ENDICOTT, New York – Two late additions give the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open field a boost of pizzazz for its return to PGA Tour Champions action following a dormant year.
Ernie Els and Jim Furyk were among the last to commit to the $2,050,000 event to be contested July 2-4 at En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott.
Els, 51 and a 19-time winner on the regular tour, sits third on the money list ($1,792,179) on the strength of two wins among 11 top-10s. Most recent of those top-10s was a T4 in the Regions Tradition that concluded May 9.
Furyk, 51, was a 17-time regular-tour champion. He won in his first two senior starts — The Ally Challenge and PURE Insurance Championship in the summer of 2020 — and has eight top-10s in 13 tournaments.
Jerry Kelly, eight-time senior tour winner at present perched atop the money list ($1,927,667), committed to play in Endicott only to withdraw, as he did in 2019. He shares fifth with Els, Furyk and others on rounds of 69-70 through 36 holes of the Bridgestone Senior Players in Akron, Ohio.
The Dick’s Open field also features:
- Doug Barron, defending champion who defeated Fred Couples by two strokes in his second start as a senior.
- Alex Cejka, 50-year-old who debuted on Tour in February and proceeded to win major championships in his third and fifth starts.
- Darren Clarke, winner in consecutive starts (Nov. 1, Jan. 23) in the 2020-21 season.
- Retief Goosen, driving distance leader who sits sixth on the money list.
- Tim Herron, a Tour rookie whose first top-10 was a third-place finish in last month’s Principal Charity Classic, in which he was 36-hole leader.
- Miguel Angel Jimenez, sixth-place finisher here in 2019 and fifth on the current money list.
- Bernhard Langer, age 63, 41-time PGA Tour Champions winner who topped the 2014 Dick’s Open field.
- Colin Montgomerie, seven-time Champions Tour winner who has second- and third-place finishes this season. He shared fourth here in 2019.
“We’re obviously excited,” said tournament director John Karedes. “It’s Ernie’s first trip ever to Endicott, Furyk has been here I think three times (most recently for the 1998 B.C. Open). We’re certainly excited to have these 50-year-old rookies coming as well as Darren Clarke, Alex Cejka, Tim Herron. I mean, what a great set of rookies that is going to be joining us.
“I’ve always said, when a guy is a rookie on the PGA Tour we don’t necessarily know who he is. But when a guy is a rookie on our Tour, which is a great thing about the Champions Tour, you know him. And if you look at that list of names, that’s sure proof.”
The 81-player field will be rounded out with Tuesday’s Open Qualifier at The Links at Hiawatha Landing— from which Barron emerged to win last time at En-Joie.
Dick’s Sporting Goods Open
Where: En-Joie Golf Course, Endicott
Purse: $2,050,000 ($307,500 to winner)
Defending champion: Doug Barron
Television: Golf Channel. 12-30-2:30 Fri.; 3-5:30 Sat. and Sun.
Follow Kevin Stevens on Twitter @PSBKevin. You can also reach him at kstevens@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.