On this day in 2016, Gene Sauers captured the 2016 U.S. Senior Open by one shot at Scioto Country Club in Ohio with a four-day total of 3-under-par 277 (68-69-71-69).
For Sauers, the victory marked his first major title as a senior and his first win since his third and final PGA TOUR win in 2002 at the Air Canada Championship.
The victory was also monumental for another reason. The Savannah native had stopped playing the game in the mid-2000s until 2012, and it was during this time Sauers battled with what was eventually diagnosed as Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare skin disease in which Sauers was given a 25 percent chance of survival.
During a seven-week hospital stay due to the disease in 2011, Sauers used golf to occupy his mind thinking of his swing and how he would play certain holes and courses. Once able to swing and play again, Sauers began working his way back and joined the PGA TOUR Champions in 2012 and played a full schedule in 2013.
Sauers lost in a playoff at the 2013 Insperity Championship and in the 2014 U.S. Senior Open to Colin Montgomerie before breaking through in 2016 at Scioto Country Club. He continues to play on the PGA TOUR Champions and as of Aug. 15 had competed in eight events making six cuts and racking up two top 15 finishes.
Sauers was inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2012 and was the PGA TOUR Comeback Player of the Year award winner and the 2016-2017 PGA TOUR Courage Award recipient.
