Champions Tour

POTOMAC — The Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship left the historic Five Farms course at Baltimore Country Club quietly last fall for a one-year stay in the Washington suburbs. As with the tournament itself during the last of its three years in Timonium, not many noticed. It seems fewer are aware of the event's arrival this week at the newly-renovated TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. Or that admission is free, making it one of a handful of events on the Champions Tour that is trying to attract fans by not charging for one or more of the rounds.

LUTZ, Fla. — Jim Thorpe hoped maybe he could just sneak onto the golf course. Show up at daybreak, toss the clubs onto a cart and head out to the tee. "Just kind of wave to everybody," Thorpe said with a laugh. Didn't work. Before the anxious Champions Tour pro could unload his trunk Tuesday at the TPC Tampa Bay, Hal Sutton drove in and pulled into his assigned spot next to Thorpe's. Welcome back, Thorpey. You didn't really think you would go unnoticed for long, did you?

Calendar THE TOUR Championship Site -- Atlanta Schedule -- Thursday-Sunday Course -- East Lake Golf Club (6,980 yards, par 70) Purse -- $6.5 million. Winner's share: $1,170,000 Field -- The top five money-winners - Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, and David Toms - lead the 30 golfers who have been designated the best in the sport this year. Chip shot -- "It's a big event," said Woods. "Basically you have 30 guys who have played the hottest or best or most consistent all year."

Champions Tour golfer Jim Thorpe, imprisoned since April for failing to pay income taxes, has told a friend he's on track for an early release later this month. Barring complications, Mike Lewis said Wednesday, Thorpe is scheduled for a Jan. 26 release from the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. Thorpe's first stop would be an Orlando-area halfway house, then home sentencing while he works at a local golf course.

The Constellation Energy Group announced yesterday that it will continue to sponsor a Champions Tour golf tournament in the Baltimore area through 2007, extending its existing two-year agreement. Baltimore has been a stop for the Champions Tour, formerly the Senior PGA Tour, since 1998, but in 2001, State Farm Insurance chose to terminate its role as the tournament's title sponsor. Questions arose as to whether the Champions Tour would return the following year, but in 2002, Constellation Energy, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Baltimore, signed a two-year agreement through 2004, keeping the tournament in the area.

PGA TOUR FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World Resort Site -- Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Schedule -- Thursday-Sunday Courses -- Magnolia Golf Course (7,516 yards, par 72) and Palm Golf Course (6,957 yards, par 72) Purse -- $4.2 million. Winner's share: $756,000 TV -- ESPN (Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m., Saturday, 4-6 p.m.); ABC (Sunday, 3-6 p.m.) Last year -- Ryan Palmer overcame a five-stroke deficit on the final day with a 10-under-par 62 to capture his first PGA Tour title by three strokes over Vijay Singh and Briny Baird.

LUTZ, Fla. — Jim Thorpe hoped maybe he could just sneak onto the golf course. Show up at daybreak, toss the clubs onto a cart and head out to the tee. "Just kind of wave to everybody," Thorpe said with a laugh. Didn't work. Before the anxious Champions Tour pro could unload his trunk Tuesday at the TPC Tampa Bay, Hal Sutton drove in and pulled into his assigned spot next to Thorpe's. Welcome back, Thorpey. You didn't really think you would go unnoticed for long, did you?

In studying the original designs of legendary golf architect A.W. Tillinghast, Keith Foster knew restoring Baltimore Country Club's East Course to its intended look would not be as difficult as some of the jobs he had undertaken at other classic venues. The first time Foster saw the Timonium course, he didn't want to leave. He walked it three times in one day. "I was in a trance the whole day," Foster recalled recently. "Unlike a lot of classic courses, there weren't a lot of things that had been done to the course.

