Tom Lehman apparently knows how to take a punch.
Fred Couples went boom-boom with back-to-back eagles on Sunday, and David Frost threw some late jabs with three straight birdies, but Lehman came back unfazed from it all to keep slugging and win by a decision in the Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club in Parker.
The 51-year-old former British Open champion played his last dozen holes of regulation in 3 under par, then made a routine par on the first playoff hole while his opponents self-destructed. Couples and Frost, who had gone a combined 7 under par in the final four holes of regulation, looked like 15-handicappers in both making double bogeys in sudden death.
“The playoff was just a bizarre playoff,” Lehman said. “I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced anything like that. I turned to my caddie and said, “˜How many shots have they taken?’ “¦ Because, I have to be honest, I was nervous. In getting right there to the threshold of winning, it was the most nervous I had been all day.”
It’s no wonder why.
For Lehman, it was his first individual victory on the Champions Tour — he won a 2009 team event with Bernhard Langer — and his first non-team win on one of the major U.S.-based tours since 2000.
Finally notching a victory in the U.S. “feels great,” Lehman said. “To get back in the winner’s circle, after being close a lot, feels really good.”
Lehman was the only player to break par all four rounds in the first senior major of the year — 68-71-71-71 — and finished at 7-under-par 281. Frost was sensational on the weekend, backing up his course-record 65 on Saturday with a 67 on Sunday. And Couples, with his eagles on 15 and 16, could have won the title outright had he drained a 7-foot birdie putt on the final hole. But he settled for a final-round 69 and for the second straight day was in no mood to publicly discuss his performance.
Mark O’Meara (71-283) finished fourth and Nick Price (70-284) fifth.
All in all, after a lackluster start to the final day, it was spectacular finish, with Lehman, Couples and Frost exchanging and sharing the lead in the final several holes.
“It was nice to create some excitement for the viewers and yourself and your friends that follow you all the time,” Frost said. “That’s why we play the game. “¦ It’s nice to have a second life out here and being in this exciting mode playing the 18th (hole) in a playoff. We are all actually has-beens out here — we’re not going to resurrect our careers on the Champions Tour — but it’s nice to still be able to be in the limelight like that.”
After Jay Don Blake faltered in the middle of the round, then O’Meara fell off the pace, it was a three-man show. While Frost birdied 15, 16 and 17, and Lehman birdied 15 and 16 and got up and down for par on 18, it was Couples that created the real stir.
The winner of three Champions Tour events this year eagled the par-5 15th and 16th holes from 6 feet, in both cases moving into a tie for the lead.
“Freddie making two eagles coming home — that’s typical of Fred,” O’Meara said. “He walks out there like he doesn’t care, but trust me, he cares.”
But Couples couldn’t make a 7-foot birdie on No. 18 that, it turns out, would have won the tournament outright. And when Lehman made a 3½-footer to finish regulation, he and Couples and Frost returned to the 18th tee for a playoff.
Lehman felt he had the advantage, having completed play most recently, and he turned out to be right. He teed off first and hit a draw down the fairway. Frost went into the penal bunkers to the left and Couples went even further left, into a bush.
The wind carried Frost’s second shot well left of the green, leaving him with a bad lie and a tree between himself and the hole. Couples, meanwhile, had to take an unplayable-lie penalty, then left his third shot short of the green. After some less-than-stellar work around the green, both settled for double bogeys.
Lehman, with 132 yards left to the flag, hit a pitching wedge to 12 feet, then left his birdie attempt on the lip. But it didn’t matter with the way Couples and Frost were hacking it around.
“There is always an amazing sense of satisfaction when you win,” Lehman said. “”¦ Anytime you get the best players all together in one place to compete, and you win, you’ve really accomplished something.”
And this time, he has something to show for his victory — something besides the $360,000 paycheck, that is.
“I know the PGA of America will give me a trophy,” he said. “The last two tournaments I won — the Legends of Golf (with Langer) and the Argentina Masters — I didn’t get a trophy. The check is nice, but give me the trophy. Even my kid, he plays pee-wee football and he gets a trophy.”
“¢KITE IN U.S. OPEN QUALIFYING IN LITTLETON: PGA Tour players occasionally have been included in the field for the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying that’s held annually in Colorado, but it’s safe to say that a former U.S. Open champion or a World Golf Hall of Fame member has never competed.
This year, that’s scheduled to change when Columbine Country Club in Littleton hosts Sectional Qualifying on June 7. Tom Kite, who won the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and who was subsequently inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, is among the entrants at Columbine.
Coincidentally, this year’s U.S. Open will be played at Pebble Beach in California June 17-20.
Kite is one of 29 players competing over 36 holes, and though the number of U.S. Open qualifiers hasn’t been determined, two spots were up for grabs last year at Columbine.
