by Jeff Skinner
Full time Champions Tour player, former world number one and all-around nice guy Nick Price turned back the clock yesterday when he fired an even par 70 on a course that was eating up young studs and old guys alike. The winds at The Honda Classic buffeted the PGA National course with 20-30 mph winds and tortured the boys of the PGA Tour. The par 70 course played to a 73.8 average and only eight players were able to break par. Look at this damage: Slocum +10, Villegas +9, Lovemark +8, Vijay +7, Scott +7 and Fowler +6.
With the Champions Tour off this week, 54 year old Nick Price decided he would give the flat belly tour a try. He is playing on his onetime exemption for being in the top fifty on the all time money list. That seems kind of ludicrous to me that a player with Price’s resume and character would ever need to use an exemption to play. I know there are rules that limit the field at these tournaments but how could any tournament not benefit from Nick Price playing in it? Maybe his Hall of Fame Membership Card should get him into any tournament he wants.
Price was the man in the early nineties when he was World Number One for 44 weeks. The consensus nicest, most accommodating golfer on any tour, Price is just glad to be above the cut line. “I am really happy,” Price said. “I would have liked to have finished under par, but it was a lot of fun. I had no expectations at all.”
“I probably wore out the grooves on my long irons, I haven’t hit that many 3-irons or 4-irons the last year on the Champions Tour. But I’ve always fancied myself as a good wind player. It was all about being patient today.”
“I really want to make the cut, because I think that would be an achievement,” Price said. “It’s hard playing against these young guys. But I want to have the same approach as today. Just keep my head down and make pars.”
Keep it up Nick and we’ll be seeing you on the weekend.
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