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Lauren Deason
Editorial Coordinator

HAVEN, Wisc. -- There's Hale and then there's Dale.

One needs no last name -- Hale Irwin, three-time U.S. Open winner and two-time U.S. Senior Open winner who could make it an even half dozen USGA majors with a win at Whistling Straits this week. He's also the most decorated Champions Tour player in history with 45 wins.

Dale, on the other hand, might need an introduction. Also a former U.S. Senior Open champion, he's Dale Douglass, Irwin's practice round partner on Tuesday and a record-setter in his own right. While Irwin may be the most-victorious player on the Champions Tour, Douglass is one of the most experienced, having competed in 589 Champions Tour events over a 20-year spell. For those keeping track, that's just 14 back of Miller Barber, who holds the top spot in all-time Champions Tour starts.

Consider Douglass the sort-of George Harrison to Irwin's Paul McCartney -- he's an 11-time Champions Tour winner, three-time PGA TOUR winner and a long-standing competitor without as much of the glory. But that's not how Irwin sees it.

"Dale is one of those guys that he may go unnoticed sometimes, but he'll never go unnoticed all the time."

Between the two they've competed in over 30 U.S. Senior Opens, with Douglass working on his 22nd this year while Irwin makes it a dozen played since 1995. In addition to being two of the Tour's veterans -- and having similar sounding names -- they're also good friends and fellow University of Colorado grads.

"I wouldn't call Dale durable, I would just call Dale a class act that's been around professional golf for a long, long time. If there's anyone outside of my family that has had a direct and significant contribution, positive contribution to my career, it's been Dale Douglass," said Irwin.

It's hard to believe that 62-year-old Hale Irwin ever needed a mentor, but when he and his wife first came out on the PGA TOUR, it was the Douglass family who showed them how to adjust to life on the road. This was life on the road in a literal sense, back in the days when the PGA TOUR golfers lived out of their cars, drove to tournaments and weren't always shown the ins and outs of each TOUR city.

The two were not at school at the same time, as Douglass celebrates his 71st birthday this year, but they partnered together to win the 1967 U.S. Pro-Am Championship and have been friends ever since.

"When (he and wife Joyce) come back to Arizona, we're only perhaps a par 6 away from one another," said Irwin, who calls Paradise Valley, Ariz., home base. "He's just one of those guys that's been around for so long.

"(Golf has) been his life. He and Joyce are without children, so he's been able to dedicate his life to playing and promoting golf, and he's done a wonderful job of doing so, and representing himself along the way, by the way, very, very well."

As has Irwin, who recently spoke at their alma mater's college graduation ceremony. The World Golf Hall of Fame member hopes to win again this week and certainly still has the game to contend, since he's already won once in 2007 at the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai.

"Other than tremendous personal pride and accomplishment...I don't know whether the outside world would think (a win here) would enhance my career or not. But to me it would mean a great deal. I'm looking for that even number of three and three," said Irwin, referring to his U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open titles.

"I don't like to say that I'm ever playing as well as I can play, but I feel like my game is close to doing what I want to do. It may not be there, but it's never completely there. I would never accept that my game is as good as it can ever get. But I'm hitting enough quality shots now, I'm doing enough things well and having a little bit of experience around this course with the PGA Championship in 2004, even though I shot 2-over par and missed the cut by a shot. I still feel like I have a little bit of knowledge of how the course can play."

Though Irwin missed the cut at Whistling Straits -- a course where the plan "is to have no plan...it's to be able to lift and shift and make your decisions and have some flexibility in how you play," Irwin said -- he does have one memorable moment from that late foray on the PGA TOUR.

As the 2004 Senior PGA Championship winner, Irwin got the opportunity to compete in the 2004 PGA Championship and notched his ninth career hole-in-one in the process. It was on the 7th hole on the links-styled, Lake Michigan-abutting golf course, where the fairways are narrow, the greens are tough and the winds are fickle. Naturally, it took a bit of luck for Irwin to ace it in those conditions.

"The hole location was front left and the only way really to get that close is you kind of had to hit it up to the left and let it hit that hill and trickle in, and that's what I did," said Irwin. "Truly, most holes-in-one are -- certainly you have some skill -- but it's pretty lucky. You know, I was lucky on this one in that I threw the ball out to the left hoping to kind of run it up there on that front part of the green and it went in the hole."

And Irwin's been very lucky throughout his career, staying active and fit long enough to win in all but one year of his tenure. All of those wins and all of the glory, though, are backed up by hard work and lots of travel, so does he ever think about hanging up the clubs?

"No, no. Retire, what is that? That's sort of like vacation?" joked Irwin. "Yeah, I cannot see retirement, per se. I think part of what we've seen was some of the great names in the past. We saw how Arnold (Palmer) had such a difficult time letting go. We've seen Lee Trevino have such a hard time get letting go. We saw Jack (Nicklaus) struggle with that a bit.

"It's your life, at least your professional life. You've had great success and a great impact, positive impact on your life. How do you kind of turn away from that and do something else? I think that's the hard part."

Just like his friend Douglass, who also seems to have a hard time giving it up, golf has gripped them both for life. And they're grateful to get out there to do what they love at a major venue this week.