2014 DSGO: Bernard Langer’s Sunday 66 Wins the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open!

Yesterday was a memorable day, today was even more exciting as World Golf Hall of Fame member Bernard Langer shot a 6-under 66, passed four golfers and eked out a come-from-behind one-shot victory over Wood Austin and Mark O'Meara in the 2014 Dick's Sporting Goods Open! I know I am biased because this is my hometown and I was already a golf fanatic (no surprise there) at age eleven when the first professional golf tournament took place at En Joie Golf Club. Butch Harmon, of the Tiger Woods' coach fame, won that 36-hole Broome County Open satellite event. Then it morphed into the BC Open, Johnny Hart style, via Alex Alexander's leadership, for the next 36 years. Now it is celebrating its eighth year as the Dick's Sporting Goods Open on the Champions Tour. Don't we all wish we could change as easily and get better as the years go by as the golf tournament in Endicott, New York or its champion Bernard Langer does! This is something like the 125th PGA TOUR event I have attended in seven seasons out on tour. With an engineering background I like to think I can be objective at times, hopefully, when I need to be. This is a good golf tournament for the players, the golf fans and the community. No doubt about that as is evidenced by three PGA TOUR awards the last two years including the highest Champions Tour distinction, the President's Award. The PGA TOUR doesn't just throw the word 'President' around either. Like when the President's Cup debuted in 1994 or when the tour presented President George H. W. Bush with a Lifetime Achievement Award, its highest honor, in 2009. The Dick's Sporting Goods Open is a spectacular, sensational and superior sporting and entertaining event! There is the Monday Qualifier that serves to give credence to the inclusion of 'Open' in the tournament's title. Granted this Champions Tour event is not as 'open' as the BC Open was back in the days prior to the all-exempt tour with the rabbits qualifying at IBM CC on Monday. I remember one year hanging around for a playoff and carrying a bag for a golfer that was only thinking about getting back home to taste some of his mother's cooking. He didn't make it as a player in the BC Open and neither did I as a caddie. Tuesday is Practice Round day with the pro-am pairing party in the evening. The pro-ams on Wednesday & Thursday are first rate and offer an intimate connection with the touring pros. I remember one Fuzzy Zoeller story taking 20 or so fans out for a drink to a local bar and the tab was only thirty dollars. maybe that is why he decided to get into the high-end vodka business. This year Nancy Lopez was here for a Ladies Golf Clinic on Wednesday and ended up dancing with a little girl and my high school catcher Dave Pessagno. Saggy is the one who nicknamed me 'Rock Candy Andy' and as you can see in the picture is a color coordinated kind of guy.   Ben Witter did a Junior Golf Clinic on Wednesday and followed that up with an amazing Power Golf Show after Saturday's Round Two. Web.com was here to do a Small Business Summit on Thursday even though this is the Champions Tour. I guess the Triple Cities is still the 'Valley of Opportunity' as much today as in the heydays of Endicott-Johnson Shoes and I.B.M. I see it now on Facebook and Twitter, 'which way EJ?'  The Friday Night Concert featured the Zac Brown Band and drew over 20,000 fans to the golf tournament and the 18th fairway or a corporate tent with a view after t Round One concluded. Then there was the golf. It has never been any better or more 'EnJoie-able.' In Round One, Olin Browne posted an early 7-under 65 that was only tied later in the day by John Cook. Browne became the fifth player to win on the Web.com, PGA TOUR and Champions Tour when he won the 2011 U.S. Senior Open, his only age 50-plus win. ‘OB’ spoke of the cycles in golf: “Winning is hard, it’s really hard… all you can do is show up, keep making some putts, hit some good shots, and when it is your turn, it’s your turn (to win).” asked about his preparation for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open he responded, “I really worked on my preparation last week. I went fishing with my daughter for three days and hung out at the beach.” Playing with Ed Stack, son of Dick’s Sporting Goods founder and CEO since 1984, he didn’t contribute on one hole, evidently saving all his birdies for Round One. John Cook finished his round off with back-to-back birdies in the second to last pairing to tie Browne for the lead. It was a comfortable pairing with Jeff Sluman (67) and Jay Haas (71). It is amazing to me that ‘Cookie,’ with 11 regular tour wins and 9 on the Champions Tour has not won a major on either tour. He was sidelined for 10 weeks early in the season after slipping on carpet at home and literally cracking his back. The recovery did not require surgery only rest and he came back rusty. Is he ready for the weekend at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open and the home stretch of 10 straight tournaments in a row with only one off week? Well Saturday's second round was all about Champions Tour rookie Kevin Sutherland making history as the first to shoot 59 on the senior over-50 circuit. The one-time winner on the regular tour is in the 59 club with the original ‘Mr. 59′ Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Annika Sorenstam, the only woman to do so, his buddy Paul Goydos, who with fifteen other golfers watched the grand finale on the 18th green, Stuart Appleby and Jim Furyk. Sutherland took a one-stroke lead over Steve Lowery (66-65), two strokes over John Cook (65-67), three strokes over Scott Hoch who shot Saturday's second best round, a 64, five strokes worse (69-64) and four strokes over the ever present, consistent and competitive Bernard Langer (67-67). On Sunday, early in the round, there was no MoJO in the last group- Sutherland, Lowery & Cook a combined 4-over through five holes. Woody Austin 5-under through nine holes, Bernard Langer 3-under through three holes take the lead. Defending champion Bart Bryant 6-under through twelve holes, Dick Mast 3-under through eight holes are one back with Kevin Sutherland and Steve Lowery. As I headed out to watch the leaders play the back nine, Langer birided No. 9 to go 4-under for the day and in a first place tie with Lowery who rebounded with birdies on Nos. 7 and 8. Woody Austin and Dick Mast were in second one stroke back. There were nine golfers at 11-under including Kevin Sutherland who was 3-over through eight holes versus 9-under yesterday.  All in all there are 19 players within five strokes of the lead. Lowery birdied No. 9 to take the lead at 15-under par. Langer matched him with a birdie at No. 10. Lowery birdied No. 11 to go one better to 16-under. Langer, one group ahead of  Lowery in the last group, birdied the par-3 14th to match him again. Lowery's fate was sealed on the 14th with a poor iron tee shot that found the water and resulted in a double bogey. Langer, with a par on the 15th saw the news on the scoreboard and knew he needed three pars to beat Woody Austin who posted 65, the best round of the day (matched by Chien Soon Lu), and had the clubhouse lead at 15-under. Langer did just that to conclude a bogey-free tournament and win for the fifth time this season. Jim Kelly, the legendary golf broadcaster of the Senior PGA TOUR on  ESPN was the Master of the Awards presentation on the 18th green. It felt more like a Closing Ceremony of the Olympics as he recapped the great week and tied all the moving parts together- Tim Myers and the sponsor Dick's Sporting Goods, John Karedes and his tournament staff, Albert Nocciolino, the President of the Broome County Community Charities, Rocco Greco, the golf course Superintendent and his crew, the spectators and finally the 1,600 volunteers. All in all, a fitting ending to the best tournament ever held at En Joie Golf Club.