Tour hopping part of golf landscape

The Champions Tour provides an opportunity for golfers to continue their playing careers past what athletes in football or basketball could dream.

The tour, for golfers 50 and over, carries with it a collection of golfing greats who possibly have competed on, among others, the PGA, Nationwide, Asian, European and Nationwide tours at a time in their careers.

Players today are faced with decisions about which tournaments and tours to play when they map out the upcoming year’s schedule. Sometimes they play a PGA or European tour event one week and the next, tee off on another tour.

Pros gathered for this weekend’s Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club offered myriad factors that go into deciding which tournaments to play. They mentioned appeal of a certain course, proximity to home and physical condition.

Peter Jacobsen, winner of two Champions Tour major titles, commented on physical condition.

“In the past five years, [whether I can play] is influenced by if I can get out of bed and walk to the bathroom,” Jacobsen said.

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin expects to play 25 or 26 tournaments this year.

“I pick courses that fit my game,” Pavin, the 1995 U.S. Open champion, said.

Fred Couples, who claimed his first Champions Tour victory last month at The ACE Group Classic, anticipates playing about six PGA Tour events this year, including the Masters next month. Couples finished tied for 14th place (10-under-par) at the PGA Tour’s Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale Feb. 28.

Couples shot 5-under-par 66 Friday to finish in a four-way tie for fourth, one shot off the lead in the 16th Toshiba Classic.

Couples listed the method for choosing tournaments: his girlfriend lives in Phoenix, he went to school at the University of Houston – he plans to play the Shell Houston Open in Texas April 1 through 4.

“I’m 50, I played really well last week in Phoenix,” Couples said. “I had a great time. I would like to continue to play a handful of tournaments on the [PGA Tour].”

Eduardo Romero, the 2009 Toshiba champion, said he played events on four tours in 1999, but now considers the Champions Tour his home tour.

Romero, winner of 100 professional tournaments worldwide, said traveling takes its toll and doesn’t want to play against younger players at this stage of his career. “[The Champions] Tour is hard,” he said. “It’s good practice playing the PGA Tour.”

Pavin, Romero, Couples and Jacobsen, are in the Toshiba Classic field, which features 11 World Golf Hall of Fame members. Players have accounted for 505 PGA Tour victories.

“[The Champions Tour] is my tour now,” Romero said.

Couples echoed similar sentiments.

“I’m a Champions Tour player now,” Couples said. “It’s part of the deal. I have no problem with that.”

“It’s such a personal thing,” Russ Cochran, the 2009 Champions Tour Rookie of the Year, said. “If you’re good enough and have the status, it’s a great compliment. It comes to how much game you have and how much energy you have. I’m not as strong to play that tour (distance-wise).”

Cochran said he may play one or two PGA Tour events this year.

But the benefit outweighs the cost if a marquee name backs out of a Champions Tour event to play on another tour that week, said Brian Claar, Champions Tour tournament director.

When a recognizable player such as Couples enters a Champions Tour event and plays well on a PGA Tour event, it validates how good [Champions Tour] players are, Claar, said.

“These guys play certain sites and we understand,” Claar said. “But from a selfish perspective, we’d like to have as many as we can.”

If players are exempt on both Champions and PGA tours, Claar said they have until 3 p.m. the Monday preceding the start of a tournament to decide where they will play.

Eligible Champions Tour players are not mandated to play a certain number of tour events, as it relates to tour eligibility. In order to maintain medical benefits, Claar said, they are required to play a certain number of tournaments.

Scheduling is a factor in Pavin’s case later this year. He will have to decide whether to compete in U.S. Open qualifying, playing in the Champions Tour’s Principal Charity Classic in West Des Moines, Iowa, June 4 through 6, or The Celtic Manor Wales Open, a European Tour event June 3 through 6. The Celtic Manor Resort, site of the Wales Open, will also host this year’s Ryder Cup, Oct. 1 through 3.

Jeff Purser, Toshiba Classic tournament director, said the fields in Newport Beach in recent years haven’t suffered with the choices players make. A few years ago, when the Toshiba was opposite the PGA Tour’s Bay Hill Invitational, now the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, they lost some players to Florida for the event.

Golf courses, Purser said, are very important for players when deciding where to play.

“We want to feel like they want to come here,” Purser said.