Stephen Ames

Stephen Ames (born April 28, 1964) is a golfer on the PGA TOUR holding dual citizenship of Trinidad and Tobago and Canada.

Ames was born San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago and is of English/Trinidadian Portuguese descent^[1], and much of his family resides in the Caribbean nation. His grandmother was Trinidad and Tobago Champion 20 times. He grew up in Pointe-à-Pierre and learned to play at the Petrotrin Pointe-à-Pierre Golf Club.

Ames' golfing talent developed early in life, assisted by support and discipline from his father, Michael. In his Hoerman Cup debut at the age of 16 in 1980, he smashed the course record at Sandy Lane, Barbados with a six-under-par total of 66. He won a Golf scholarship at Boca Raton in the United States and turned professional in 1987, but failed to win a PGA Tour card over the following few years, partly due to a neck injury. He won his first professional tournament in the United States (the Pensacola Open) in 1991 on the Ben Hogan Tour.

In 1992 he tried his luck at European Tour Qualifying School and was successful. He spent five seasons on the European Tour and performed consistently, making the top eighty on the Order of Merit each time, with a best of thirteenth in 1996. He won the 1994 Open V33 Grand Lyon in France and the 1996 Benson & Hedges International Open in England.

In 1997 Ames finished third at the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament to earn exempt status for the 1998 season. In his first six seasons he performed solidly but didn't break into the top 40 of the money list. He found a new level in his game in 2004. Until this year his main claim to fame in the US had been his runner up placing to Craig Perks at the 2002 Players Championship, however Stephen enjoyed his first PGA tour victory in July 2004 winning the Cialis Western Open among a field that included many of the best professionals in the world, including Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Davis Love III. [2] Later that year he reached the top twenty in the Official World Golf Rankings.

Despite these achievements, Ames has never received the "Sportsman of the Year" award in Trinidad and Tobago. [3] He was, however, awarded the Chaconia Medal (Gold), the nation's second highest honour, in 2004. His Canadian wife is a former air hostess and he took Canadian citizenship in 2004.

In February 2006, after provoking world No. 1 Tiger Woods with the comment: "Anything can happen, especially where (Tiger's) hitting the ball," Ames was soundly defeated by Woods at the world Match play Championship at La Costa, losing 9 and 8, the earliest a player can possibly lose in an eighteen-hole match Play event. However, on March 26, Ames overcame the record defeat by taking the prestigious The PLAYERS Championship at the TPC at Sawgrass. Playing against 48 of the top 50 golfers in the World (including Woods), Ames emerged victorious, with a record-equaling six stroke margin over World No. 3 Retief Goosen, becoming the second-oldest Champion in championship history (tying Hal Sutton). Coincidentally, Ames and Sutton share the same birthday, April 28, though Sutton was born in 1958. With the win Ames surpassed the $10 million US barrier. With the victory, Ames climbed 37 places to 27th in the Official World Golf Ranking.