Gene Sauers
Gene Craig Sauers is an American professional golfer, currently playing on the PGA Tour Champions. He had three wins on the PGA Tour and overcame a potentially fatal skin condition that kept him off the golf course for five years. He won the U.S. Senior Open in 2016 [PGA Tour Champions season|2016], a senior major championship.
Early life and amateur career
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
In 1984, Sauers turned pro. He joined the PGA Tour later in the year. He quickly had success winning the 1986 Bank of Boston Classic and the 1989 Hawaiian Open. He also won the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic in Mississippi in 1990, opposite the Masters Tournament|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.
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. 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.
Senior career
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. 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.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. 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.
Two years later in 2016, Sauers earned his first win as a senior at the U.S. Senior Open in Ohio.
Awards and honors
- In 2002, Sauers also received the PGA Comeback Player of the Year award
- After the 2016-17 season, Sauers received the PGA Tour's Courage Award
Professional wins (9)
PGA Tour wins (3)
PGA Tour playoff record| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 1986 | Bank of Boston Classic |  Other wins (4)
PGA Tour Champions wins (1)
|
