Gene Sauers

Sauers was born in Savannah, Georgia and started playing golf at the age of nine with his father. He attended Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia.

Sauers turned pro in 1984 and joined the PGA Tour later in the year. He quickly had success winning the 1986 Bank of Boston Classic and the 1989 Hawaiian Open.^[2][3] He also won the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic in Mississippi in 1990, opposite the Masters in April, before it was an official money event.

In the early 1990s Sauers finished two tournaments in a tie for first place at the end of regulation: the 1992 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, which he lost on the fourth extra hole of a playoff to John Cook, and the 1994 St. Jude Classic, which he and Hal Sutton lost to Tour rookie Dicky Pride. During this era, he also recorded his highest finish in a major championship: a tie for second at the 1992 PGA Championship, which he led for the first three rounds.^[4]

Sauers lost his tour card in 1995 and had to play primarily on the Nike Tour. He recorded one victory on the Nike Tour at the 1998 Nike South Carolina Classic, and about a dozen top-10 finishes.^[5] In late 2002, Sauers won the Air Canada Championship on the PGA Tour. It gave him a two-year exemption. Sauers also received the PGA Comeback Player of the Year award in 2002.

Sauers competed on the PGA Tour until 2005. From 2006 to 2010, he did not compete professionally after an initial misdiagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis turned out to be Stevens–Johnson syndrome, and he was given only a 25-percent chance of survival. Over several months, during which he received multiple skin grafts that left visible scarring, he gradually recovered.^[6][7]

Sauers finally overcame the disease and played a limited Nationwide Tour schedule in 2011 and 2012 before making his Champions Tour debut at the Boeing Classic near Seattle in 2012. He earned two top-10 finishes in 2012 and was also inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.^[8] Playing a full season in 2013, Sauers was twice a runner-up, including a playoff loss to Esteban Toledo at the Insperity Invitational. He finished nineteenth on the Champions Tour money list.^[6]

In the first six months of 2014, Sauers played in eleven events, with six top-25 finishes and a best of T-15 at the Allianz Championship in early February.^[9] At the U.S. Senior Open in Oklahoma in July, he was tied with Colin Montgomerie after 72 holes but lost in a three-hole playoff.^[10]

Two years later in 2016, Sauers earned his first win as a senior at the U.S. Senior Open in Ohio.

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	Sep 14, 1986	Bank of Boston Classic	70-71-64-69=274	−10	Playoff	Blaine McCallister
2	Feb 12, 1989	Hawaiian Open	65-67-65=197*	−19	1 stroke	David Ogrin
3	Sep 1, 2002	Air Canada Championship	69-65-66-69=269	−15	1 stroke	Steve Lowery

*Note: The 1989 Hawaiian Open was shortened to 54 holes due to rain.

PGA Tour playoff record (1–3)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1986	Bank of Boston Classic	Blaine McCallister	Won with birdie on third extra hole
2	1991	KMart Greater Greensboro Open	Mark Brooks	Lost to par on third extra hole
3	1992	Bob Hope Chrysler Classic	John Cook,   Rick Fehr,   Tom Kite,   Mark O'Meara	Cook won with eagle on fourth extra hole Fehr eliminated by birdie on second hole Kite and O'Meara eliminated by birdie on first hole
4	1994	Federal Express St. Jude Classic	Dicky Pride,   Hal Sutton	Pride won with birdie on first extra hole

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	May 3, 1998	Nike South Carolina Classic	70-69-72-69=280	−8	1 stroke	Craig Kanada,   Sean Murphy

• 1983 Georgia Open
• 1985 Georgia Open
• 1986 Georgia Open
• 1990 Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	Aug 15, 2016	U.S. Senior Open	68-69-71-69=277	−3	1 stroke	Miguel Ángel Jiménez,   Billy Mayfair

PGA Tour Champions playoff record (0–5)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	2013	Insperity Championship	Mike Goodes,   Esteban Toledo	Toledo won with par on third extra hole Sauers eliminated by par on second hole
2	2014	U.S. Senior Open	Colin Montgomerie	Lost three-hole aggregate playoff; Montgomerie: E (5-3-4=12), Sauers: x (5-4-x=x)
3	2017	Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic	Miguel Ángel Jiménez	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
4	2017	3M Championship	Paul Goydos	Lost to birdie on first extra hole
5	2022	ClubCorp Classic	Steven Alker,   Scott Parel	Parel won with par on first extra hole

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runners-up
2016	U.S. Senior Open	1 shot deficit	−3 (68-69-71-69=277)	1 stroke	Miguel Ángel Jiménez,   Billy Mayfair

Results not in chronological order before 2022.

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

• 1983 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates

• Gene Sauers at the PGA Tour official site
• Gene Sauers at the Official World Golf Ranking official site