Rejoice! Champions Tour Class Of '14 Includes Ames, Durant!

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Jeff Rude was actually serious in expressing his excitement over the Champions Tour's class of 2014.

I do believe this was said without a trace of irony...

I mean, Davis Love III, Scott Verplank, Billy Andrade and Lee Janzen turn 50 next year, and I’m fairly certain I remember watching them before they could shave.

The new crop also includes Woody Austin, Jeff Maggert, Joe Durant, Stephen Ames, Paul Goydos, Kevin Sutherland and Skip Kendall.

Oh yeah, the Champions is set for the next decade!

Senior Open Playoff Halted By Darkness...In The UK, In July!

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Granted, there was a three-hour delay but still, it's amazing they couldn't finish a golf tournament in England in July. Wait, I'm not bashing Southport. Really!

From Alasdair Reid's story (accompanied by arguably the least flattering photo of all time) on the Mark Wiebe-Bernhard Langer playoff that will continue live on ESPN2 at 3 am ET:

Wiebe shot a 4-under 66 to match Langer at 9-under 271. Langer had a 70. They each parred the par-4 18th twice in the playoff.

"Playing in the dark was a new one for me," Wiebe said. "Hopefully we'll figure it out tomorrow."

Langer, the 2010 winner at Carnoustie, blew a two-stroke lead with a double bogey on the final hole of regulation after hitting into a greenside bunker. Minutes earlier, Wiebe's birdie putt at No. 18 came up short.

"I gave it away," Langer said. "I could bogey the last hole and win. I thought I hit a decent shot in the bunker but it came out too low.

Police Escort For Elkington After Twitter Jabs At Southport, Pakistanis, Tattooed People

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Alistair Reid's first report on Steve Elkington's Twitter rant about Southport, host city of this week's Senior Open Championship, and this follow-up on the police escort he received Saturday at Royal Birkdale.

The European Senior Tour is investigating and Reid speculates that legal action could be taken. By who and on what grounds, is not explained.

The offending Tweets and resulting dialogue with followers have been removed.

Elkington has apologized for the Tweets.

Monty Likes Watson's Chances For A Turnberry Repeat

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The hill climbing at Omaha Country Club? Not so much.

From Bill Fields' U.S. Senior Open report on Tom Watson's continued good putting:

To the 50-year-old who was not enjoying Omaha CC's hills either, despite bettering Watson's score by a shot, it was still pretty impressive. "Amazing," Mongomerie said. "Fantastic effort. Good home support for him. I think he's quite close [to home]. I think Kansas is the next state down. Flatter, I believe, in Kansas. So we should have played there. Good golf for Tom. Sixteen pars for nearly 64 years old."

Watson will go from Nebraska to Scotland, for another British Open at Muirfield. "He has every chance to do well again, as he did at Turnberry in 2009," Montgomerie said.

"He's just being nice," said Watson, who had more immediate concerns.

Getting In The Mood: Joe Daley Makes Players Debut At 52

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Super story from last week by Doug Ferguson on Players Championship rookie Joe Daley.

As winner of the Senior TPC, Daley earned a spot in this week's Players.

Daley only had two full years on the PGA Tour. He spent 10 full years in the minors, long enough to play under three umbrella sponsors - Nike Tour, Buy.com Tour and Nationwide Tour. When he turned 50, he had to Monday qualify for Champions Tour events. He finally got his big break with a 66-64 weekend in the Senior PGA Championship to tie for fourth, which make him eligible for the Senior Players.
And here he is.

"It's a lot of years of hard work, man," he said. "It's pretty cool."

To put some of that into perspective, the winner of The Players Championship gets $1.71 million. That's nearly as much as Daley's earnings ($1.96 million) in two decades playing the PGA Tour, the Champions Tour and what is now called the Web.com Tour.

Trevino After Switching To Belly Putter: “Now I see why they want to make this one illegal”

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Adam Schupak, with several interesting notes related to the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, talked to Lee Trevino about getting the yips and switching to a belly putter for round two with partner Mike Hill:

“I had the yips so badly with that little putter yesterday that I thought I had bleeding ulcers,” he said. “My belly was burning up so much that I thought I had eaten some jalapeno peppers.”

