporting a new beard, Mahan will play with another bearded standout, Lucas Glover, who won the Wells Fargo two weeks ago. Mahan has six top-10 finishes in 12 starts this year. He has missed the cut three of the last four years in Fort Worth. |
There’s also a Milk of Magnesia threesome — Fulton Allem (1993), David Frost (1997) and Olin Browne (1999) with a combined age of 155.
Fifty-year-old two-time winner Kenny Perry (2003, 2005) needed no such help getting into the event. He’s still a card-carrying member of the PGA Tour.
Another player needing no special help getting into the tournament is Tom Lehman. The 52-year-old is the hottest player on the Champions Tour, winning three of seven events this year. He’s also made the cut in his last three PGA Tour events and contended at last year’s British Open.
Clearly, he still can hang with the youngsters.
“I haven’t really changed anything in my swing since I was about 18,” Lehman told reporters. “I think that’s part of the reason why I’m playing well, consistently well, is that my swing is really kind of simple and it’s repetitive.”
Tiger Woods, are you listening?
Lehman not only ranks No. 1 on the Champions Tour in greens in regulation (79.5 percent), he also holds the top spot in the same category on the PGA Tour (80.6 percent), albeit in a small sample size (eight rounds). Lehman also leads both tours in scoring average — 67.9 on the Champions and 69.7 on the PGA.
“I’m not trying to hit heroic shots,” Lehman said. “I’m just trying to play to my strengths, which means to me, when a pin isn’t very accessible from my draw, I don’t try to force it in there. I’m happy with par and move on.”
It’s the same old steady Lehman, who lampooned his rumpled, everyman image 15 years ago in ads for Dockers slacks. Young women would call to him, “Nice pants, Tom.” Lehman would shrug and continue down the fairway.
In those days the Crowne Plaza, then called the Colonial, was among the events Lehman captured. His victory came in 1995 when his two daughters were in pre-school. They’re now students at nearby Texas Christian.
Lehman likes it in Fort Worth, as well.
“It’s such a great, old golf course,” Lehman said. “I don’t feel like it benefits anybody other than those who can hit the right shots. You don’t need to be super long. You need to be pretty straight. You need to be a good iron player and a good putter. If you can do that, no matter how old you are, you’re going to have a good week.”
