LAKE ORION, Mich. — Roger Chapman has joined impressive company.
LAKE ORION, Mich. — Roger Chapman has joined impressive company.
The Englishman shot a 4-under 66 on Sunday to win the U.S. Senior Open by two strokes at 10 under.
Chapman, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Hale Irwin are the only players to win the U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship in the same year.
Before this year, his career highlight was a European Tour win in Brazil in 2000.
Bernhard Langer (72), Fred Funk (67), Tom Lehman (68) and Corey Pavin (68) finished tied for second at 8-under 272 at the Champions Tour’s fourth of five majors.
Langer took a four-shot lead into the final round and closed with a 2-over-par round.
The German said Saturday if he closed with a 2- or 3-under round, it would be difficult for anyone to catch him. When the German had a double bogey at No. 2, he gave Chapman a chance to pass him.
The wind picked up considerably Sunday — with gusts up to 20 mph — to make it even tougher to keep tee shots on the unforgiving and tight fairways and to accurately approach hard, undulating greens.
Chapman answered the challenge for much of the day with two birdies on the front nine and four through 14 holes. He chunked a shot of the bunker at 16, leading to a bogey that he made moot on the next hole.
The 53-year-old Chapman stepped to the potentially pivotal 195-yard, par-3 17th and calmly hit a tee shot that was close enough for a tap-in birdie to restore a two-shot lead.
Chapman chose to use his driver at the 462-yard, par-4 18th, and he got a break when his tee shot was stopped by fans standing along the left ropes. That gave him with a decent lie in the rough that he took advantage of with an approach that set him up for a two-putt par to seal the victory that proved what he did in May on the other side of Michigan wasn’t a fluke.
He had a stunning wire-to-wire win at the Senior PGA Championship in Harbor Springs at Harbor Shores, beating John Cook by two strokes after closing with two bogeys.
Player was the first to win the U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship in 1987, Nicklaus did it in 1991, and Irwin pulled off the feat in 1998.
Singh hits right notes
in Scottish Open playoff
INVERNESS, Scotland — Jeev Milkha Singh beat Francesco Molinari in a playoff Sunday to win the Scottish Open and secure a late berth in next week’s British Open.
A final-round meltdown by local hope Marc Warren left Singh and Molinari tied at 17-under 271. The 40-year-old Indian won by draining a 15-foot birdie on No. 18.
Singh shot a bogey-free 5-under 67 to tie for the lowest round of the day. Warren and overnight leader Molinari (72) dropped shots down a tough closing stretch into the wind.
A fierce westerly wind and occasional heavy rain proved too much for top-ranked Luke Donald (73) and Phil Mickelson (74), who finished tied for 16th at 12 under.
Zach Johnson wins
Deere Classic on playoff
SILVIS, Ill. — Zach Johnson won the John Deere Classic on the second playoff hole Sunday, hitting his second shot to a foot for a birdie to beat Troy Matteson.
After Johnson and Matteson double-bogeyed the 18th on their first playoff hole, Johnson hit a 193-yard second shot from a bunker to 12 inches from the cup, again on the 18th. Matteson needed to sink a 43-footer to match Johnson’s birdie, but didn’t get the putt to the hole.
It was Johnson’s second win of the season and ninth of his career.
Johnson birdied three of the last six holes in regulation, taking the lead until Matteson sank a 60-foot eagle putt on the par-5 17th.