Ames (64) takes aim at another Champions triumph – and may already have it
By Jeff Babineau
NAPLES, Fla. – The wind kicked up, many flagsticks were tucked, but still there were birdies to be had on an overcast Saturday afternoon at the Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO at Tiburon Golf Club’s Black Course.
Here’s what made Canadian Stephen Ames stand out among his peers: As others stumbled on a hole or two and fell back; Ames, playing two groupings ahead of the final threesome, kept on charging. He kept moving forward the way a mad bull chases after a red cape. He birdied half the holes he played on Saturday, nine in all, signed for 8-under 64, and may already have won his fifth PGA Tour Champions title in two seasons.
Ames stands at 13-under 131, three shots better than Rocco Mediate (134), who shot 71 after beginning the round with his own three-shot lead. There were five players sitting four shots behind Ames until Mediate’s nifty up-and-down for birdie from a tight lie at the par-5 18th lifted him from the pack.
Here's why Ames might have done enough: They will try to play golf on Sunday, having shortened the final round to nine holes, but the forecast is for heavy rain, lots of it, and the 36-hole leaders might not ever strike a shot. The proper mindset on Saturday was to approach the round as if it might be the last one played at Chubb this week.
And nobody handled that assignment of urgency better than Ames.
“Yeah, I thought it was kind of a day where it was ‘get to the gate’ very quickly,” said Ames, who turns 60 in April and was a four-time winner on the Champions Tour a year ago. Only Steve Stricker, the circuit’s 2023 Player of the Year, won more frequently.
“Especially with the way the wind was blowing, I thought the day was going to be tougher. As it ended up, everybody did falter a little bit coming down. I was actually the only one that moved forward quite a bit.”
Quite a bit, indeed. His 64 stood as the second-best round of the tournament, behind Mediate’s course-record-tying 63 on Friday.
Ames started slowly, then ran off six birdies in eight holes beginning at the par-4 fifth. The run included a chip-in for 2 at the par-3 seventh. He would add five birdies against a lone bogey (No. 15) on the back nine. He shot 8-under despite playing the three par-5 holes on Tiburon’s closing nine in level par.
Ames was impressive. And to think, he said the putter did not even feel comfortable in his hands until early into his second nine. Who knows what he might have shot had the putter felt good? He finished his day with 25 putts. A birdie machine.
“Stephen, he played beautifully last year, and today was certainly a continuation of that,” said Joe Durant, who played alongside Ames Saturday. “He is fun to watch play. He swings at it beautifully. Never out of balance.”
World Golf Hall of Famer Ernie Els (69), Australia’s Mark Hensby, and Germany’s Alex Cejka – all of whom shot second-round 69s – joined Englishman Paul Broadhurst (66) at 9-under 135. They hope to have a chance to make their run at Ames on Sunday.
Given the dire forecast starting overnight Saturday, PGA TOUR Champions officials made an early adjustment to the final round: They will try to get in nine holes in the morning, on a makeshift routing, which would shorten the event to 45 holes. Players will play holes 1 through 4, but instead of crossing Livingston Road to the fifth tee, they instead will finish on holes 14-18.
The first tee time is scheduled for 7:15 a.m. Ames, Mediate and Broadhurst are scheduled to play at 11:15. Ames has built himself into a solid frontrunner, closing out his last four 36-hole leads. He may close this one without ever hitting a shot. The gates to the tournament are scheduled to open at 7.
“I think we all played like that’s it, today is it, and it might very well be,” said Mediate, 61, trying to win for the first time since 2019. “But I don’t want it to be. The nine holes tomorrow is kind of cool, actually ... there’s some things that can happen there.”
At one point mid-way through the round, Ames, Mediate and Els were tied at 9-under. Ames just kept making birdies. Several players on Saturday tried to match him with some solid spurts, but they could not.
Steve Stricker, a six-time winner in 2023 and a past champion at Chubb, got off to a great start – 4-under through six, nearly making back-to-back eagles at the par-4 fifth (where he made 2) and par-5 sixth. But then he hit a wall, and found himself in some defensive positions. At 13, he drove it nicely, but his tee shot ended up in a divot, and he wasn’t about to take on a front pin over water.
“Instead of trying to get aggressive and hit it in there close, you’re trying to get-it-on-the-green kind of thing,” Stricker said. “That kind of derailed me a little bit.”
Mediate has a revamped swing and had been nearly flawless on Friday, but on Saturday, he just didn’t find the birdies at the pace he found them 24 hours earlier. He doubled the 13th after hitting his drive into a penalty area. He stood on the tee at the par-5 15th at 2-over for his day, and his round could have one of two ways from there. But the 2008 U.S. Open runner-up fought hard, and rallied with key birdies on 15, 16 and 18.
For Mediate, the last birdie might have meant the difference between solo second and a five-way tie for runner-up.
“I haven’t been in this situation in quite some time,” he said, “but It felt good.”
Broadhurst struggled in the season opener in Hawaii, but retooled his swing under the eye of his son, Sam, also a professional. His 66 was a pleasant surprise. Hensby was a first-time winner in 2023, and has focused on improving his putting. He rolled in three birdies over his final seven holes to shoot 69.
Els, a four-time major champion, wants to win more this season, and has shown good form in his fist two starts. He drove it out of play and made bogey at No. 11, but made two birdies coming home. Cejka answered bogeys at 15, a par 5, and the 17th with an eagle at the final hole to shoot 69.
Steven Alker, trying to become just the 10th player in PGA TOUR Champions history to win in three consecutive starts, got to 9-under, but played his final six holes in 4-over to shoot 40 on the back. He was derailed by a triple bogey at the 13th.
A Monday finish at Tiburon this week is not an option. Many players in this week’s field are scheduled to fly Sunday night out of Miami to Morocco to compete in Trophy Hassan II. Ames will be on that flight; he is that tournament’s defending champion.
Ames had to hold off on his celebration on Saturday evening, but he will wake up early Sunday morning to find out if he still has work to do, or if his effort through two days at Chubb is good enough to hold the trophy.
“It is what it is,” Ames said, flashing that neon bright grin of his. “If we play, we’re going to play.
"If we don’t, yeah, thanks.”
