Given that the record for wins on the Champions Tour is 45 (Hale Irwin), Watson's 13 might seem surprisingly low. But Watson just doesn't play that much. Same with Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus won "only" 10 times on the Champions Tour. But his winning percentage was actually quite good; Nicklaus just didn't play very often.
The same dynamic might hold true for the runner-up to Watson at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, Fred Couples. Couples was playing in his first senior tournament (not counting the previous week's Senior Skins Game), and playing to much anticipation of what might come.
Will Couples be a dominant player on the senior circuit? He's still competitive on the PGA Tour, and still hits the ball a long way. Given the shorter lengths of the courses the seniors play, Couples seems like a golfer who will finish high every time he tees it up on the Champions Tour.
But the golfers who win a lot on the Champions Tour aren't always the ones you expect. Ben Crenshaw remains winless in senior golf. Everyone expected Nick Price to win a lot on the Champions Tour, but it took him three years to win his first, and that's still Price's only Champions win.
On the other hand, some golfers who had long PGA Tour careers but without a lot of PGA Tour victories have done a lot of winning against the older crowd. Gil Morgan won seven times on the PGA Tour, 25 times on the Champions Tour; Bruce Fleisher won once on the PGA Tour, 18 times on the Champions Tour; Mike Hill won three times on the PGA Tour, 18 times on the Champions Tour. Jim Dent never won the PGA Tour, but won 12 times against the seniors.
Couples plans to continue playing some PGA Tour events, at least in 2010, and that will cut into his Champions Tour opportunities. And his back problems could flare up at any time; in 2007 he was limited to just three appearances on the PGA Tour, although in the one year before that and two years following he played 17, 18 and 16 tournaments.
Couples has 15 career wins on the PGA Tour. Will he win more or less than that on the Champions Tour?
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