Five-week stretch features new faces, familiar winners

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Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Keith Fergus won twice last season at The Cap Cana Championship and the Regions Charity Classic.

The Champions Tour embarks on Phase II of the 2010 season next week, a sequence of five tournaments which will feature a new event, the golfer who won twice in the same stretch last year and the golfer who already has won twice in the first five events this year.

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It was at The Cap Cana Championship in the Dominican Republic that Keith Fergus put his stamp on the Champions Tour season by hitting one of the most memorable shots of 2009 at Punta Espada Golf Club.

Four tournaments later, Fergus was back in the winner's circle at the rain-shortened Regions Charity Classic in Birmingham, Ala. He is ready for an encore.

"I'm playing well, my game is as good as it has ever been, and my attitude is good," Fergus said. "I've been working hard and we'll see what happens. I'm anxious to get back there."

At Cap Cana next week, one of the golfers Fergus will have to contend with is Couples, the Champions Tour rookie who has had such a positive impact on and off the course in a very short time. Couples has won twice in three individual events and finished second in the other. He is clearly enjoying himself -- what's more fun than winning? - and has made a commitment to full Champions Tour participation beyond this year.

Couples has brought significant attention to the Champions Tour in addition to raising the competitive bar with his play.

"There are very few guys that really move the needle that are out here on the regular tour or our tour," said Fred Funk, the reigning U.S. Senior Open champion.

"Freddie's one that really moves the needle. People love to watch Freddie. As players we love to watch Freddie."

Efren Garcia-Estrada, tournament director at Cap Cana, knows the kind of impact Couples delivers any time he makes a tournament appearance.

"He is a crowd favorite," Garcia-Estrada said. "Each year we've been blessed with great fields at The Cap Cana Championship. Tom Watson played in our inaugural event. The Great White Shark, Greg Norman, played last year and this year we have Fred Couples who is already creating quite a buzz among local golf fans."

The Cap Cana is the first of three events in a row for Couples. He will also play in the PGA TOUR's Shell Houston Open as a lead-in to the Masters Tournament where he will appear as a past champion.

The signature stroke of the victory by Fergus at Cap Cana last year was a 95-yard hole-out on the 17th hole in the final round. The eagle 3 enabled him to leapfrog into the lead and ultimately claim victory.

Fergus got into a roll on the back nine and capped his rally with the heroics at the 17th hole. The last task was to settle himself for the finish.

"I said, 'Whoa, you've got to calm down,'" Fergus said. "Making the eagle was fun. Everybody was jumping around, but I had to put my mind back on the final hole, the hardest hole on the golf course. I could have gotten caught up in the moment."

Fergus played the final hole with a touch of class. He made the necessary par to finish a rousing 4-stroke comeback. His final round 68 gave him a 203 total, 13-under-par.

"Winning is always special," said Fergus.

Punta Espada is a 7,260-yard, par 72 design by Jack Nicklaus.

"This is a big boy's golf course," Joey Sindelar said. "I found it to be a big, beautiful golf course, and a tropical experience where the wind blew 20-to-25 miles an hour. Last year I had a chance to win until Fergus made it from the fairway at 17."

Fergus knows the secret to success at Punta Espada.

"Like any Nicklaus course, the greens are small," Fergus said. "You've got to hit quality iron shots."

Like 95-yard wedges straight into the hole.

Champions Tour Insider notes:

• The new event is the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic, April 26-May 2. It will be played at Fallen Oak, a Tom Fazio design featuring streams, marshland and pecan groves. Also featured are dramatic elevation changes and a variety of more than 4,000 hardwoods, oaks, magnolias and pines.

• The tournament is sponsored by a business consortium including the Gulf Coast Business Council, Beau Rivage, IP, Grand Biloxi, Island View, Hard Rock, Habitat for Humanity, Cellular South, the State of Mississippi, Roy Anderson Corp, Yates Construction, Hancock Bank and Southern Company, as well as Harrison and Hancock County's Tourism Commissions.

• Former U.S. Open champion Jerry Pate, who also won the 1974 World Amateur Championship at nearby Casa de Campo and U.S. Amateur, is one of four players granted sponsor exemptions for the Cap Cana. The others: former Champions Tour winner Jose Maria Canizares of Spain; Victor Garcia, father of the PGA TOUR'S Sergio Garcia; and Jay Overton, long-time director of golf at Innisbrook Resort.