Still feeling the competitive tug of golf, Trevino put a TaylorMade Ghost belly putter in the bag for the final round and afterwards stressed that his putting was vastly improved.

“Now I see why they want to make this one illegal,” Trevino said. “It’s like cheating. I swear to God. This is the easiest thing I’ve ever seen to putt with, is that belly putter.”

And this about leading Champions Tour player Bernhard Langer:

“There’s no question he wouldn’t be playing like he is if it wasn’t for the long putter,” Trevino said. “It takes all the pressure out.”

On-Course Interviews And Rocco

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Champions Tour rookie and winner of his first event, Rocco Mediate, held court today in the Toshiba Classic interview room.

Specifically, he talked about his win at the Allianz Championship despite those pesky on-course interviews by Billy Ray Brown. The same mid-round chats that would cause today's PGA Tour players to whine endlessly about the sheer horror of having to speak while maneuvering their scalpel so close to the patient's brain stem.

ROCCO MEDIATE:  Yeah, on‑course interviews.  We would love you to talk to people on the course, you know.  Billy Ray and I have talked 600 times already in the first two weeks.  I went, I can't wait for that to happen because we should do that on the regular tour.  See, it's not any different.  That's what drives me crazy.  Like, oh, you can't talk to the guys because they're playing.  What?  It's still a trophy.  I don't care if it's a million dollars or 300,000 to win.  It's a trophy.  So why is the Tour going, You can't talk to the guys because God forbid if you talk to them?  It's horse crap.  There's no difference.  It's just as ‑‑ I mean, winning anywhere is the same or being in contention is the same.  Why can't you say something walking on the fairway? 

Could you imagine talking to Tiger coming down the last hole?  Wouldn't it be cool though?  What he's actually thinking?  He might be going, yeah, I'm thinking of dinner tonight, thinking of where I'm going to dinner.  Who knows what he'd say?  But I'd like to hear it, see.  As a fan, I'd like to hear what he's thinking.  It's got to go that way because, you know, money is tough to come by.  They need something else.  We have it here. 

"Elkington splashes onto the Champions Tour with the same gorgeous swing, but as a combination of 1920s barnstorming player and Internet startup CEO."

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Brett Avery gets to the bottom of what Steve Elkington is doing with his cultish Secretinthedirt.com web community and his stunning new house on wheels that will be his home-away-from-home as he travels the Champions Tour.

Bob Croslin's photos of Elkington's amazing big rig accompany the story in Golf World and the online edition.

Through organic growth Secret has members from more than 125 countries. Maves equates the 30,000 unique monthly visitors to Twitter, where a core stokes conversations and far more read and retweet. Elkington claims that by dress and swing alone he can pick from a crowd any Dirters, as they call themselves. "We always try to get them to think a little deeper," Elkington says. "Take responsibility for your own game."

Among the converted is Ross Roark, a west Texas horse trainer who met Elkington 15 years ago. Roark discovered Secret as a mid-80s shooter with a looping, knee-dipping swing many instructors might scrap. Roark grooved his action by studying about 300 videos, one reason the new Secret channel on YouTube has logged a million views. "If you want to know anything about golf, about the swing or the way it's supposed to be done, it's right there in The Vault," he says. Last summer Roark, now scratch, shot a 63.

Lanny Lands Champions Lead Analyst Gig

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Lanny gets the call.

And don't even think of asking me who was the lead analyst before him.

Known as one of the fiercest competitors on Tour during his playing career, Wadkins will be in the booth this week for the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, one of 22 Champions Tour events on Golf Channel in 2013. He will also appear on news and instructional programming throughout the year.

"Lanny was one of the greatest golfers of his generation, and we are thrilled to have him as a member of our Golf Channel family," said executive producer Molly Solomon. "I have been a fan of Lanny's for many years, and we look forward to his return to television and hearing his familiar voice each week on the Champions Tour."