Irwin lurks, but Chapman won't go away

Reporting from Benton Harbor, Mich.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Never mind the Joel Edwards and the Roger Chapmans of the senior golf world. They're fine fellows, and Chapman has been playing like his life depends on it, but the guy who should win the 73rd Senior PGA Championship is the guy who shot his age in Friday's third round at Harbor Shores.

Guy named Hale Irwin. You've probably heard of him.

The guy who did a victory lap on the 18th green at Medinah after sinking a 45-footer to tie Mike Donald and force a playoff in the U.S. Open – and then beat Donald on the 19th hole the next day to claim his third Open title.

The guy who won the toughest Open in modern times, the one Dick Schapp named the "massacre at Winged Foot."

The guy whose other Open title came at Inverness in 1979, where the USGA planted a tree during the tournament to close off an escape route.

That guy.

A winner at Butler National, Pebble Beach, Riviera, Harbour Town, and other difficult picture postcard tests. The one going for a fifth Senior PGA title here.

Harbor Shores, despite being less than 7,000 yards, fits the profile of the above courses. The greens, heaving and swaying like wind-whipped waves on nearby Lake Michigan, make the golf course a real chore. As Fred Couples said Saturday, "Augusta (National) green roll at like 15. If these rolled at 15, we would still be on Thursday's round."

Irwin's 5-under-par 66 on Friday was a masterpiece of precision, with all the numbers that might be expected of a champion. His game, even at age 66, is capable of resembling that of the Hale Irwin who was once 36. Eleven fairways hit out of 13. Sixteen greens in regulation. Twenty-nine putts. Nary a bunker wandered into. And up-and-down pars on the two greens he missed.

Standard stuff for Irwin, of course. The only amazing thing about Friday's dramatics is that Irwin had to admit he's 66. He still has the mentality of the all-Big Eight defensive back that he was at Colorado in the 1960s.

"I think genetically I'm put together pretty well," Irwin said. "It's just my competitive nature. You might, you might not beat me, but you're not going to out-try me, out-heart me, whatever that means."

What it means is that while much of the field has been howling about Jack Nicklaus' wild-and-crazy greens, Irwin has gone about his business in this senior major. Not that Irwin was perfect in the second round. His last hole was the par-5 ninth. He bogeyed it by three-putting.

"A real killer," Irwin said. Speaking of which, the fourth hole Saturday was more than that. A par 3 with a stream to the left, it looks relatively harmless. Irwin splashed his tee shot and finished by three-putting. The triple-bogey 6 dropped him seven strokes off the lead an hour before NBC ventured onto the air.

Irwin fought back, birdies on the seventh and eighth holes, which hug Lake Michigan, allowing him to turn in 1-over 37, and then played the back nine in 3-under 32, to stand at 7-under 206 entering Sunday's final round. That's good for a tie for third with Steve Pate, seven strokes in arrears of Chapman, the Kenyan-born British subject who has won once in his professional career – that in Brazil – but refuses to go away. (John Cook is second, at 9-under 204, ater Saturday's 2-under 69.)

Chapman's course-record tying 64 on Saturday – for a total of 14-under 199 – included a back nine of 5-under 30.

"The best iron play I've ever played in my career," Chapman said. His five birdies on the back added up to only 29 feet of putts. Chapman's 2000 win in Brazil – in the Rio de Janeiro 500 Years Open – came on the second playoff hole over Padraig Harrington when Harrington plunked a shot into the water. Chapman had done so on the first hole but survived when Harrington three-putted.

"I sort of backed in, but it was still a good feeling," Chapman said.

Maybe he should be minded. At the very least, he has one hand on the Alfred Bourne Trophy. Irwin, the old defensive back, will have to throw a hard block to knock it out of his hands on Sunday.

–Tim Cronin