The Champions Tour will kick off its season this week at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
Dan Forsman will defend his 2012 Mitsubishi title. Total purse for this year’s tournament is $1.8 million with $300,000 going to the winner.
Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Jay Haas and Loren Roberts all won the Charles Schwab Cup twice. Tom Lehman is the only Champions Tour player that has won the Charles Schwab Cup two consecutive years.
Can he be the first to three-peat?
Lehman won two events in 2012 on the Champions Tour, had a remarkable 12 top-10 finishes in 19 events and won nearly $2 million.
Bernhard Langer won the cup in 2010 and made a run at Lehman eventually finishing runner-up in the 2012 Charles Schwab Cup standings. He is completely recovered from an injury that hampered him over the past two seasons and should be a top contender for the cup again this year.
Other likely candidates in 2013 will be Fred Couples. He finished second in the cup standings in 2010 and was third last year. His back problems are the only factor that could keep him from holding the Charles Schwab Cup at the end of the year.
Fred Funk has always been a steady performer. He has had several nagging injuries that have prevented him from claiming a Charles Schwab Cup. He has stated that he is as healthy as he has ever been. If he like Couples can stay healthy for the whole year he will give Lehman and Langer some strong competition.
Two new additions to the Champions Tour in 2013 will be Colin Montgomerie and Vijay Singh. Singh’s game is still viable on the PGA Tour and he has said that he intends to play mainly on the big tour.
Montgomerie could be a real factor when he turns 50 on June 23. He will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in May and still has the game to compete on the senior circuit.
All three rounds of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship can be seen on the Golf Channel in prime time at 7:30-10:00 PM ET, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Champions Tour will next move to Florida for two events in February. The Allianz Championship in Boca Raton, February 8-10 and the ACE Group Classic in Naples, February 15-17.