We’ve suggested it in the past, but it’s unquestionably the case this year:
This is the best field to play in the Cologuard Classic.
It features 10 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame; 60 PGA Tour winners with 421 career victories; 52 PGA Tour Champions winners with 239 career wins; and 20 players who have won a PGA Tour major.
The headliners for the seventh Cologuard Classic: Champions Tour rookies Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk. Combined, the former Territorial Cup rivals have 61 career PGA Tour triumphs, including six majors.
They aren’t the only big names who have converged in Tucson. Below are 10 players to watch in the Cologuard Classic, which runs from Friday to Sunday at Omni Tucson National Resort. (Tickets are not available to the general public because of the coronavirus pandemic).
FRED COUPLES
Couples is on the other side of 60 and plays a limited schedule these days, but when he does play he usually contends, notching seven top-10 finishes in 10 starts during the 2020-21 season.
Last year at Cologuard Classic: T-5
ERNIE ELS
After struggling a bit at last year’s Cologuard Classic, where he had little familiarity with the course, the PGA Tour Champions rookie won twice and recorded nine top-10 finishes in his next 12 starts.
Last year at Cologuard Classic: T-34
JIM FURYK
The University of Arizona product, who turned 50 last May, won his first two starts on the PGA Tour Champions, hasn’t finished worse than a tie for 13th and placed inside the top 30 in two PGA Tour starts earlier this month.
Last year at Cologuard Classic: N/A
RETIEF GOOSEN
Goosen found his groove toward the back end of 2020; in his past five starts, starting with the PURE Insurance Championship last September, he has registered four top-10 finishes, including runner-up in Hawaii in January.
Last year at Cologuard Classic: T-34
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ
Jimenez won the first event of 2020, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, and notched another victory at the Sanford International in September; he has won at least once every year he’s been on the Champions Tour (2014-present).
Last year at Cologuard Classic: T-5
JERRY KELLY
The Cologuard ambassador won his first career major, the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, last August and began 2021 with a third-place finish at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
Last year at Cologuard Classic: T-54
BERNHARD LANGER
The seemingly ageless Langer, who turned 63 last August, has registered 12 top-10 finishes in 16 PGA Tour Champions starts in 2020-21, including a win in a tournament he hadn’t won before – the Cologuard Classic.
Last year at Cologuard Classic: 1
PHIL MICKELSON
“Lefty” is 2 for 2 as a member of the PGA Tour Champions, and he’s going for an unprecedented third win in three starts at a course where he won three PGA Tour titles in the 1990s, including one as an amateur.
Last year at Cologuard Classic: N/A
STEVE STRICKER
The Ryder Cup captain has finished inside the top 10 in each of his four appearances at the Cologuard Classic, including a win in 2018; he finished in a tie for fourth at this month’s Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour.
Last year at Cologuard Classic: T-5
KEVIN SUTHERLAND
Sutherland has 10 top-10 finishes in 16 starts during the 2020-21 season, including a win at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in November.
Last year at Cologuard Classic: T-9
