Emotional Champ in position for second win at Safeway

NAPA, Calif. – Cameron Champ has had to fight hard not to break down on the course.

Jeff Champ, his father, welled up with tears as the sun dipped low Saturday evening, Cameron a few feet away indulging reporters with stories about the man who started it all, Grandpa Mack.

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“I mean, he's the most loving man I know,” Cameron said after shooting a third-round 67 to take a three-shot lead over Adam Hadwin (67), Sebastian Munoz (67) and Nick Taylor (70).

Mack Champ – Jeff’s father, Cameron’s grandfather – is in hospice care with stage IV stomach cancer at home in Sacramento. The Champ family has been shuttling back and forth between there and Napa, where Cameron has written “POPS” on his shoes and golf balls. It was Grandpa Mack, after all, who taught his grandson the game he once wasn’t even allowed to play.

“Oh, it would be huge,” Cameron said, when asked what it would mean to win.

Despite failing to birdie any of the par 5s, Champ shot one of the best rounds of the afternoon starters, who saw the toughest wind. He cited his college years at windy Texas A&M for steeling him for the Safeway, and now, almost exactly a year since he won in just the second start of his rookie season at the Sanderson Farms Championship, he’ll go for PGA TOUR win No. 2 Sunday.

“When he's hitting it straight, it's hard to catch up because he's 40 ahead of me and he's got wedge or 9-iron when I'm hitting 5-iron or something,” said Collin Morikawa (70, 10 under, four back), who played with Champ on Saturday. “But it's awesome to watch. I've watched and I've grown up playing with him a lot. I've always seen how far he hits it.”

Champ is one-for-one with the 54-hole lead (Sanderson). One suspects his focus will be tested at the Safeway, but focus is precisely what his grandfather has preached most.

“Me and my dad, we always laugh about it because he always says, ‘Stay focused, stay focused,’” Champ said. “Like, ‘OK, Pops.’ He just said, ‘Play free,’ and that’s what I've been doing. It's been nice. I haven't made any of the mistakes, simple … up-and-downs in front of the greens, I felt like I was struggling with those all last year.”

Grandpa Champ’s other big saying: “It’s not where you come from, it’s where you’re going.” (So often has he heard it that Cameron had the words stamped on his wedges.)

Mack Champ endured racial discrimination as he grew up in Columbus, Texas, about 75 miles west of Houston. He caddied on a nine-hole course for 75 cents a loop, but wasn’t allowed to play there. Not until he was stationed overseas with the Air Force did he begin to learn the game, teaching himself the swing in part by reading “Sam Snead’s Natural Golf.”

Son Jeff Champ was not a golfer but a minor-league baseball player – a catcher, like Earl Woods. As a result, it wasn’t until the arrival of Cameron that Mack had a willing student to impart the lessons he’d learned in golf, and, much later, someone to walk the fairways with. When Cameron won the Sanderson last season, Mack was brought into the victory celebration by iPhone.

“We did it for you, Grandpa,” Jeff said. “We did it for you.”

Despite his late tee time (5 p.m. ET with Munoz, who will go for his second victory in as many weeks), Cameron Champ said he didn’t plan any more trips to visit his grandfather until after the tournament. Although he would dearly love to bring the trophy to Sacramento, he said the dire situation with “POPS,” who hasn’t been eating, has put golf into perspective.

“Whether I shoot 80 tomorrow or whether I shoot 65, I really don't care,” he said. “I'm just going to focus on, you know, putting my best round together and whatever that's going to be tomorrow, it's going to be.”