Gene Sauers

Gene Sauers
Personal information
Full nameGene Craig Sauers
Born (1962-08-22) August 22, 1962 (age 62)
Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
Height5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight150 lb (68 kg; 11 st)
Sporting nationality United States
Career
CollegeGeorgia Southern
Turned professional1984
Current tour(s)PGA Tour Champions
Former tour(s)PGA Tour
Web.com Tour
Professional wins9
Highest ranking36 (October 4, 1992)[1]
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour3
Korn Ferry Tour1
PGA Tour Champions1
European Senior Tour1
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentT33: 1987
PGA ChampionshipT2: 1992
U.S. OpenT58: 1985, 1987
The Open ChampionshipT52: 1989
Achievements and awards
PGA Tour
Comeback Player of the Year/
Courage Award		2002, 2016–17

Gene Craig Sauers (born August 22, 1962) is an American professional golfer, currently playing on the PGA Tour Champions. He had three wins on the PGA Tour and overcame a deadly skin condition that kept him off the golf course for five years. He won the U.S. Senior Open in 2016, a senior major championship.

Early life and amateur career

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Sauers was born in Savannah, Georgia and started playing golf at the age of nine with his father. He attended Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia.

Professional career

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Sauers turned pro in 1984 and joined the PGA Tour later in the year. He quickly had success winning the 1986 Bank of Boston Classic and the 1989 Hawaiian Open.[2][3] He also won the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic in Mississippi in 1990, opposite the Masters in April, before it was an official money event.

In the early 1990s Sauers finished two tournaments in a tie for first place at the end of regulation: the 1992 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, which he lost on the fourth extra hole of a playoff to John Cook, and the 1994 St. Jude Classic, which he and Hal Sutton lost to Tour rookie Dicky Pride. During this era, he also recorded his highest finish in a major championship: a tie for second at the 1992 PGA Championship, which he led for the first three rounds.[4]

Sauers lost his tour card in 1995 and had to play primarily on the Nike Tour. He recorded one victory on the Nike Tour at the 1998 Nike South Carolina Classic, and about a dozen top-10 finishes.[5] In late 2002, Sauers won the Air Canada Championship on the PGA Tour. It gave him a two-year exemption. Sauers also received the PGA Comeback Player of the Year award in 2002.

Sauers competed on the PGA Tour until 2005. From 2006 to 2010, he did not compete professionally after an initial misdiagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis turned out to be Stevens–Johnson syndrome, and he was given only a 25-percent chance of survival. Over several months, during which he received multiple skin grafts that left visible scarring, he gradually recovered.[6][7]

Sauers finally overcame the disease and played a limited Nationwide Tour schedule in 2011 and 2012 before making his Champions Tour debut at the Boeing Classic near Seattle in 2012. He earned two top-10 finishes in 2012 and was also inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.[8] Playing a full season in 2013, Sauers was twice a runner-up, including a playoff loss to Esteban Toledo at the Insperity Invitational. He finished nineteenth on the Champions Tour money list.[6]

In the first six months of 2014, Sauers played in eleven events, with six top-25 finishes and a best of T-15 at the Allianz Championship in early February.[9] At the U.S. Senior Open in Oklahoma in July, he was tied with Colin Montgomerie after 72 holes but lost in a three-hole playoff.[10]

Two years later in 2016, Sauers earned his first win as a senior at the U.S. Senior Open in Ohio.

Professional wins (9)

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PGA Tour wins (3)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory 		Runner-up
1 Sep 14, 1986 Bank of Boston Classic 70-71-64-69=274 −10 Playoff United States Blaine McCallister
2 Feb 12, 1989 Hawaiian Open 65-67-65=197* −19 1 stroke United States David Ogrin
3 Sep 1, 2002 Air Canada Championship 69-65-66-69=269 −15 1 stroke United States Steve Lowery

*Note: The 1989 Hawaiian Open was shortened to 54 holes due to rain.

