CHAMPIONS GOLF TOUR Qualifying begins for eight open tour spots

More than 100 senior players will battle for 72 holes for a chance at earning a tour spot.
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Three weeks ago, the Senior PGA Tour was re-christened as the Champions Tour, though Commissioner Tim Finchem said it had nothing to do with eliminating the stigma associated with the term senior.
"There is a realization by more and more companies, and I suppose by all of us, that unlike in the past, nobody considers themselves a senior anymore," he said.
It's hardly ageism to assert that those who started play today in the Champions Tour Qualifying School finals will feel downright decrepit after 72 holes. By Friday's final round, those at World Woods Golf Club in Brooksville, Fla., will feel positively ancient.
Odds are high
Unlike regular PGA Tour Q-School, where 35 players earn their tour cards, 110 elder hopefuls will duke it out for eight fully exempt spots. Essentially, players are bucking 14-to-1 odds and more than a little tension because there is no tour-sanctioned senior developmental circuit such as the Buy.com Tour as a fallback option.
Last year Dick Mast stood on the second tee of a sudden-death playoff, fighting six others for the eighth fully exempt spot. Somehow, after bogeying the 72nd hole, he talked himself into a positive frame of mind. Mast birdied the second playoff hole to win his card.
"I go, 'I've got an opportunity here,' " said Mast, who isn't in the finals this year, of his self-psyche job. "I tried to go into the playoff with that attitude."
Some names in the field
For anybody over age 30, there are more than a few recognizable names in the field, including Lakeland's Andy Bean, veterans Rex Caldwell, George Burns, Danny Edwards, Forrest Fezler, Ed Fiori, Dan Halldorson, Lon Hinkle, Bill Kratzert, former major-league pitcher Rick Rhoden, John Schroeder, Tom Shaw and Howard Twitty.
Internationals include Eamonn Darcy and Des Smyth of Ireland.
At last year's finals, before Mast found deliverance, Mike Smith birdied the first hole of the playoff to claim the seventh exempt spot.
"Pressure is not always bad," Mast said, laughing. "For instance, it makes you concentrate."