The days appear to be over for the no-name, million-to-one-shot golfer qualifying for the PGA Tour Champions after hitting the golden age of 50.
There’s no Robert Landers, Tom Wargo or Mark Johnson, pied pipers of the past, in this year’s rookie class on the PGA Tour Champions, formerly the Senior PGA Tour, as Newport Beach Country Club prepares to host the Hoag Classic Friday through Sunday, the only PGA event in Orange County.
The five newcomers on tour have all teed it up on the PGA Tour at one time or another, unlike a few folk heroes of yesteryear who never played on the tour and cracked the senior circuit after decades of grinding and making it through Qualifying School, or Q School.
Hoag Classic officials will hope for the next two years that Tiger Woods, who will turn 50 on Dec. 30, 2025, and become eligible for the PGA Tour Champions, will decide to play at Newport Beach in 2026. Meanwhile, the tour’s newcomer class will experience a bear market for the next two years.
This weekend, fans will cheer for players such as defending champion Ernie Els and crowd favorite Fred Couples, headliners of the Hoag Classic, one of the longest running and considered among the most philanthropic on the PGA Tour Champions.
Landers played in the inaugural Toshiba Senior Classic at Mesa Verde Country Club (the event rebranded to the Hoag Classic in 2019). A self-taught golfer, Landers never played on the PGA Tour. He was a cattle farmer from Texas who had practiced in his cow pie-filled pasture to earn a spot on the tour at Q School.
Landers played his first 18 holes at age 22 and shot a 96. Before farming and raising dairy cattle for five years, Landers worked as a sales manager for a department store, while also selling woodcrafts he created with his wife, Freddie. His side interests were woodworking and collecting guns.
At the Toshiba Classic, Landers sported tennis shoes and a used mix-matched set of homemade golf clubs to finish tied for 68th and earn…
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