Asked Sunday after completing the Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club why he picked Columbine for his Sectional site, Kite said, “We’re in Colorado this week and I get to play a practice round.”
Kite, a Texan who turned 60 in December, has won 19 PGA Tour events and another 10 on the Champions Tour. He finished 29th Sunday in the Senior PGA after struggling on the weekend (79-75).
Despite his age, Kite said he’s tried to qualify for the U.S. Open just about every year except 2009. And with Pebble Beach being the site of his lone major championship victory, that would make qualifying this year a little more special.
“I wouldn’t say (it’s) a big priority, but I’d like to do it,” he said.
Kite is scheduled to tee off at 7:55 a.m. and 1:25 p.m. on June 7 with Ben Portie of Westminster and Clay Ogden of Farmington, Utah.
In all, eight Coloradans are scheduled to compete at Columbine: Portie, Jason Preeo of Highlands Ranch, Zen Brown of Arvada, Kane Webber of Australia, Tyler Bishop of Longmont, Dustin White of Pueblo, Mike Kitowski of Aurora and Pete Severson of Aurora. In addition, two out-of-state players with Colorado ties are in the field: former Fort Collins resident Drew Stoltz and former Columbine member Bret Guetz.
Also competing at Columbine is former PGA Tour player Stephen Allan, an Australian who qualified for the U.S. Open last year at Columbine.
Columbine is one of 15 U.S. Open Sectionals scheduled worldwide.
“¢LOEFFLER FIRES AND FALLS BACK: By Sunday, Bill Loeffler must have been getting a little stomach sick with all the ups and downs he endured at the Senior PGA. For the record, the Castle Rock resident was great on Thursday (69), lousy on Friday (82), great on Saturday (69) and lousy on Sunday (79). Add it all up and he finished 56th overall.
More importantly on Sunday, Loeffler lost his chance to be low club professional. He entered the day tied for that distinction, but went downhill after hitting a ball in a bush on the first hole and finishing fourth in the club pro competition, seven strokes behind the low man, Lindy Miller of Fort Worth, Texas.
So what’s with the roller-coaster ride?
“I was trying to figure it out,” Loeffler said. “After about the fourth hole (I was thinking) “˜What in the world? Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Unfortunately, Mr. Hyde showed up today. “¦ This is so frustrating I can’t describe it.”
As for the other players with strong local ties who made the cut, Gary Hallberg of Castle Rock (72-294) finished 36th, former University of Colorado athlete Hale Irwin (77-301) was 65th, and Ron Vlosich of Lakewood (74-302) was 69th.
“¢RAVE REVIEWS FOR COLORADO GOLF CLUB: The praise for Colorado Golf Club wasn’t unanimous, but it was close. And course co-designer Ben Crenshaw had a smile on his face after it was all over despite finishing 45th in the Senior PGA.
“I thought the course played beautiful,” said Crenshaw, who worked on Colorado Golf Club with partner Bill Coore. “It played tough — the set-up is tough — but it’s in beautiful condition. The greens were just marvelous.
“I always thought that it would really yield to very, very well-thought-out golf. It was a strong test, though.”
The two-time Masters champion was pleased with the feedback he received on the 3½-year-old course, which was hosting its first major international event. Most players were complimentary, including fellow Texan Tom Kite, though Kite was critical of the severely sloping green complex on the par-5 16th.
“I think some people enjoyed the course for the most part,” Crenshaw said. “I really heard some nice comments from some of the players — especially from some of the international players. They seemed to like it a lot, which was nice to hear.”
Tom Watson, winner of eight major championship, certainly seems to be a fan.
“It’s a wonderful test of golf,” he said of Colorado Golf Club. “It requires every club in your bag and it’s a lot of fun to play this golf course.”
Next up as far as significant international golf events go, Colorado Golf Club will host the 2013 Solheim Cup, the female version of the Ryder Cup.
“It would be a wonderful match play course because there are some different holes,” Crenshaw said. “There are some situations where if you go for it you’ll get rewarded.”
“¢CHIP SHOTS: Sunday’s victory earned Tom Lehman a spot in August’s PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis. “¦ Sunday’s playoff was the first in the Senior PGA since 2006 and the first three-man playoff in the event since 2005. “¦ Fred Couples’ back-to-back eagles Sunday were the first consecutive eagles on the Champions Tour since 2008, when Denis Watson pulled off the feat at the Kinko’s Classic. “¦ Holes 6 through 11 proved quite a roller-coaster ride for Jay Don Blake, who led the tournament early in the round. In that stretch, he went bogey, eagle, double bogey, birdie, bogey, bogey. “¦ Keith Fergus withdrew after seven holes Sunday with a knee injury. “¦ Next year’s Senior PGA will be held at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky., where Hale Irwin won the tournament in 2004.
