WATCH: Second round highlights from the Shaw Charity Classic
Golf is a game for the generations. Grandfathers play with grandchildren, mothers with daughters, and fathers with sons.
Such is the case with Bob Tway and his son Kevin. Tway, claiming he putted better than he has in twenty years, shot a 7-under 63 on Saturday during the second round of the Shaw Charity Classic to sit in a three-way tie at the top with a score of 10-under par.
But when he reached the media center, Tway seemed distracted, busily checking his phone. It turns out he was looking for the results of his son Kevin, a PGA Tour player currently battling on the Web.com Tour to try to retain his playing privileges.
“I don’t really care about me—I just keep up with him,” said Tway following his round. “We talk every day about it. That’s what’s fun for me and that’s what’s great for me because he’ll call every night and talk about his round. I try to encourage him or help him, whatever I can. And I see him when I’m at home and we play golf and I watch him and he watches me.”
READ MORE: Fred Couples enjoying the huge galleries at the Shaw Charity Classic
The truth is that Tway, a former RBC Canadian Open winner who has one major—the PGA Championship—hasn’t exactly set the world on fire since hitting the Champions Tour and it turns out that Kevin Tway recognizes that. His feedback, is well, pretty pointed.
“He sees me play and he’s pretty direct too — ‘Dad that sucks,’” Tway said chuckling.“You know how kids are.”
Tway will have to channel some of the mojo that helped him beat Greg Norman to win the 1986 PGA Championship by two shots if he hopes to contend during the final round of the tournament. He’s tied atop a crowded Shaw Charity Classic leaderboard, neck-and-neck with Joe Daley and Joe Durant, but with 12 other players within three shots.
That just means Tway will have to play well.
“There’s less worry because you know if you don’t play good you’ll get past by the world,” he says.
One of those players who hopes to zoom up the leaderboard is German Bernhard Langer, who has won five times on the Champions Tour this year. Followed by a large gallery, Langer sits two shots back after finishing with a 5-under 65.
WATCH: Defending Champion Rocco Mediate talks about how he played Saturday, in round two of the Shaw Charity Classic
With so many players in contention—right down to last year’s winner Rocco Mediate and star Fred Couples, who are four shots off the pace—Langer says Sunday could be a wild ride.
“There’s a lot of golf yet—18 holes,” he says. “And a lot of things can happen over 18 holes.”
And while many will focus on the biggest names at the Shaw tournament—like Langer—Tway says there are plenty of golfers who could vault up the leaderboard tomorrow and it’ll take a low score to win on Sunday.
“I think every single person who comes out here doesn’t realize how good the competition is,” he says. “Every singly one found it is better than they thought it would be.”
No one knows that more than Daley, a journeyman who has spent much of this year trying to Monday qualifying into tournaments on the Champions Tour. Daley knows he’s not one of the names that is immediately recognizable in Calgary this week and understands just how hard it is to win in a three-day tournaments where birdies fall faster than the hail that hit the course mid-round.
The fact a player with the pedigree of Tway can’t break through with a win demonstrates that many underestimate the quality of the competition on the Champions Tour.
“There’s a lot of truth to that,” said Daley, who shot a 4-under to join Tway at the top of the leaderboard. “You have to be on your game, maybe more so than you even think.”
But if Daley can pull it off, there’s a heightened satisfaction that comes from beating some of the game’s biggest stars.
“These guys have been whooping me for decades so it is nice to get my game in shape where I can come out and persevere and come out on top from time to time,” he said.
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