Gil Morgan shoots his age with 7-under 65 at 3M Championship

All week long, Greg Vara will be at the Champions Tour 3M Championship, bringing content from TPC Twin Cities. You can follow Greg on Twitter right here.

BLAINE, Minn. — What exactly is in a number? On the Champions Tour, one number carries plenty of meaning — 50. The number years spent on this Earth before you are allowed to compete on the Champions Tour. It’s not just any number either; golfers near that magical age have historically fared very well on the Champions Tour. In fact, it’s been nearly seven years since anyone over the age of 55 has won the Charles Schwab Cup, which is awarded annually to the top golfer on the Champions Tour and no golfer currently in the top-10 of the Charles Schwab Cup standings entering this week has yet to reach his 55^th birthday.

The Champions Tour is certainly a young man’s game, or relatively young to be more precise, so what in the world is 65 year-old Gil Morgan doing atop the leaderboard after the first-round at the 3M Championship? For starters, he didn’t feel his age, at least not on Friday.

Unlike the “kids” on the PGA TOUR, who often struggle with the mental aspect of the game, the men on the Champions Tour wage a weekly battle against their own bodies. Morgan doesn’t even attempt to put up a macho front, he’s is the first to admit that this game gets more difficult with age, when asked about his injuries over the past two years and how they’ve affected his game, Morgan opined, “old age and sports just don’t mix that well”. This after listing his injuries over the past 24 months which included a torn knee ligament, elbow surgery, rotator cuff surgery, rib and neck issues and just this week a wrist injury.

With all that he’s dealt with over the past two years, it’s any wonder that Morgan got out of bed on Friday, let alone carded his best score this season. Oh, and the score he posted on Friday? Well it has something in common with another important number in Morgan’s life — his age.

Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo! Sports