Hale Irwin, 65, Shoots His Age But Doesn't Get Recognition From Press

Hale Irwin is the most decorated Champions Tour player in its history. After Friday’s six-under-par 65, he can now add shooting his age to share a first-round lead to the list of accomplishments.

Except major sports websites like ESPN, Fox Sports and NBC sports didn’t think it was a big deal. Only homepages of Golf.com, a Sports Illustrated website, and the golf sections of USA Today, CBS Sports and Yahoo! had a short brief on it.

I’m outraged that this is all the coverage Irwin’s getting. It feels like he is getting the short end of the stick for being on the “senior” tour.

The 1992 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee has won 45 times on the Champions Tour—16 more than Lee Trevino—and yet he can’t get a columnist from one of the aforementioned sites to write about it.

Even if Irwin wins and earns 264 points, it’s unlikely, but not impossible, he’ll be in the top 30 rankings to play in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on Nov. 4.

But not a single columnist thought Irwin’s feat on Friday was worth a mention?

Irwin had five birdies, an eagle and a bogey at the 6,670-yard Oak Hills Country Club and made a solid up-and-down on the 18th to shoot a score matching his age.

What Irwin did deserves more press and I am disappointed—no, outraged—that he didn’t get it.

Irwin is tied at the top of the AT&T Championship with Larry Nelson, Chien Soon Lu, Mark Wiebe and John Cook, the 2007 and 2008 winner.

But out of those, Irwin is currently the greatest player to ever play on the Champions Tour.

At least with my voice here, he’ll get the recognition he deserves for what he did Friday.

Full disclosure: I interviewed Irwin at the 2010 Toshiba Classic for The Daily Pilot.