With our region’s only PGA TOUR stop celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, we highlight our 10 favorite moments in Boeing Classic history.
This article appears in the August 2014 issue of Cascade Golfer magazine. To get Cascade Golfer in your mailbox, click here.
By Bob Sherwin
One by one, seven golfers launched their drives in various directions, then marched across the fairway like a gray-haired, multi-colored band of wedge-carrying warriors.
If there is one moment that identifies the PGA TOUR Champions Tour Boeing Classic more than any other, it was this wild spectacle on Aug. 25, 2007. The Swingin’ Seven represented the largest playoff ever, on any tour, and was won eventually by Denis Watson with an eagle putt on the second playoff hole.
For a tournament heading into its 10th year on Aug. 22-24 at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge, the Boeing Classic already has had an abundant share of memorable moments. Here’s a look at our top-10. And we can’t wait to see what new memories are made this year.
NO. 10: 2013 – THE ULTIMATE UNDERDOG
There is a good chance that the casual sports fan doesn’t recognize the name John Riegger.
In his first season on the Champions Tour in 2013, Riegger didn’t exactly come out of nowhere to win, but few could tell you where he did come from. He had spent 21 years on the PGA Tour, dating back to 1986. In nine of those seasons, he didn’t make a cut, didn’t win a dime.
Riegger began the final round tied with notables Tom Lehman and Bernhard Langer, three shots ahead of the field. What could he expect to do against players more accomplished and intimidating? The ultimate underdog beat the field by two strokes, cashing the biggest single paycheck of his career, $300,000. In 19 of his 21 entire seasons on the regular tour, he never won more than that first-place check.
NO. 9: YEAR OF THE LANGER
By any measure, compared to any season, Bernhard Langer was on feuer in 2010.
Seattle-area golf fans bore witness. Hometown favorite Fred Couples was the victim of it. Three weeks after beating Seattle’s own Fred Couples to win the U.S. Senior Open at Redmond’s Sahalee Country Club, Langer virtually coasted at the Ridge. He tied for the best three-round score at 18-under 198. He tied for the largest winning margin (three strokes). He had no bogeys for the first – and only – time for a winner.
Including his $470,000 paycheck for his Sahalee Open victory and his seven Boeing Classic appearances, Langer has taken home $1,031,057 from this region.
“Maybe I should move here,” he said. “There must be something in the air in Seattle.”
NO. 8: 2006 – HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
Something in the air? Something in the water? As it turned out, it was something in the grass in 2006. The greens on the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge course were beset with an aggressive fungus that required frequent watering just to keep it from further damage.
All that did was help these pros destroy the record book.
By weekend’s end, the 2006 tournament had accounted for the best (tie) first-round score (63, Massy Kuramoto), best second-round score (61, Scott Simpson) and best third-round score (61, Tom Jenkins), along with a record for the most consecutive birdies (6, Allen Doyle), which in turn was bettered the follwing day when Des Smyth followed an eagle on No. 8 with five-straight birds.
Amazingly, though, despite the low scores in 2006, no one golfer put together three stellar rounds. The tournament was won by Tom Kite, who, ironically, would have the highest first-round score – 1-under 71 – for an eventual champion.
NO. 7: 2006 – KITE BEATS FERGUS IN ONE-HOLE PLAYOFF
Eight shots behind the leader afer Day One in 2006, Tom Kite shot a 8-under 64 in his second round, dropping in 10 birdies and needing just 21 putts. Kite shot a final-round 66 for a 15-under 201, but Keith Fergus eagled the final hole to force a playoff.
Playing the 18th again, Kite reached a green-side bunker in two while Fergus’s 3-iron approach drifted right, hit the cart path and bounced toward the skybox. A fan with a beer in one hand and his hat in another caught the ball in his cap, then released it to the ground, leaving Fergus a difficult lie. He chipped over the green, hit the curb and another spectator.
Kite, patiently watching the theatrics, had no trouble. He chipped out of the sand to within three feet and made his birdie putt for victory.
NO. 6: CANYON HOLE STRANGENESS
It was created by the glaciers, but course architect Jack Nicklaus added the finishing touches.
The result is the unique canyon hole 14th at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge. Between the elevated tee and the smallish green just 294 yards downhill, there is a 700-foot drop into the unknown. Thousands of Titleists and a title or two have been lost down there.
“There aren’t many holes where you show up and your heart is thumping,” said Tom Kite, who calls the hole the most exciting on Tour.
In 2007, local sports talk show host Mitch Levy encouraged a caller to pester tempermental Curtis Strange at the 14th. The caller did, and Strange snapped back. The next morning, Strange called then-tournament director Chuck Nelson to tell him he wasn’t showing up.
“We spent all morning trying to convince him that Seattle loves him,” Nelson said.
Strange played and even came back the following year. All was forgotten.
Now, for a few extra bucks, fans can gather in the Canyon Club at the bottom of the hill, with covered seating, adult beverages and a heck of a view of the coolest shot on Tour.
