Sports Column

Bob Gilder not on course yet for retirement

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Jul 28, 2010

Corvallis' Bob Gilder keeps grinding on the Champions Tour.

OTTO GREULE JR. / GETTY IMAGES

Golf, as they say, is a lifetime activity.

But championship golf has an expiration date.

Bob Gilder turns 60 on New Year’s Eve and is a grandfather nine times, but there are no indications he need begin preparation for a retirement party.

The Corvallis native, who tees off Thursday afternoon in the first round of the U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., is slowing down only a little in his 10th season on the Champions Tour.

Gilder ranks 39th on the Champions money list with $195,568 in earnings, with a stroke average of 71.54. He’s on target to have a better year than in 2009, when he finished 53rd on the tour with $312,294 and held a stroke average of 71.74.

The year began poorly for Gilder, who was working on a swing change that began last fall.

“I wasn’t turning away, and it made me hit the ball left all the time,” he says. “It was hard to get the (approach shot) close to the hole. I wasn’t getting many birdie chances.”

For most of his Champions career, Gilder had putted crosshanded. Two and a half years ago, he converted to the claw grip. In the last month, he switched back to crosshanded, and two of his last three finishes have been 17th in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open at Endicott, N.Y., and tied for fifth in the Montreal Championships.

“I’m just starting to feel a little more comfortable,” Gilder says. “I’m coming along. I’m looking forward to the second half of the year to see what we can get done.”

At Montreal, “I hit my irons better than I had a long time,” he says. “That’s what has given me a lot of confidence now. I feel like I can go at some pins I hadn’t been able to go at lately.”

After a solid PGA career that saw him win six times and earn more than $3 million, Gilder has been a stalwart on the Champions Tour for a decade, with nine titles and nearly $10 million in earnings.

Gilder earned more than $1 million in each of his first three seasons, ranking second on the money list with $2,367,637 in 2002, the year he won the Harry Glickman Award for the state’s top pro athlete at the Oregon Sports Awards. He ranked among the top 30 money-winners on the Champions Tour every year until 2009, and he has a shot to get back up there again.

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