In the early 1990s Sauers finished two tournaments in a tie for first place at the end of regulation: the 1992Bob 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.[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 1998Nike 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.
United States
