Golfer makes 1,000th start today

CARY -- Today at the SAS Championship, Leonard Thompson makes his 1,000th career start in a professional golf tournament, marking 40 years of avoiding bunkers, counting birdies and hoisting trophies.

He remembers the details of a career spent following a little white ball around the world.

"A lot of missed putts," said Thompson, a Laurinburg native who made his first start at the U.S. Open in 1971 and tees off this morning at Prestonwood Country Club, along with 86 of his fellow Champions Tour golfers.

Thompson, 62, is part of a strong field at this year's event, which includes 13 of the tour's 14 winners this season and 27 players on the current top 30 money list.

Loren Roberts, who stands a spot behind money leader Bernhard Langer, is entered in the tournament field. He's joined by the likes of Fred Funk, Scott Simpson, Jeff Sluman, Bruce Fleisher and Andy Bean. Langer is not playing in this event.

Eight World Golf Hall of Fame members are also here: Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Larry Nelson, Nick Price, Curtis Strange, Lee Trevino and Lanny Wadkins.

There are seven past champions in the field, including last year's winner Eduardo Romero.

All of them will vie for the $2.1 million purse, with the winner's take of $315,000, playing on Prestonwood's 7,197-yard, par-72 course.

And, as Thompson explained, this is no senior social event. The objective, as it was when most of them were on the PGA Tour, is to shoot low.

"When the senior tour came along it allowed those of us who played the regular tour to keep going," Thompson said. "And all of us out here ... are real competitive. We can go out and cut each other's heart out on the golf course, and when we finish we go have a beer with each other."

The Champions Tour, which is sanctioned by the PGA Tour, is for golfers age 50 and over. This season marks the 30th anniversary of the tour.

There are several tour rookies this season who add depth to an already crowded group, including Tom Lehman, Hal Sutton, David Frost and Larry Mize.

Tom Pernice Jr., a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, turned 50 on Sept. 5 and will make his tour debut at this year's SAS Championship. For the third consecutive year, at least one former winner on the PGA Tour has started his Champions Tour career at Prestonwood.

Mark Wiebe joined the tour at SAS in 2007 and won. He's back this year and looking forward to the newly remodeled second nine on The Meadows course.

"We're just loving what we do," he said. "Just love playing golf and love competing. We get to do both."

To compete, Wiebe and others must constantly make adjustments and retool their games. He recently needed to tweak his alignment to get his putting back on track. "Even though this tour has so much exhibition to it with the names we have -- we have an unbelievable amount of major winners -- when we get our here on the range we treat it as a tournament," Wiebe said. "We're also entertaining. ... It appears like it's an exhibition, but I'm telling you those guys are playing hard."

Bean, who last week finished second at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn, said there is more talking on the course than on the PGA Tour. Chatter, though, doesn't prevent shot-making.

"You better go out and shoot a good score every day because there's going to be a number of guys shooting good rounds," he said. "If you're not shooting 5 under then you're not going to have a chance to win."

Thompson recalls many chances to win during his long career. He has made 651 PGA Tour starts and won three official events. Add to that 348 career Champions Tour appearances and three victories.

He becomes just the 10th golfer in history to amass 1,000 career starts on the PGA and Champions tours. Miller Barber still has the most combined starts with 1,292.

"You had to do something right," Thompson said. "They don't just let you keep playing. You don't just get to stay here."

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