Donnie Hammond set his sights on the Champions Tour shortly after turning 45. A 20-year career on the PGA Tour was winding down, and Hammond had to figure out a way to keep his game sharp enough until his 50th birthday this past April Fool's Day. "I didn't have a tournament until May. Here I've been waiting to try to get 50 for the last five years, and I had to wait a month to play," Hammond said yesterday. Hammond, who grew up in Frederick, is still waiting to make an impact. He is hoping that will happen this week, when Hammond will play in the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship at Baltimore Country Club beginning Thursday in Timonium.

The Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, scheduled to be played in late September at Baltimore Country Club, announced today that the event will move to Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y., for 2011 because it was given an earlier date on the Champions Tour schedule. The final major championship of the Champions Tour season is now scheduled for Aug. 15-21, 2011, and it will be the first time Westchester Country Club has hosted a major tournament. For 41 years it had hosted a PGA Tour event from 1967 until 2007.

POTOMAC — The Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship left the historic Five Farms course at Baltimore Country Club quietly last fall for a one-year stay in the Washington suburbs. As with the tournament itself during the last of its three years in Timonium, not many noticed. It seems fewer are aware of the event's arrival this week at the newly-renovated TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. Or that admission is free, making it one of a handful of events on the Champions Tour that is trying to attract fans by not charging for one or more of the rounds.

The coronation of Tom Watson was ready Sunday afternoon. When the final round of the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship began, Watson had a four-shot lead, and most people at Baltimore Country Club, including his fellow competitors, felt the engraver might as well go ahead and begin etching his name on the crystal trophy. "What I thought when I got out here was 'What a nice day this is for Tom Watson,' " said Jay Haas, who began the final round five shots off the lead. What unfolded could perhaps be the greatest final round in the 29-year history of the Champions Tour.

Fred Funk is nothing if not brutally honest, which is a rarity in his line of work. A lot of professional golfers, over the course of their careers, learn to guard their emotions almost like politicians. They recycle old anecdotes, regurgitate cliches and try to keep the public at arm's length, especially after a bad round. But Funk, who grew up in Takoma Park and was the golf coach at the University of Maryland from 1982 to 1988, is different. He doesn't have a problem acknowledging how badly he wants to win the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, which begins today at Baltimore Country Club.

For all but one week of the year, the historic East Course at Baltimore Country Club is a lush, well-manicured private sanctuary for members, a tough but fair test that everyone from scratch players to those who shoot in triple digits can appreciate. But during the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, which begins Thursday in Timonium, the iconic club long known as Five Farms is transformed. This lovely octogenarian that was laid out by legendary golf architect A.W. Tillinghast in the 1920s and renovated four years ago by Kentucky designer Keith Foster has a bit of a modern-day beast added to its timeless beauty.

With less than one week remaining until the Champions Tour returns to Baltimore for the final major of the season, tournament officials announced that the number of former Masters champions in the field has grown from five to nine. Ben Crenshaw, Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize and Fuzzy Zoeller have joined the field to take on Baltimore Country Club's Five Farms course for the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. The first round is Thursday. Crenshaw, a two-time Masters champion (1984 and 1995)

When he joined the Champions Tour in 2007, almost everyone thought Nick Price was going to dominate. A three-time major winner and two-time Player of the Year on the PGA Tour, he was still one of the best ball-strikers alive. He looked like a lock to win a bunch of tournaments. Price, though, never saw it that way. His son, Gregory, and his two daughters, Robyn and Kimberly, were entering their teenage years, and he wanted to be a part of their daily lives. He didn't want to travel 30-plus weeks out of the year and hit golf balls for hours until his hands hurt.

In life, every man reaches the point when the body simply refuses to do the mind's bidding. Maybe this happens in the form of a stiff knee, a sore back or a gimpy elbow, and maybe it is a gradual change, not dramatic, but it is inevitable for each of us. On the Champions Tour, two men try to beat back Father Time every day. You probably don't know their names, but Paul Schueren and Doug Miller might be two of the most important people at Baltimore Country...