Greg Hansen: Tucson's Cologuard Classic — not the PGA Tour — had the star power Sunday | Subscriber

Between 9:47 and 10:29 a.m. Sunday, eight winners of golf’s’ “major”’ championships stepped to the No. 10 tee at Tucson National.

The host Conquistador introducing those men — Ernie Els, David Duval, Corey Pavin, John Daly, Retief Goosen, Ian Woosnam, Vijay Singh and Mark Calcavecchia — preceded each name by declaring “Masters champion’’ or “U.S. Open champion’’ or whatever was appropriate.

A man standing near me said to no one in particular “Jeez, did everyone in the field win the Masters?’’

Their presence at the $1.7 million Cologuard Classic overpowered the so-called ‘’star power’’ of the PGA Tour’s ongoing $8 million Honda Classic. Sunday’s final field in the Florida event included one major champion: Louie Oosthuizen.

The Honda leaderboard was a list of who’s that? Sepp Straka, Dylan Frittelli, Kurt Kitayama, Adam Svensson, Sam Ryder, Keith Mitchell and John Huh.

That’s what I thought when I ran my eyes down the Honda Classic leaderboard: huh?

The Cologuard Classic had 18 total major champions: the aforementioned eight plus Jim Furyk, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman, Lee Janzen, Jose Maria Olazabal, Tom Lehman, Mike Weir, Sandy Lyle, Darren Clarke and Jeff Sluman.

No wonder the grandstands, party tents and green-side pavilions at Tucson National — and even a beer garden on the roof of a Wynn Bet Sports Book facility adjacent to the 15th hole — were full to overflowing on Sunday.

Over the last 20 years pro golf has changed so much that it’s not rare for the Champions Tour to have a more attractive field than the PGA Tour. Golf fans in Tucson are the beneficiary.

There was a lot of anguish when the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship left Tucson eight years ago, replaced by the Champions Tour. We were spoiled, weren’t we? We had enjoyed a 60-year diet of Arnie Palmers, Lee Trevinos, Phil Mickelsons and Tiger Woods.

But as it turns out, there is so much money on the PGA Tour that the few remaining Big Names — Rory McIlroy, John Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and a few more from the younger generation — don’t often play in the Honda Classics or even the historic AT&T Pebble Beach Classic.

Bernhard Langer hits the ball back onto the green towards the third hole during the final round. He was one of several big names in Tucson over the weekend.
Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

Do you realize the last six winners on the PGA Tour were, in order: Hudson Swafford, Luke List, Tom Hoge, Scottie Scheffler, Joaquin Niemann and, on Sunday, the aforementioned Sepp Straka?

When Furyk’s long-time, easily identifiable caddy, Fluff Cowan, stepped on the 16th tee Sunday, people began to chant his name. Do you think they did that for Tom Hoge when he won the AT&T Pebble Beach championship last month?

That’s why the Champions Tour works so well in Tucson. The gallery demographic is decidedly 50-and-over and some guy paying $7 for a beer at a party tent knows far more about, say, Rocco Mediate, than any of the mostly unidentifiable players in the Honda Classic.

The golf community in Tucson paid its dues from 1999-2006 when the Tucson Open — then known as the Touchstone Energy Tucson Open — was pushed to the side on the same weekend as the gigantic WGC Match Play event in La Costa, California.

Tucson’s champions in that period included Gabriel Hjertstedt, Garrett Willis, Frank Lickliter and Ian Leggatt. But rather than play the hardship card, the sponsoring Conquistadores soldiered on and today operate a first class event rather than, say, the Pabst Blue Ribbon Open.

Sunday’s champion, Miguel Angel Jimenez, is an unforgettable character who fits nicely with his fellow Cologuard Classic champs Steve Stricker, Mark O’Meara and Bernhard Langer.

As they say in “Cheers’’, everybody knows his name. Or at least his look.

Jimenez wore his old-style Aviator sunglasses while posing with the golden Conquistadores helmet on the 18th green. Jimenez is known for Cuban cigars, his old-fashioned Lacoste golf shirts, his two-tone designer golf spikes and, of course, his ponytail.

The 58-year-old Spaniard has proudly told reporters “I come from a different generation.’’ He comes off as a flamboyant Spanish matador. On the golf course, he has become one of the foremost “old’’ golfers in history, joining those such as Langer, Sam Snead, Hale Irwin and Tom Watson as those who thrived on the Champions Tour.

Two weeks and 120 miles away, tens of thousands of people packed the TPC Scottsdale course for the annual Waste Management Phoenix Open. It was more of a four-day fraternity party – Animal House, anyone? – than a golf tournament.

A handful of the Tour’s most prominent young golfers — Brooks Koepka, Justin Spieth, Justin Thomas — were in the field, but mostly the Waste Management Phoenix Open has become a story of rambunctious behavior, not golf.

At the Cologuard Classic, there was no police presence, no holding tank for over-served college kids, just golf and sunshine and a field that included Fluff and Furyk and a swashbuckling, 58-year old champion who added Tucson to his list of victories that includes the Algarve Open de Portugal and the Alston Open de France.

Now we can boast that Miguel Angel Jimenez is champion of the Cologuard Open de Tucson.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?