Stankowski, Tiziani fire matching 65s to lead the Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO field
By Doug Milne
NAPLES, Fla. - With Hawaii and Morocco now in its rearview mirror, PGA TOUR Champions returns to Southwest Florida and the Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO for its first continental U.S. stop of the 2025 campaign.
Following birdies on four of his first six holes, Paul Stankowski added four more – in a row – on Nos. 12-15 before closing with a ninth birdie on the day at the par-5 18th to open with a 7-under 65.
Stankowski’s 65, his lowest opening-round score on the PGA TOUR champions in 80 starts, can be credited – at least in part – to finding all but one fairway off the tee, as well as 13-of-18 greens in regulation.
A T12 in 2022, his first of three previous Chubb Classic starts, stands as his best finish.
With this week’s Chubb Classic serving as his season-opening event, Stankowski remains in search of his first career win on PGA TOUR Champions.
“I'm encouraged by the start, but a little surprised by how low it was” Stankowski said. “The offseason was long, and I didn't play a whole lot of golf. I came in here really rusty. If you ask my pro-am partners from the last few days, I think I made two birdies in three days. I came to Florida on Wednesday last week and played a couple rounds. I saw my mom for a couple days, and then came here and played Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So, I played six rounds in eight days. This was the seventh in eight days.”
Making his third start in the Chubb Classic, and 60th on PGA TOUR Champions, Mario Tiziani, followed birdies on five of his first six holes with another at 11 and then an eagle-3 at the 12th before finishing with six straight pars and finishing with a 7-under 65 to claim a share of the 18-hole lead with Stankowski.
In relation to par, Tiziani’s 65 ties his career-low score on PGA TOUR Champions from the third round of the 2023 SAS Championship (T3). After his off-season, Tiziani – Steve Stricker’s brother-in-law – was pleasantly surprised by his first-round performance.
“I went to Q-School; did not succeed,” Tiziani said. “I really didn't play a ton. I went back home to Minneapolis and had jury duty for two weeks. Then, I just did the Christmas thing. I went to Hawaii with Steve (Stricker), caddied there and just kind of ramped it up the last couple weeks to prepare for it.”
To Tiziani, a round like his today speaks volumes to the bigger picture of how well he is coming into his own on PGA TOUR Champions.
“It's been a blast, I have to pinch myself,” he said. “I essentially quit the game when I was 40. I've had some success out here and people have been great. I've had the opportunity to spend time with the greats that I didn't really have a chance to do when I was on the PGA TOUR. So, I feel super fortunate. There’s a lot of encouragement from guys out here”
Tiziani hit all but one fairway and missed just two greens in regulation.
Making just his third start on PGA TOUR Champions, Sweden’s Freddie Jacobsen used the momentum of four consecutive birdies on Nos. 5-9 to add three more at Nos. 12, 13 and 18 to sign for a 6-under 66. His lone blemish was a bogey at the par-3 16th.
Jacobsen found 13 of 14 fairways off the tee and hit 14-of-18 greens in regulation.
“This is one of those courses that if you can drive the ball well off the tee, you're going to probably set yourself up with quite a few chances,” Jacobsen said. “I really tried to focus on dialing in the fairways and putting good swings on it. That gave me a lot of chances….and, I made a few.”
Jacobsen’s lone PGA TOUR title came at the 2011 Travelers Championship.
In his first start on PGA TOUR Champions since turning 50 in late September of 2024, the Swede finished T10 at the 2024 Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS in North Florida. He comes off a T28 at last week’s Trophy Hassan II after finishing runner-up in December at the 2024 PGA TOUR Champions Qualifying Tournament to earn his exempt status for the 2025 campaign.
“It has been awesome to see everybody,” Jacobsen said. “You can tell guys are enjoying themselves a lot out there. But it's competitive. There are a lot of good players. You got to be on top of it.”
Coming off his win two weeks ago at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, Ernie Els opened his fifth Chubb Classic with a 5-under 67. Level par though 11 holes, Els secured birdies on five of his last seven holes to get in with the 67.
In Els’ most recent three starts at Tiburon Golf Club, the World Golf Hall of Fame member finished T10 in 2022 and 2023 before improving to T3 last year. He followed his seventh PGA TOUR Champions win two weeks ago in Hawaii with a third place showing at the Trophy Hassan II last week.
Making his sixth start in the Chubb Classic, Darren Clarke had it to 8-under through 15 holes before finishing bogey-double bogey-par to get in at 5-under 67.
Clarke’s T16 in his first Chubb Classic start of 2019 marks his only top 20 finish in the event and, prior to today, was the only year in which he opened with a sub-70 score (68).
Clarke seeks a fifth PGA TOUR Champions title and first since the 2019 Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex.
In his bid to join Lee Trevino (1990-91) and Bernhard Langer (2022-23) as players to successfully defend a Chubb Classic title, last year’s champion Stephen Ames used four birdies to offset two bogeys and a double bogey to sign for a first-round 72.
2010, 2017 Chubb Classic champion Fred Couples overcame two bogeys with four birdies to open his eighth Chubb Classic in 2-under 70. Aside from a T21 in last year’s rain-shortened event (36 holes), the World Golf Hall of Fame member hasn’t finished outside the top 10.
Of course, with a record five victories in the event, intrigue and anticipation have swirled all week over Bernhard Langer as he tees it up in his 16th Chubb Classic.
In round one, the 67-year-old World Golf Hall of Fame member matched two bogeys with two birdies en route to an even-par 72. Aside from 2015 (WD) and 2018 (T36), Langer has never finished outside the top 10 in the event.
With the 2015 WD an exception, the only two Chubb Classic events in which Langer didn’t open with a round in the 60s were his first two starts of 2009 (70) and 2010 (73). He still managed T3 and T4 finishes, respectively.
Saturday’s second-round tee times run from 8:15 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. ET.
