Gil Morgan, 62 years young, tied for fifth in last week’s Senior PGA Championship.
“Not bad for an old guy,” Morgan said. Morgan’s stellar play surprises no one as he puts the finishing touches on an ageless career. He’s won 25 times on the Champions Tour, including the 2007 Walmart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach at the age of 60. Morgan hasn’t been acting his age all season. He’s already posted five Top 10 finishes on the Champions Tour in 2009 heading into today’s first round of the Principal Charity Classic at Glen Oaks Country Club. “It gets a little harder every year,” Morgan said. “Obviously the best time is the first five years. Then it kind of wanes after that. They used to say 55 was the wall. But I think it’s moved a little.” All 10 Champions Tour events this season have been won by golfers 55 years of age and younger. In the senior tour’s 890-tournament history, 85.3 percent of them have been won by golfers 55 years of age and younger Forty of the season’s Top 50 money winners weren’t eligible to play when the Champions Tour first came to Greater Des Moines in 2001. And half of the 78 players who played in that inaugural 2001 event haven’t made a penny on the Champions Tour this season. Those numbers would be even more lopsided if Morgan and Hale Irwin had acted their ages. “Hale Irwin broke the mold,” Loren Roberts said. “Gil Morgan, too.” Irwin has won an unprecedented 45 times. Ten victories came after his 56th birthday, and three after he turned 60. “I just can’t imagine,” said Jay Haas, 55, who has 12 Champions Tour titles and will be trying to win the Principal Charity Classic for a third straight time. “Two years ago I won four times, and I felt that was about as good as I could play. To do that, in theory, for 10 straight years is kind of beyond belief.” Jim Thorpe won that inaugural event at Glen Oaks in 2001. Now 60, the last of Thorpe’s 13 Champions Tour wins came in 2007. “It’s much tougher,” Thorpe said. “The level of competition since I came out here has increased. It’s unbelievable.” Each year, a new wave of 50-year-old rookies punch into work on the Champions Tour. “This is the only tour where the rookies are the best players, generally speaking,” Haas said. Haas senses that the Champions Tour’s 55-year-old line in the sands of time will be crossed more often in the future. “I think the window of opportunity has lengthened a little bit,” Haas said. “More and more guys are going to be able to compete into their late 50s.” Bruce Fleisher, 60, would like to open that 55 window even higher. He was third at the Senior PGA Championship. Golfers 60 and older have won just 17 times on the Champions Tour. “I’m going to prove them wrong,” Fleisher said. “The mind is young. The body isn’t, obviously. And the golf courses have really stepped it up out here.” Loren Roberts, 55, thinks that improved equipment will help golfers compete on those courses as the birthdays pile up. “The equipment has made a huge difference,” Roberts said. “You can hit it further and straighter, and that’s a great equalizer. You don’t have to work so hard.” At the same time, the competition isn’t getting any easier. “It’s not an exhibition tour anymore,” Roberts said. “And I don’t want to be out there shooting 76 or 78 every round.” Roberts hopes to play until he’s 60. “I’ll play as long as I’m competitive, and then I’ll call it a career,” Roberts said. Morgan has remained competitive past 60, but he knows time is short. “It’s about over for me,” Morgan said. “But as long as I can keep playing and feel like I have a chance to compete and win, I might as well stay at it.”
Christopher Gannon/The Register