Pandemic-era restrictions meant that last year’s Cologuard Classic lacked much of the ambience that goes into a professional golf tournament.
This year, the Cologuard Classic won’t be limiting spectators to 200 visitors per day. The tournament is back to normal capacity, grandstands around the greens and all.
Tucson’s annual PGA Tour Champions event is returning for its ninth year at Omni Tucson National. The three-round tournament runs from Feb. 25-27.
“After a difficult 2021 tournament in which spectators were limited to less than 200 per day due to the pandemic, we’re looking forward to returning to a more normal event in 2022,” Cologuard Classic chairman Josh Robinson at Wednesday’s media day.
This year’s tournament will feature an 78-player field competing for a $1.7 million purse, with $255,000 and 255 Charles Schwab Cup points awarded to the winner. Reigning champion Kevin Sutherland, who holed a chip-in birdie on the 16th hole to spark a come-from-behind win on the final day of the tournament last February, recalled his victory fondly on Wednesday.
“I got a bunch of momentum from that and I played the last two holes really well and ended up getting a victory out of it,” Sutherland said. “It really comes down to that one chip. It just kind of changed all the momentum, kind of all started going my way and I was able to birdie 17 and make a good par on 18.”
Although Sutherland will undergo a gallbladder procedure in two weeks, he’s committed to playing in the 2022 Cologuard Classic. He’ll join 2021 Charles Schwab Cup winner Bernhard Langer, who won the Cologuard Classic in 2020 and is the only international player to win the event, as well as Ernie Els, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Darren Clarke and rookie David Duval, who won the Tucson Chrysler Classic at Tucson National in 1998.
Vijay Singh, Rocco Mediate, K.J. Choi and John Daly have also agreed to return. The tournament is still awaiting word from Phil Mickelson, among others. Golfers have until Feb. 18 to commit.
This year’s tournament is not likely to include Steve Stricker, the 2018 Cologuard Classic champion.
“I love the quality of the field that we get here, it really means a lot to me and I think that everybody who can come play will come play because we want to be surrounded by the best,” said PGA Champions Tour golfer Jerry Kelly. “When Kevin won last year, you can just call it the strongest field on our tour. It was 32 of the top 32. If we can keep doing that, it’s going to make guys want to come even more to compete against all the best at the same tournament. So that’s the thing that I’m most excited about.”
The Cologuard Classic will also feature two of arguably two of the greatest golfers in Arizona Wildcats history: PGA Champions Tour Rookie of the Year Jim Furyk and women’s golf legend Annika Sorenstam. Furyk, a member of the UA’s 1992 national championship club, will compete in the Cologuard Classic for the second straight year. Sorenstam, arguably the greatest women’s golfer of all time, will participate in the celebrity challenge along with country music star Jake Owen. Her nine-hole round will begin Feb. 26 at 2:45 p.m.
Sorenstam said Wednesday she still remmbers the year-round sunshine of her college town.
“It’s been a while, not to give away my age by any means, but you can imagine the day that I flew from Stockholm, Sweden and landed in Tucson, it was in the end of August. It’s like a Swedish sauna,” she said via Zoom. “So, I remember getting caught off-guard with how hot and there was no humidity. But I have great memories from U of A. I still have some friends there I keep in touch with and I keep in touch with the golf team, as a matter of fact. We see them at the Annika Intercollegiate in Minnesota every year. (Arizona head coach) Laura (Ianello) and her players have done really, really well there.”
Sorenstam won 72 LPGA Tour events, including 10 major championships. After the 51-year-old won the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, she received an invitation to the U.S. Women’s Open in June at Pine Needles in North Carolina, where she won her second U.S. Open in 1996. Sorenstam, who retired from the LPGA Tour in 2008, said “most likely we’ll be going there.”
“My kids want me to play, and my husband. They’re all for me being out there. You know, it’s most likely we’ll be going there, but I still have some time. We’ll see,” Sorenstam said. “It’s competitive and, as you know, the top players on the LPGA, they’re amazing. I played with them this weekend and I have a lot of respect for them.”
For now, Sorenstam is “really looking forward to coming back to Tucson” as the headline celebrity at the Cologuard Classic.
“Tucson has a big place in my heart. I came there in 1990, freshman for the U of A Wildcats, played on the golf team, great memories,” Sorenstam said. “I had only been to the (United) States for a few days before that and that was Miami, so Tucson was my next experience.
“I could really not ask for a better college experience at U of A. I really haven’t been back. I moved from the west coast out to the east coast in Florida in 2000, so I look forward to coming back.”
Chip shots
Cologuard Classic is adding a “tailgate zone” for spectators to watch live sporting events, and it’ll also have food trucks, drink stations and a sports betting service.
Following the Feb. 26 round, Owen and country band Diamond Rio will hold a military appreciation concert on Omni Tucson National’s driving range.
Spectators are only allowed on the course during tournament days between Feb. 25-27. The pro-am days leading up to the Cologuard Classic will be closed to the public.
