Not having an over-50 PGA Tour Champions event last year at TPC Sugarloaf may have been a glancing blow for the serious and the nostalgic local golf fan. For Stephen Ames, a year without the Mitsubishi Electric Classic constitutes a major hit to both him and his debit card.
This place, this tournament, is his honey hole. The Canadian claimed his first and only championship in 132 starts on this tour of elders in 2017. He has two other top-six finishes here, as well. And there he was again Friday at the MEC’s grand comeback from COVID-19 event, leading the way after a first-round 6-under 66.
He has some missed time with an old friend to make up for.
“I don’t know what it is, actually. Maybe it’s the time of the year,” Ames said with a toothy smile. “We’ve kind of kick-started off really slow, and this is three in a row here for me. It’s kind of given me a little bit of momentum going into the start.”
Whatever the reason that this is the course for this particular horse, Ames was at full gallop Friday, his 66 tying his low round for this calendar year. Let the serious earning potential begin again for Ames: Following a slight wobble with a bogey on his opening hole, he finished spotlessly with seven birdies on the other 17. It was mindful of the bogey-free 66 he put up in the final round here in 2017 for a comfortable 4-shot victory.
“I was very Steady Eddie,” he said. “I hit a lot of fairways (13 of 14), hit a lot of greens to give myself a lot of opportunities. (He also led the field with but 23 putts).
“I started with a bogey, which is kind of unfortunate, you know, after a good drive. Other than that, I hit the ball extremely well, gave myself a lot of opportunities, and that’s what you have to do around a golf course like this.”
Ames holds a 1-shot lead over Paul Goydos, whose 67 was all because of a backside 5-under 31. And he’s two clear of Gene Sauers. And three ahead of John Huston and Atlanta’s Billy Andrade.
Then there’s a veritable squadron of players 2 under (nine total), the most familiar names being two past Mitsubishi Electric champions (Scott McCarron and Miguel Angel Jimenez) and Tour Champions newcomer Jim Furyk.
Twenty-eight of the 80 players finished par or better. But that group did not include the current Schwab Cup season-long points leader Bernhard Langer. He shot 73, snapping a personal streak of 24 rounds of par or better.
Oh, and John Daly shot 73 and wore pants decorated with multi-colored dinosaurs. It was either a fashion statement or a comment on the make-up of this, um, seasoned field of which he was a member.
As for the local entry, Andrade is coming off a fairly miserable first part of this combined 2020-21 season (aren’t we all?), and a stretch of 15 events in which he’s had no finish better than 24th. “I didn’t have the mojo,” he said, describing a condition for which there is no swing aid.
Last week in Alabama his game began to get back its sense of taste and smell – no bogeys, eight birdies on the weekend. For this week, he reached into his crowded bin of old clubs and pulled out a putter from 1995, and the recovery continued. He’s playing the oldies again, going bogey-free until the par-4 17th on Friday, when a bad call to try to putt from off the green left him with another 25 feet to save par.
Andrade finds himself just now shaking off the after-effects of the COVID interruption. “I think I came back last year not in very good shape, not mentally ready to go and it showed,” he said. He got back with a personal trainer. He fine-tuned his diet. He sharpened his focus (even canceling the big dinner he usually throws for the fellas at his Brookhaven home this tournament week to save his energy).
A people person, Andrade reveled Friday in being able to play before small clots of unmasked fans while also again occupying the upper reaches of a leaderboard.
“This feels fantastic,” he said. “This is what it’s all about. It’s what gets our juices flowing, especially at our age.” He’s 57.
A return to normalcy was in the air Friday. And for those whose normal includes profitable walks between some suburban manses, it was an especially encouraging day.
“I have a nice comfort level,” Ames said. “It’s a beautiful walk among the trees and everything here in Atlanta. It’s fantastic.”
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