NO. 5: 2011 – CALCAVECCHIA’S FIRST TOUR WIN IN PLAYOFF
Mark Calcavecchia is an accomplished runnerup. On the PGA Tour, he finished second a remarkable 27 times.
In his final round in 2011, he matched the low with a 7-under 65. No one was within five strokes – except one guy, his playing partner Russ Cochran. Cochran nearly aced the par-3 17th, settling for a one-foot birdie, then rolled in a 10-foot eagle putt on 18 and the two finished tied at 14-under 202.
They both went back to 18 again for the playoff. Calcavecchia reached the green in two while Cochran got hung up in the bunker. Calcavecchia finished with a two-putt birdie while Cochran had a two-putt bogey. It was the first Champions Tour victory for Calcavecchia.
NO. 4: 2008 – TOM KITE MAKES IT TWO
Scott Simpson had a three-stroke lead in the 2008 final round before dropping a stroke on No. 8 — his first bogey in 44 holes, and one that turned the tide.
Tom Kite, the 1992 U.S. Open champion, birdied No. 12, the birdied the canyon hole 14th to catch Simpson with four holes to play. He birdied two more on the way in, including No. 18, to cap his second Boeing victory in three years.
“At some point in all our careers,” Kite told the media afterward, “we’re going to win our last golf tournament. When you win it, you obviously don’t think that’s going to be your last one. When I won this tournament in ’06, I thought I was just going to light it up. After two years you start to wonder, ‘Am I going to win one?’”
Prophetically, Kite hasn’t won since.
NO. 3: 2012 – BLAKE BEATS O’MEARA; THEN THE TEARS
Jay Don Blake bested Mark O’Meara in a playoff in 2012, but it’s what happened next that no one present will ever forget. Near the end of the post-round interview session, sportswriter Craig Smith asked Blake for some details on a bizarre final-round blowup he once had at the 2004 Booz Allen Classic.
“Now you’ll get me emotional,” said Blake.
Blake was told that morning his beloved mother, Ilene, had died. He was set to withdraw, but figured his mother would want him to play. Yet, his heart wasn’t in it and he played poorly.
“I’m going to do something here in the last few holes,” he told his caddy, who passed the word onto his playing partners. “So don’t be shocked.”
He began playing like an amateur. He double-bogeyed three holes on the back nine. By the time he reached the 18th green, he was sitting on 78 with his ball two feet from the cup. It took him seven shots to hole out.
“The first couple times I missed, the spectators were like ‘Ooh, ahh.’ Then all of a sudden they started laughing,” said Blake, holding back tears.
It turns out, Blake’s plan was to finish with exactly 85, in tribute to his 85-year-old mother. That story softened the hardest soul in the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge media room.
NO. 2: FRED COUPLES, A SINGLE SENSATION
No one else but Fred Couples can hit just one shot, and still be the talk of the tournament.
On his opening tee shot in 2011, his chronic back acted up, forcing a withdrawal. He offered a painful apology and drove away before most of the fans had even arrived.
But whenever he shows up — even for one shot — Fred’s the guy.
“He definitely has had an impact on our event, and the entire Champions Tour,” DeLancy says.
Couples has made four Boeing appearances since turning 50, the first in 2010, placing third behind Bernhard Langer. In 2011, he finished 16th, then last year birdied four of his final five holes to finish third again. Afterward, Couples repeated that he plans to play in the tournament every year, as long as his back will allow him.
And as long as he does, it won’t just be a golf tournament — it will be a can’t-miss Seattle sports event.
NO. 1: 2007 – SEVENSOME HEAVEN
In various ways, seven men at the 2007 Boeing Classic all met on the 18th tee tied at -9 under 207.
David Eger made five consecutive birdies to card a final-round 66. Craig Stadler birdied the final two holes. Joe Ozaki and Dana Quigley each birdied 18. R.W. Eaks and Gil Morgan each missed birdies on 18, peventing either from winning the tourney outright.
Denis Watson bogeyed 17 when his drive splashed into the pond. He then parred 18 to make it an even, or rather odd, sevensome.
“It was unique for all of golf,” Nelson says. “I wanted all of them in one group (off the tee). We created a horse race on 18 and we were thrilled to death. It was a great spectacle.”
The previous Champions Tour playoff record was five players. The PGA Tour record is six. No one had ever seen anything like this.
Eaks put the pressure on, lipping out a third-shot wedge and nailing the 18-inch birdie putt. Watson lifted a difficult, downhill, 23-yard chip shot on target and rolled it in. Then Stadler sank a pressure-packed 22-foot putt to join Watson and Eaks back on the 18th tee.
This time, Watson rolled in a 18-foot eagle, following the ball in and fist-pumping as it disappeared. It was a moment that will be hard to top.
Bob Sherwin is a veteran sportswriter and regular contributor to Cascade Golfer. He currently publishes the website GolfersWest.com, and is a freelance contributor to the New York Times, Associated Press and MLB.com.
