Who Are Those Guys? Scott Stallings Edition

Editor’s note: In “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) kept saying, “Who are those guys?” That line reminds me of the PGA Tour some weeks, including this last one.

ON SUNDAY I WAS FLIPPING from the U.S. Senior Open to the Greenbrier Classic. I hoped Olin Browne would hang on to win his first major. I also was curious to see who would kiss the trophy at The Greenbrier at Old White.

As it turned out, it wasn’t Anthony Kim or Webb Simpson or Bill Haas. The Greenbrier Classic winner in a sudden-death playoff was PGA Tour rookie Scott Stallings, the sixth rookie to win on the circuit during the 2011 season.

So this bears repeating: Who are those guys? Or, rather, who is this guy? More on that in a moment.

Playing with AK, the 54-hole leader, Stallings knocked his drive out of bounds on the 71st hole and made a bogey that could have put an end to his hopes. But the 26-year-old rookie sank a dramatic birdie on the par-3 finishing hole to crash the playoff with veteran Bob Estes and Haas.

Then, like a relief pitcher running in from the bullpen in the late innings of a tight ball game, the excited Stallings sprinted into the playoff after signing his scorecard. Yes, he actually ran. Crazy fun stuff.

“Running from the back of the green to the tee to go to the playoff is something I’ll never forget,” said Stallings. “I’ve been working with a trainer for about a month, so he should be proud.”

The pumped-up rookie lofted another beautiful short iron on the 168-yard par 3 and the ball landed in nearly the same spot as before. After Haas and Estes missed their longer birdie putts, Stallings sank the seven-footer for his first PGA Tour win and high-fived and bear-hugged his caddie.

If you’re in the dark on Stallings like I am, here’s the sheet on him.

Stallings was an all-state high-school golfer who went to Tennessee Tech, where he won seven tournaments and was an All-American in 2006. He played the mini tours and missed making it through PGA Tour Qualifying School by a single shot in 2009. After finishing 53rd on the Nationwide Tour money list in 2010, Stallings went back to Q School last fall and walked away with his PGA Tour card after a T11 finish.

The rookie missed his first five cuts this season. A breakthrough came at the Transitions Championship, where Stallings finished third after Kenny Perry helped him get into the event with a sponsor exemption. (Perry and Stallings have the same agent.)

Now, with his first tour win, Stallings is in Akron this week for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and in Atlanta next week for the PGA Championship. He has gone from 562nd to 119th in the Official World Golf Ranking and from 88th to 26th in the FedEx Cup standings. That’s quite a sprint.

−The Armchair Golfer

More ‘Who Are Those Guys?’:
Keegan Bradley
Gary Woodland

Kenny Perry Heads Champions Tour Rookies

ANOTHER CROP OF FRESH 50-year-old faces is invading the Champions Tour. There’s no Fred Couples or Corey Pavin this year. But there are more than a few guys who can play. (Actually, they all can play.) Fourteen-time PGA Tour winner Kenny Perry heads the list. TV tower men Paul Azinger, Ian Baker-Finch and Brad Faxon (who NBC let go and turns 50 in August) will test their skills on the old-boys circuit. It will be interesting to see if Baker-Finch can compete. His game disintegrated a few years after winning the 1991 British Open.

There are a few other players with solid PGA Tour resumes. Mark Brooks won seven times, including the 1996 PGA Championship. Steve Pate was a six-time winner and played on two Ryder Cup teams. John Huston, Steve Lowery and Jim Gallagher Jr. are also proven winners. There are also a handful of lesser-known players who might flourish the second time around.

