With different issues, Stricker, Harrington and Langer ready to roll at Harbor Shores
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Three of the favorites this week in the 84th KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship — Steve Stricker of Wisconsin, Padraig Harrington of Ireland and Bernhard Langer of Germany — find themselves in various states of physical health.
The defending champion, 57-year-old Stricker, is rested and ready to go after sitting out last week’s PGA Championship at Valhalla outside Louisville, Ky. The 52-year-old Harrington has been battling a stiff neck which partly explains his missed cut (77-75) at the PGA, a major title he won in 2008 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
And then there’s the 66-year-old Langer, the all-time leading winner on the PGA Champions Tour with 46 victories, 12 of which are considered senior major titles. Langer literally limps into the tournament still recovering from Achilles tendon surgery in late January, an injury he suffered while playing pickleball.
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When the 156 players tee off Thursday at the par-71 Golf Club of Harbor Shores, a design of legendary player and architect Jack Nicklaus, they will find the walk much longer than the listed 6,852 yards. There are huge gaps between some greens and tees on the course that meanders through reclaimed Whirlpool Corporation property that the Paw Paw River bisects on its way to the St. Joseph River which empties into nearby Lake Michigan.
Because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the extremely fit Langer, who literally has difficulty walking, has use of a golf cart on the course where he has finished third three times (2014, 2016 and 2022) and fourth (2012). Langer won the Senior PGA in 2017 when it was held at Trump National outside Washington, D.C.
“I had to apply for ADA,” said Langer, who tied for 31st in his first tournament back on May 5, the rain-shortened Insperity Invitational and then showed some old form finishing tied for eighth in the senior major Regions Tradition on May 12. “If it hadn’t been for that, I couldn’t be playing golf anywhere right now. I’m just happy to be back out competing. Funny thing is I can play golf but I can’t walk, so it makes no sense.”
Count Langer among those who enjoy playing Nicklaus-designed courses. “They make you think, they make you play for one spot to another, not just necessarily hit it anywhere you want,” added Langer, who has two Masters titles, 46 senior victories and 12 senior major titles.
As the defending champion of the KitchenAid Senior PGA, which he won last year at Fields Ranch East in Frisco, Texas, by beating Harrington in a one-hole playoff, Stricker could have played in last week’s PGA Championship. But he opted instead for rest at home in Madison, Wis., with wife Nicki and daughters Bobbi and Izzy. Bobbi, who competed in the Epson Tour’s Four Winds Invitational at South Bend Country Club last year, will carry her father’s bag this week just eight miles west of where Stricker once competed in the Western Amateur at Point O’Woods, making “Sweet Sixteen” for weekend match play in 1988 and ’89.
Izzy was on the bag for last year’s Senior PGA at Frisco, and it was Nicki who carried the bag when Stricker won the 2019 U.S. Senior Open at Warren Golf Course with a 19-under total of 261.
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Stricker, too, likes Harbor Shores where he will play for the first time after having to withdraw from the 2022 event here because of COVID-19 precautions.
“I feel good — it’s great to be back,” Stricker said. “I went in here with an open mind (for Tuesday’s pro-am), and I enjoy it. It’s a great shape, the kind of course where you have to pick your spots. There is a lot of variety out here.”
Harrington, who won the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach, Calif., on March 24, is competing for the fourth straight week. He finished tied for 19th at the rain-impacted Insperity Invitational after playing 36 holes (70-72) on May 4 and then seeing the final round cancelled. He then finished tied eighth in the senior major Regions Tradition at 10-under 278, seven shots behind winner Doug Barron.
“I had pneumonia during the winter so very slow start to the year,” said Harrington in his Irish brogue. “I seem to be coming out of it the last couple of weeks, but I tweaked my neck and had a poor week. It hasn’t fully recovered. Last week it was more in the joint. Now it’s in the same place but more muscle. Obviously going to have physio the next couple of days. But it was very playable today.”
Harrington, who won two Open Championships before joining the Champions Tour, wouldn’t mind being a pain in the neck to the rest of the field this week.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Golfers chat ahead of KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship that begins Thursday
