Blog: Rookie Sindelar shares his first-week experiences

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Joey Sindelar turned the big 5-0 on March 30 and joins the Champions Tour for the Cap Cana Championship. Sindelar, a seven-time PGA TOUR winner and one of the TOUR's most personable guys, last captured a title at the 2004 Wachovia Championship for his first win in 14 years. He's hoping to grab some more victories but is most excited about rejoining his old friends and getting a second opportunity to play golf. Sindelar will be writing a diary for PGATOUR.COM throughout his rookie season to share some of his more memorable moments. Take a look at his first entry.

I've got a lot of firsts happening this week. It's my first time on the Champions Tour, first time being 50, first time at this beautiful place in the Dominican Republic.

Joey Sindelar debuts on the Champions Tour this week. (Greenwood/WireImage)

There are only a handful of guys that I don't know or know only from TV because they played on the PGA TOUR at a different time. It's been absolutely wonderful catching up with all of my old friends. We've had a blast and giggled about stories from the past, things we've done, places we've been, things we want to do. It's been pretty awesome.

This is either the first or second greatest job in the world, depending on how you rank it next to the pressures and the benefits on the PGA TOUR. It's amazing to have this opportunity at this stage in life and I've been hearing great things about the no-cut policy, carts if you need them on a hilly course, the excellent treatment and the camaraderie.

I've noticed this really interesting theme from a bunch of the guys, especially from the more recent turnover of guys. They tell me that I'm not going to look back. It's something I've wondered about -- how hard would leaving be? Obviously I wasn't ever Tiger Woods out there on the PGA TOUR, but I had a fun career, and it seemed bittersweet to be leaving. I got to play on the best TOUR in the world.

But I've talked to about 25 guys by now and, of the recent changeover guys, all of them have said you aren't going to miss it. It's so cool and so much fun the way we do business out here. Of course we all still want to win and want to do our best, but it's a quarter turn to the more pleasant side. That theme struck me and feels very good.

I don't know how much you guys know about John Mahaffey, but when he and I would get paired together on the PGA TOUR we laughed until we cried. Right when we saw each other, we fell back in that mode. I've gotten great warm welcomes from Tom Purtzer, Jay Haas, D.A. Weibring, but that's not a surprise since they are always such nice guys. Fuzzy Zoeller was picking on me, and Hale Irwin reminded me that rookie shoeshine duty was down in the locker room.

A couple of my international competitor friends like Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle just got out here. It's so funny; back in the 1980s, Woosnam and I were invited as the up-and-comers to play in the exclusive World Match Play Championship in London. Now here we are, rookies out on the Champions Tour.

The names of guys I've run into are endless -- Wayne Grady, Morris Hatalsky, others -- these are all guys I've only seen in my dreams and nightmares (kidding) for some time now, and here they are.

They've all told me this is an odd week to have as your first on the Champions Tour since the tournament is outside of the U.S. It's a brand new event with an amazing golf course where wind will be a prime factor. Since it's a new tournament, we are all going to be finding our way and have been walking around with our eyes and mouths wide open. It is truly beautiful.

The course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and sits on the ocean the entire 18 holes. Wind will be a factor. It's been blowing at 25 to 35 miles per hour for three days now, but that's not how it normally is. I would imagine 10 to 15 miles per hour is probably the norm. At those levels, it would be much kinder to us guys trying to play golf. The locals have been incredible hosts, and you couldn't ask for a greater experience.

You're going to see a lot of me out here. My wife is considering kicking me out of the house for every tournament eligible. I'll play in virtually all of what I'm eligible for the rest of the year.

Oh, I am going to miss one or two because my son Jamie is graduating from high school in New York, and then he heads off for college at Ohio State University. He will be playing for the same coach, Jim Brown, that I played for when I was a Buckeye. Jamie has had a love affair with Ohio State since he was young because we used to go to Jack's Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio, and my family (including my younger son Ryan and wife Sue) has gone to football games there over the past few years.

Ohio State has been in his blood for a long time, and now he will get to be a part of the same team that I was, so we are thrilled about that.

I will miss tournaments for each of those reasons, but hopefully no other ones unless I get injured. People ask me if I'm going to play on the PGA TOUR any more and I say no, I'm here. Well, I did notice that there's not a Champions Tour event opposite the Turning Stone Resort Championship on the PGA TOUR, so if my number gets called or if they are kind enough to invite me, that would be great. It's only a few hours from my home in New York.

As time goes on, if I were to play well enough to win a major on the Champions Tour, usually you get to play in the corresponding version on the PGA TOUR. That's not to say I'm certain that I'll win a major, but it would be a big thrill.

This whole experience is an incredibly great chance to extend a professional sports career for another bunch of years. Where else can a guy do that? It's a big thrill. The guys can seriously play golf out here, and the competition will be awesome. As I've been getting closer to joining, my family has started watching the tournaments on the GOLF CHANNEL. We are all very excited.