PGA Tour playoff record (1–3)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 1986 Bank of Boston Classic United States Blaine McCallister Won with birdie on third extra hole
2 1991 KMart Greater Greensboro Open United States Mark Brooks Lost to par on third extra hole
3 1992 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic United States John Cook, United States Rick Fehr,
United States Tom Kite, United States Mark O'Meara 		Cook won with eagle on fourth extra hole
Fehr eliminated by birdie on second hole
Kite and O'Meara eliminated by birdie on first hole
4 1994 Federal Express St. Jude Classic United States Dicky Pride, United States Hal Sutton Pride won with birdie on first extra hole

Nike Tour wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory 		Runners-up
1 May 3, 1998 Nike South Carolina Classic 70-69-72-69=280 −8 1 stroke United States Craig Kanada, United States Sean Murphy

Other wins (4)

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PGA Tour Champions wins (1)

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Legend
Senior major championships (1)
Other PGA Tour Champions (0)
No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory 		Runners-up
1 Aug 15, 2016 U.S. Senior Open 68-69-71-69=277 −3 1 stroke Spain Miguel Ángel Jiménez, United States Billy Mayfair

PGA Tour Champions playoff record (0–5)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 2013 Insperity Championship United States Mike Goodes, Mexico Esteban Toledo Toledo won with par on third extra hole
Sauers eliminated by par on second hole
2 2014 U.S. Senior Open Scotland Colin Montgomerie Lost three-hole aggregate playoff;
Montgomerie: E (5-3-4=12),
Sauers: x (5-4-x=x)
3 2017 Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic Spain Miguel Ángel Jiménez Lost to birdie on first extra hole
4 2017 3M Championship United States Paul Goydos Lost to birdie on first extra hole
5 2022 ClubCorp Classic New Zealand Steven Alker, United States Scott Parel Parel won with par on first extra hole

Results in major championships

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Tournament 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
Masters Tournament T33 CUT
U.S. Open CUT T58 T58
The Open Championship T52
PGA Championship T30 T24 CUT T58
Tournament 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Masters Tournament T34
U.S. Open
The Open Championship T88
PGA Championship CUT T63 T2 T22 T44
Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Masters Tournament
U.S. Open
The Open Championship
PGA Championship CUT
Tournament 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Masters Tournament
U.S. Open CUT
The Open Championship
PGA Championship
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Results in The Players Championship

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Tournament 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
The Players Championship CUT CUT T32 T16 T55
Tournament 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
The Players Championship T29 T9 CUT CUT T51 T3 T53
Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
The Players Championship CUT CUT
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

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Tournament 2003
Match Play
Championship
Invitational 85
  Did not play

Senior major championships

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Wins (1)

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Year Championship 54 holes Winning score Margin Runners-up
2016 U.S. Senior Open 1 shot deficit −3 (68-69-71-69=277) 1 stroke Spain Miguel Ángel Jiménez, United States Billy Mayfair

Results timeline

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Results not in chronological order before 2022.

Tournament 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
The Tradition T15 T25 T3 T12 T10 T2 52 NT T42 T26
Senior PGA Championship T25 T25 CUT T14 CUT T10 NT T40 T20 T57
U.S. Senior Open T35 2 T47 1 CUT T21 CUT NT T17 T4 CUT
Senior Players Championship T47 T39 T12 T9 T54 29 T16 T16 T25 T33
Senior British Open Championship 10 T18 T23 T24 NT
  Win
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Week 40 1992 Ending 4 Oct 1992" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
  2. ^ Sauers' Sweet Putt
  3. ^ "Golf: PGA Tour at Surrey, British Columbia". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). September 2, 2002. p. 6E.
  4. ^ "Gene Sauers". Golf Major Championships. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
  5. ^ "Gene Sauers – Profile". PGA Tour. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
  6. ^ a b Fields, Bill (July 12, 2014). "U.S. Senior Open leader Gene Sauers and the disease that threatened his career and his life". Golf Digest.
  7. ^ Graff, Chad (July 31, 2013). "3M golf: Gene Sauers thriving after torturous battle with skin disease". TwinCities.com.
  8. ^ Georgia Golf Hall of Fame profile of Sauers
  9. ^ "Gene Sauers – Season". PGA Tour. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
  10. ^ "Colin Montgomerie wins in playoff". ESPN. Associated Press. July 13, 2014.
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