The 2020 Cologuard Classic begins Friday at Omni Tucson National Resort.
Here are three storylines to follow in the sixth iteration of Tucson’s PGA Tour Champions event:
The rookie
Ernie Els has done it all in professional golf – well, almost anyway.
The hulking South African has won four major championships. He has more than 70 victories worldwide. He has played on eight Presidents Cup teams and captained the International squad last year.
But when he tees off in the Cologuard Classic at 12:20 p.m. Friday, Els will do something he’s never done before: play a professional round at Tucson National.
Such is life for the latest big-name rookie on the PGA Tour Champions. Els played in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at Dove Mountain multiple times. His first round at Tucson National came in the pro-am Thursday afternoon.
“I’ve got to do some homework,” Els said late Thursday morning as he ambled from the clubhouse to the practice range.
Els’ first experience on the Champions Tour suggested he won’t have too much trouble. Els, who turned 50 in October, debuted on the PGA Tour Champions at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in January. He finished in a tie for second place.
“Wonderful week in Hawaii,” Els said. “It couldn’t have been nicer.”
The man known as “The Big Easy” quickly corrected himself.
“It could have been nicer if it went my way,” he said. “But second place was fine.”
The last of Els’ 19 PGA Tour victories came at the 2012 Open Championship, where he finished one shot clear of Adam Scott at Royal Lytham. The former world No. 1 made more than $1 million each of the following two years, but as happens to most mortals, Els’ game began to fade as he approached 50.
Els returned to the spotlight as a captain in the 2019 Presidents Cup, in which his International side lost an intense battle to the U.S. squad.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the win,” Els said. “But my relationship with the players will be there forever.”
Tiger Woods served as the captain for Team USA. He, Els, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh are considered the “Big Four” in golf for a certain generation.
Even though Els’ addition to the Cologuard Classic field will make it harder for everyone else to win, Jerry Kelly, for one, is glad Els committed to play.
“You want the best players that you can possibly get in here,” said Kelly, the brand ambassador for Cologuard. “He’s a huge draw.”
The ambassador
Mark O’Meara dons the Conquistadores trophy helmet after winning last year’s Cologuard Classic at Omni Tucson National. O’Meara has won events in his 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s.
Last February, in the run-up to the Cologuard Classic, Kelly couldn’t shake hands. He had a procedure done on his right elbow. Less than three weeks later, he played in the event.
“I had PRP and prolotherapy,” Kelly said. “They jab it with a needle about 100 times. And then they take out your blood, spin it and put back in the white blood cells.”
Playing at nowhere close to 100%, Kelly finished in a tie for 31st place.
“No extra stuff in there, unfortunately,” he joked. “No Lance Armstrong.”
About halfway through the 2019 season, Kelly started to feel better. He won his buddy Steve Stricker’s event, the American Family Insurance Championship, in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. Kelly won twice more and finished second on the Charles Schwab Cup money list.
“I still wasn’t strong,” he said. “But I started not having pain on every shot.”
By the offseason, Kelly was able to lift weights. He worked out hard. He feels great. But he’s still getting used to his new, more muscular physique.
“I come out for the first tournament and it’s like, ‘who am I?’ I really gotta change some things, because I’m actually stronger in my legs and in my arms,” he said. “It’s creating different speeds of things. So I’m finding my way through it.”
Kelly’s best finish in three 2020 events is a tie for 22nd. He finished in the top 10 in 14 of 23 events last year.
This event became the Cologuard Classic in 2018. Kelly became the official brand ambassador for Cologuard, a Madison-based company whose product provides noninvasive screening for colorectal cancer for adults 45 and older. He finished in a tie for second. Kelly doesn’t view his additional responsibilities this week as a deterrent.
“Milwaukee was one of my best tournaments (on the PGA Tour),” Kelly, 53, said. “A ton of family, a ton of tickets, always having to go out with everybody and do all that. That’s the same as the Madison tournament that we have on the Champions Tour. That’s people staying at the house, having dinner parties every single night, a lot of entertaining there.
“I enjoy the distractions off the golf course. Then when I get on the golf course, I can focus that much better.”
Besides his health and body, Kelly has experienced one other major change since last year’s tournament: He and wife Carol bought a house in Paradise Valley.
“That was last March, right after the tournament,” Kelly said. “This being the first Cologuard Classic that I am actually a resident of Arizona, I’m expecting some fun stuff.”
The champ
Mark O’Meara got sick after returning home from the Morocco Champions in Marrakesh. He participated in the Chubb Classic in Naples, Florida, two weeks ago but withdrew after the first round.
Fast-forward to Monday. O’Meara felt well enough to go snowmobiling in Utah. That’s critical: He followed the same routine last year, when he won the Cologuard Classic by four strokes.
“I felt good enough to go ride,” O’Meara said, “which obviously meant that I was good enough to come and play here and defend.”
O’Meara, 63, goes snowmobiling or fly-fishing to take his mind off golf. As he noted about last year’s prep, he wasn’t “grinding on the driving range by any means.”
If O’Meara’s routine seems unusual, consider it in the context of his unconventional career. He had his best year in 1998, when he was 41, winning the Masters and Open Championship. He never won again on the PGA Tour.
O’Meara won twice on the PGA Tour Champions in 2010, at age 53. He didn’t win again until last year’s Cologuard Classic — a span of eight years, four months and 22 days. He hasn’t posted a top-10 finish since.
“When I was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2015, that was a tremendous honor,” O’Meara said. “I always felt like I was borderline.”
But the more O’Meara considered his accomplishments, the more deserving he felt. He played and won overseas several times as a younger player and has 33 professional victories on his résumé. He won the U.S. Amateur in 1979 and was named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in ’81.
As O’Meara observed, he has won events in his 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s.
He won the 2019 Cologuard Classic at age 62, getting on a hot streak after cruising around in the snow. O’Meara birdied eight consecutive holes, Nos. 2-9, in the first round en route to a 17-under total for the weekend.
“I don’t think anybody expects that, including myself,” O’Meara said. “So it gave me a good sense that my game wasn’t that far off.
“I understand this game is very difficult, because I’ve been doing this a long time. I never take anything for granted. But hopefully this week I can reflect on some of the fond memories that happened last year.”
