Shortly after claiming medalist honors in a U.S. Amateur qualifying tournament in late July — and shooting a course-record 63 at Ptarmigan Country Club in the process — Gunner Wiebe was asked if what he had done was his biggest accomplishment in golf.
The Aurora resident said that it probably was, but quickly added that the time he’s spent with his dad, Mark, means more to him — especially celebrating his father’s monumental first victory on the Champions Tour, in 2007.
The Champions circuit is full of stories of players who have revived their careers when they turned 50, and Mark Wiebe (pictured) certainly fits prominently into that category. On Sunday, the longtime Coloradan wrapped up his second full season on the Champions Tour, having posted top-25 finishes in each of his last eight tournaments.
To see how dramatically Wiebe’s career has rebounded, consider this: In his last six-plus years of playing tour golf before turning 50 (mid-July 2001 through Sept. 13, 2007) , Wiebe earned a grand total of $76,604 in prize money on the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour — combined. During that stretch, he made just 18 cuts in 90 tournaments, including only two cuts in his last 29 PGA Tour events. Suffice it to say it was a frustrating time for a player who won twice on the PGA Tour in the mid-1980s — in addition to a victory in the 1986 Colorado Open — and who accumulated more than $4.3 million in his Tour career.
But in his first 26 months on the Champions circuit, Wiebe has racked up $2.32 million in official money, including more than $817,000 this year. He’s won twice during that stretch, and though he didn’t post a victory in 2009, he was third twice, including in the final major championship of the season, the Senior Players.
And few players were more consistent the last 10 weeks of the season. In the eight tournaments held during that period, Wiebe never finished out of the top 25, and he recorded three top-10s. His stroke average during that stretch was a sterling 69.7.
The bottom line is this: Wiebe has firmly established himself as one of the top 20 players on the Champions Tour. He finished 17th on the money list in 2008 and 19th this year.
Wiebe has now played in 55 events on the Champions Tour and averages $42,149 per start. In other words, he earns more in two typical tournaments nowadays than he did for the entire six-year period leading up to his 50th birthday.
Asked last year about the remarkable revival of his career, Wiebe said, “My game was in decent shape, but I worked my butt off for a long time. For four or five years, I had trouble with injuries and I think I played bad mainly because of those injuries.”
But, as Wiebe and son Gunner can happily attest, those days now seem like a distant memory.