CLASS OF 2011
Paul Azinger
Ian Baker-Finch
Mark Brooks
Tom Byrum
Jim Carter
Roger Chapman
Brad Faxon
Jim Gallagher Jr.
Ernie Gonzalez
John Huston
Steve Lowery
Bob Lohr
Frankie Minoza
Mark Mouland
Steve Pate
Chris Perry
Kenny Perry
Lee Rinker
Greg Twiggs
Willie Wood

The Champions Tour visits Boca Raton, Florida, this week for the $1.8 million Allianz Championship. The indestructible Bernhard Langer defends.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: ben_lei, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

Mark Calcavecchia: When 50 Is Younger Than 47

WHO LOOKS FORWARD TO turning 50? Those rookies on the Champions Tour, that’s who. Mark Calcavecchia is one of them. Calc couldn’t wait to jump off the PGA Tour and have his ticket punched for the Champions Tour, a transcontinental gravy train for golf’s graying set with shorter back swings and thicker waistlines. Mark fits right in.

“I started thinking about 50 when I was 47,” Calc told The Associated Press in May.

The context was that he was joking. He might have chuckled when he said it, but it sounds about right to me. Except for late bloomers like Kenny Perry and Fred Funk, I would think a lot of those mid-40 players who have been grinding on the PGA Tour for years dream about the Champions Tour most nights.

Calc could really play, too, into his late 40s. He was 49th in the OWGR in 2007 and won just shy of $3 million. Still, 28 years on the PGA Tour will put an ache in your step and a twitch in your putting stroke.

The Champions Tour has so much to offer a frisky 50-year-old: Shorter courses. Fifty-four hole events. Going against Frosty instead of Lefty.

After shooting 64 and 66, Calcavecchia is poised to get his first Champions Tour win at the 3M Championship in Minnesota. He’s tied with David Frost at 14 under. He left the course mad today because he bogeyed the last two holes. He still shot 66. Tomorrow might be his day. If not, it’s coming because for Calc and those other freshmen on the old guys circuit, 50 is younger than 47.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Steve Newton/Flickr)

Kenny Perry, Friend of Coal Miners

I’VE NEVER MET KENNY PERRY, so my impressions of him are from a distance. But I think of Kenny as a good guy, or a “good ol’ boy” as he might be referred to in his hometown of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and around Franklin, his current residence in the Bluegrass State. I just don’t get the feeling that Perry has a false bone in his body, which is endearing but has also irked folks at times.

James Kenneth Perry can play golf with the best players in the world. Otherwise he comes across as a pretty regular fella and family man, the kind of guy that has worked behind the counter at his Country Creek Golf Course without customers knowing it. I became a bigger Kenny Perry fan when he stuck to his schedule in 2008 and made the U.S. Ryder Cup team. He didn’t attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open. He didn’t enter the British Open. He did take serious heat.

So this week’s story about Perry is no surprise to me. Kenny will donate $2,000 for every birdie he makes at the inaugural Greenbrier Classic later this summer to the 29 families that lost loved ones in the recent West Virginia mining disaster.

“Kenny is from Kentucky, not far away,” said Greenbrier Resort chairman Jim Justice at Roanoke.com, “and he certainly knows the miners, how dedicated they are and what immense work they do. It’s a great gesture on Kenny’s part and we’re very proud to be a part of that.”

Hope your putter’s hot, Kenny.

−The Armchair Golfer

Related:
What to Do If You’re Kenny Perry’d
Stunner: R&A Moves British Open to Milwaukee

(Image: ben_lei/Flickr)

2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open TV Schedule and Tournament Notes

UPDATE:
Click here for 2011 Waste Management Phoenix Open TV schedule and tournament info

THE 2010 WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN is underway. The current leader is Camilo Villegas, who blistered TPC Scottsdale, well known among Phoenix golf courses, with a first-round 62.

Purse: $6 million
Winner’s share: $1.08 million
Defending champion: Kenny Perry

Inside the field
Inside the course
Tee times
Full tournament news
The live report
What players said

2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open Leaderboard

TV SCHEDULE

Fourteen hours of TV coverage are on tap for the 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Thu, 2/25:
GOLF 4p - 8p ET

Fri, 2/26:
GOLF 4p - 8p ET

Sat, 2/27:
GOLF 4p - 7p ET

Sun, 2/28:
GOLF 4p - 7p ET

PGA Tour radio coverage

−The Armchair Golfer