Former Aspen resident Justin Leonard breaks through for first PGA Tour Champions victory — and first tour-sanctioned win since 2008; meanwhile, Wyndham Clark surpasses Hale Irwin’s single-tour career money record for a Colorado high school graduate
By Gary Baines – 2/16/2025
The former Aspen “mountain man” has reached the mountaintop.
Justin Leonard, the 1997 British Open champion who resided in Aspen from 2015-22, on Sunday recorded his first PGA Tour Champions victory — and first win in any PGA Tour-sanctioned circuit since the 2008 St. Jude Championship.
In his 45th Champions start, Leonard pulled away down the stretch to post a four-stroke victory at the Chubb Classic in Naples in his new home state of Florida.
After a PGA Tour career in which he won a dozen times, Leonard went 68-65-68 for a 15-under-par total to notch his first Champions Tour title. The victory was worth $270,000 for the man who went by the handle of @JLMountainMan on X while he lived in Aspen.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve won, and I tell myself all the time that I have won,” an emotional Leonard said on the Golf Channel immediately after the round. “But it’s easy to kind of forget a little bit, and say, well, you know, is it going to be? … It’s just so fun to finally be here because I always felt like I would be. But it’s nice to finally get it done.”
Leonard took a one-stroke lead into the final round, fell from the top spot early on the final nine on Sunday, then closed out the victory thanks to playing his final seven holes in 5 under par.
Leonard salvages a key par on No. 11 before surging ahead on Sunday.
Down the stretch, he drained birdie putts of 12 feet on No. 12, 8 feet on No. 13, 30 feet on No. 14, 40 feet on No. 17 and 2 feet on 18. But probably just as important — or more so — was a 12-foot par save on No. 11 after having to chip out following a tee shot that went left.
“You don’t see me fist pump very often,” said Leonard, who did just that after sinking that par putt. “I felt like after bogeying 10, if I make bogey there, it would be a tough sled coming in. That was a momentum booster, definitely the little putt and 9-iron to save the week.
“I kept telling myself to just own the last six holes or the last seven holes. Once I got a little bit of momentum I felt like I could ride it.”
Leonard, a former TV analyst on the Golf Channel, had come close to victory since turning 50, most notably in 2023 at the PURE Insurance Championship, where a double bogey at Pebble Beach Golf Links’ famed 18th hole — on the fourth hole of a playoff — left him runner-up.
For all the scores from the Chubb Classic, CLICK HERE.
Wyndham Clark. (2025 file photo)
— Wyndham Clark Sets New Local Tour Money Standard: When Hale Irwin was ruling on PGA Tour Champions, his consistency in being in contention was remarkable. If he wasn’t winning, he was at least very often in the hunt.
The Boulder High School and University of Colorado alum won 45 times on the Champions circuit and recorded a remarkable 149 top-5 finishes and 211 top-10 showings.
That’s a big reason why the World Golf Hall of Famer won a remarkable $27,158,515 on a tour where the money is a fraction of what it is on the PGA Tour.
Irwin has long held the record for most official money won in a career on a single tour by a golfer who grew up in Colorado. But on Sunday, he had to give way for a fellow Colorado Golf Hall of Famer who is making big chunks of money on the extremely lucrative current-day PGA Tour.
With a 31st-place finish Sunday at the Genesis Invitational signature event at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif., Clark surpassed Irwin for that distinction. The Valor Christian graduate earned $126,000 on Sunday, giving him $27,172,626 for his PGA Tour career.
To put into some perspective the money differences between the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions — as well as between eras, Irwin won $27,158,515 in 481 PGA Tour Champions events, while Clark has earned $27,172,626 in 169 tournaments on the PGA Tour.
To emphasize the changes in purses over the years, Clark has won three times on the PGA Tour (with one major title), while Irwin won 20 times on the PGA Tour (with three majors), and accumulated $5,966,031 on that tour in 661 events — less than one-quarter as much as Clark.
For all the scores from the Genesis Invitational, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com