Insider: Price has found his groove, now seeks major title

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Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Nick Price is finding his stride in year three on the Champions Tour and now sets his sights on winning a major.

It was never about an element of doubt for Nick Price. It was always about finding the right groove and all the things that the pursuit required.

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Now that he has, things could get mighty interesting for one of golf's most popular and engaging players.

The Champions Tour is in a break before entering the speed round of the 2010 season. It will return June 25-27 at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open before a trip north of the border for the new Montreal Championship.

And then it's into the meat of the major championship season with three major championships in five weeks. The stretch includes the Senior British Open at Carnoustie, the US. Senior Open in Seattle and the JELD-WEN Tradition in Oregon.

Based on what he's already done this year, Price will be poised to finally win a Champions Tour major and turn 2010 into his year of redemption.

Price, a winner of 18 tournaments on the PGA TOUR, including the 1992 PGA Championship, THE PLAYERS in 1993 and the British Open and PGA Championship in 1994, has won twice on the Champions Tour this year. He partnered with Mark O'Meara to win the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf and, in the most recent event before the break, the Principal Charity Classic.

Price arrived on the Champions Tour in 2007 expected to dominate but victory didn't come easily. He had to work hard and grind it out. The breakthrough came last year at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in Tampa, Fla. This year, he has seven top 10 finishes and is No. 3 on the money list ($873,852).

Price lost a three-man playoff last year at The Principal Charity Classic to Mark McNulty. There was no such slip-up this time.

"I did all the right things," Price said. "I just played really solid. I've been playing so well the last two months."

Price put the pressure on himself in the final round. He knew what it would mean to close the deal this year.

"Had I not finished off, it would have left a psychological scar because I couldn't have played any better than I did," he said.

In addition to outstanding driving, Price found a touch with a belly putter after something of an indifferent spell.

"That is huge for me," he said.

What's even bigger is the total state of his game. It's purring, and he knows it.

"I'm hitting the ball exactly how I want," said Price, offering an admission few golfers are likely to make for fear of tempting the fates.

"The only thing would have gotten in my way (at The Principal Charity Classic) would have been me. I have been getting in my own way last two, three years. You've obviously seen the mistakes I've made."

The antidote was to buckle down or, as Price puts it, "really batten down the hatches."

"I put my head down," he said. "I'm hoping the confidence I take and hopefully build on this. I really feel my game is in shape now to become a three, four times a year winner and that's really what I want to do.

"I want to go out my last two, three, four years in golf just winning because that's what I love to do so much. Golf is such a mental game. I'm so happy from where I was three years ago to where I am right now. It's the accumulation lot of hard work and also the desire."

The desire factor has been the wild card and Price has played that hand perfectly.

"Sometimes the desire is questioned," he said. "Whether you've still got it. I still have it. My first years (on the Champions Tour) were so disappointing. Since the middle of '08 onward, there's been light at the end of the tunnel. Now it's a very bright light. I'm happy to say I feel like I can win a little more consistently now."

Ask Price to identify why that's the case and he'll give you plenty of reasons.

"It's not one particular thing," he said. "It's a whole lot of little things. It's never one thing that stares you in the face. Golf is all about covering all your bases. That's why it takes time to get into form.

"I was playing so poorly at 50, it was not fun on the golf course. I was having fun off the golf course with the guys, not on it. I'm thrilled right now and I never doubted myself."

That's why Price, 53, believes his career could very well end with the same style and elegance he has displayed all these years.

"I'm going to play as long as I feel I can win out here," he said. "I probably have a few years left, until I'm 56 or 57, unless you're a freak like Hale Irwin or Tom Watson. If I play like they do at 60, I'll be playing, too."

Champions Tour Insider Vartan Kupelian is a freelance contributor for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.