What's New
« The Villages Shoot Your Age Championship |
Main
| Palmer Withdraws from Senior PGA Championship »
Palmer Lives Up to 'Shoot Your Age' Event
Arnold Palmer was one of just six players among a select field of 60 senior golfers who lived up to the title in the "Shoot Your Age Championship" television special aired on CBS prior to the final round of the PGA Tour's Wachovia Championship on May 7th. The 76-year-old pro great fashioned a one-over-par 73 in the first staging of the unique event on the Palmer-designed Legends Country Club course at The Villages in Central Florida.
Leonard Luken, an 87-year-old resident of Hilton Head, SC, won the tournament when he scored an 81 for his six-stroke margin. He was the only man who had a wider difference between score and age than Palmer and two others -- 87-year-old Joe Cheves, Morgantown NC, who shot 84, and 83-year-old Loyal (Bud) Chapman, who had an 80. Players had to drop out when their scores matched their ages and just two others -- Robert Harris, 77, Boynton Beach FL (75) and Archie Swanson, 87, Crystal River FL (87) -- reached the 18th green on the Legends course at the immense, leisure-oriented residential community.
Gary Player, 70, the other pro golfing great in the field, reached his age and ended his round on the 17th green. Nancy Lopez, the LPGA Hall-of-Famer, who also designed one of The Villages courses, was on hand for the event.
Palmer, who swapped stories and needling with Player, his long-time friend, TV playing partner and frequent tournament adversary, at interviews and events prior to the tournament, was pleased to have beaten his age but was disappointed when a three-putt on the last green deprived him of a par round. "I was reasonably pleased, but I am certainly not playing the type of golf that I would like to be playing. (Overall it was) very encouraging,' Palmer remarked afterward. "I am look forward to next year."
Posted by dgiffin at May 9, 2006 03:37 PM