NAPLES, Florida – Once again, the PGA TOUR Champions returned to the beautiful city of Naples, Florida for the 37th consecutive year, as the Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO hosted the first full-field tournament of the 2024 season at Tiburón Golf Club’s (Black Course).
The Black Course has a very distinctive look with its pine straw-lined fairways, crushed coquina waste areas and undulating greens nestled amidst acres of pine trees and native Florida foliage.
The course is a Par 72 layout that stretches over 6,900 yards and follows Greg Norman’s philosophy of maximizing the natural allure of the land to produce a pleasing atmosphere in which to appreciate the finer aspects of the game.
Seventy-eight players competed over three days (54 holes) to once again determine the winner of this prestigious Classic. The purse was $1,800,000 and the winner’s share was $270,000. Defending Champion Bernard Langer did not participate due to a recent injury.
Steven Alker was going for his third consecutive victory on PGA TOUR Champions after capturing the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai and the 2023 season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship. He would become the 10th player in Champions Tour history to accomplish the feat.
Alker was joined by reigning Charles Schwab Cup winner Steve Stricker, 2024 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee Padraig Harrington and others at Tiburon Golf Club’s Black Course. Among the notables were recently turned 50-year-old Heath Slocum, who is making his debut on PGA TOUR Champions.
ROUND 1
Rocco Mediate holed out for an eagle at the par-4 3rd hole at Tiburon Golf Club to set the tone for his 1st place finish today. Mediate said this to the media about what happened, just prior to making his eagle.
“I kind of overdrew it, or you could call it a hook, on the 3rd. I thought, Ok, it’s in the hazard. That’s where it belongs. As I’m walking up, my caddie is way up in front, and I’m looking, and I almost stepped on my ball, which hit something and came back 80 yards.” He continued, “It was a perfect lie, 174, 175 yards. Then I just made a 2. Hit a 5-iron in the hole.” After that he add 4 birdies to go out in 6-under 29, his only bogey came on the par-4 13th, after which he birdied the next four holes.
Ernie Els first round was perfect until a bogey 5 at the 17th hole. “It’s out there,” Els said of the possibility of low scores. “There’s no wind. Although I made some good putts, I missed about four or five make-able putts, and obviously Rocco didn’t make any mistakes. But it’s out there.”
The leaderboard at the end of Round 1 looked like this, 1st place Rocco Mediate -9 (63). 2nd place Ernie Els -6 (66), Alex Cejka -6 (66), and Mark Hensby -6 (66), 5th place Scott Dunlap -5 (67), Ken Tanigawa -5 (67), Steve Alker -5 (67), Stephen Ames -5 (67) and Joe Durant -5 (67).
ROUND 2
It was an interesting day on the Tiburon Golf Club’s Black Course, as players and fans alike could sense that the weather conditions were beginning to show signs of an impending storm forecasted across the State of Florida for later tonight and all day tomorrow.
You could begin to see the players change their game plans from a second round of golf to the possibility of it being the final round. They were paying more attention to their positions on the leaderboard and were definitely taking more time deciding on the risks and rewards of playing each hole from tee to green.
Canadian Stephen Ames shot an 8-under 64 Saturday to move to 13-under for the tournament. “Yeah, I thought it was kind of a day where it was get to the gate very quickly,” said Ames, “especially with the way the wind was blowing, I thought the day was going to be tougher. As it ended up, everybody did falter a little bit coming down. I was actually the only one that moved forward quite a bit.”
The leaderboard at the end of Round 2 looked like this, 1st place Stephen Ames -13 (67 64). 2nd place Rocco Mediate -10(63 71). 3rd place is shared by Paul Broadhurst -9 (69 66), Mark Hensby -9 (66 69), Ernie Els -9 (66 69), and Alex Cejka -9 (66 69).
With strong winds forecasted for Sunday Morning along with torrential rains, the Final Round has been shortened to 9 holes. This will change the Classic to a 45-hole tournament rather than 54 holes. The Holes that will be used tomorrow will be 1-4 and 14-18 this will keep the field close to the clubhouse in case weather conditions require a delay or termination of play.
STEPHEN AMES
Sunday’s 9-hole Final Round was cancelled due to high winds accompanied by torrential rains that rendered the Tiburon Golf Club’s Black Course unplayable.
This winner of this year’s rain shortened 2024 Chubb Classic is Stephen Ames -13 (67 64). He’s this year’s recipient of the beautiful Chrystal Glass Trophy, along with a check for $270,000. This was Ame’s 7th Career Champions Tour Win and will boost his career earnings to $9,076,376.
The 2nd place winner is Rocco Mediate -10 (63 71). He picked up a check for $158,400. He was the first-round leader with 9-under 63 but his 2nd round 71 left him 4 strokes short from winning his first PGA Tour Champions tournament since 2019.
The 3rd place finishers were Paul Broadhurst -9, Alex Cejka -9, Ernie Els -9, and Mark Hensby -9. They will split the 3-6 winnings which will amount to $99,000 each.
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