+Scroll down past the "Final Totals" to read Martin Dempster's summary of Andy Oldcorn's great performance in the States
Lehman beats Couples, Frost in US
PGA Seniors play-offFROM THE PGA.COM WEBSITE
PARKER, Colorado -- Tom Lehman won the 71st Senior PGA Championship on Sunday with a par on the first play-off hole, where Fred Couples and David Frost were done in by bad tee shots and double-bogeyed.
Rookie senior Andy Oldcorn from Edinburgh finished a highly creditable joint eighth.
After Lehman began the sudden death play-off on No 18 with a solid shot down the fairway, Couples' only bad tee shot of the tournament veered left into the shrubs, forcing him to take a drop.
Frost's tee shot ended up in the left bunker and he pulled his second shot left of the gallery. He cleared out dozens of pine cones in between him and the green before striking his ball, which was nestled in a shrub, across the green.
Frost and Couples finished with 6s before Lehman's birdie putt from 12 feet came up a quarter roll short. He smiled, tapped it from there, pumped his right fist and cradled the silver trophy.
Lehman's first individual Champions Tour triumph -- he teamed with Bernhard Langer to win the 2009 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf -- was worth $360,000.
Since turning the requisite 50 years old in October, Couples has energized the Champions Tour, winning half of the six events he entered before coming to Colorado, where the thin air favored his strong drives -- but not in sudden death.
After congratulating Lehman, Couples put his head down and stormed toward the clubhouse, where he quickly grabbed a couple of irons out of his locker and bolted for the parking lot.
"It's pretty disappointing," was all Couples had to say as he hustled to a waiting car.
Behind back-to-back eagles on Nos. 15 and 16, Couples had a chance to win this tournament outright in regulation but his eight-foot putt for birdie on 18 missed by an inch. Just as he was putting, a wind gust of about 25 mph came, but he didn't back away.
His tap-in left him with a 69 and in a tie with Frost (67) and Tom Lehman (71), who joined the playoff at 7 under par by sinking a 4-foot putt on 18 in only a slight breeze.
Frost simply ran out of miracles on the 73rd hole.
He was tied for 45th at 5 over par after 36 holes -- a dozen shots Couples, who led at the halfway mark -- before shooting 65-67 over the weekend.
Frost said he didn't have to go back too far for inspiration when he was sitting 12 shots back Friday night: "I was thinking Tim Clark," he said.
Trailing by seven shots going into the weekend, Clark set a TPC Sawgrass record with the largest 36-hole comeback to win The Players Championship three weeks ago.
Lehman began the day as the co-leader with Jay Don Blake, whose eagle on No. 7 gave him a two-shot lead that lasted but a few precious minutes.
Blake, whose winless streak was extended to 396 starts, sauntered onto the eighth hole, took a couple of practice swings free and easy with his 4-iron -- and promptly topped his tee shot 30 yards into the bushes.
"I just totally shanked one, shanked it right into a ditch," Blake said. "From then on, I felt like I couldn't really be at ease at hitting some good iron shots. I was pretty cautious all day. That kind of put me in a bad frame of mind."
After taking the penalty and carding a double-bogey, both Blake's game and dreams of winning for the first time since 1991 began to unravel.
"It gets in your head," said Blake, who finished with a 76, tied for eighth place at 2 under for the tournament. "Every situation you come up, you don't know if it's going to happen again."
Mark O'Meara (71) finished two shots behind the trio in the playoff and Nick Price (70) finished three strokes off the pace.
It was cooler and calmer Sunday at the picturesque Colorado Golf Club, but the pin placements were the toughest yet. The ever-shifting winds added to the adversity the golfers faced at the 3-year-old course co-designed by Ben Crenshaw, rendering them unable to play the same way from round to round.
The course got high marks from the field for its difficulty and complexity, which forced the golfers to think their way around the 7,464-foot monster that has a high elevation of 6,200 feet and cuts through open meadows, wooded hillsides and streams while playing to a par-72.
Crenshaw said he might tweak the eighth hole, which drew some complaints, and wants to fatten the fairways for any future majors.
FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72)
T1 David Frost 72 77 65 67 281
T1 Fred Couples 69 68 75 69 281
T1 Tom Lehman 68 71 71 71 281 (
won three-way play-off at first extra hole).
4 Mark O'Meara 73 67 71 283
5 Nick Price 70 71 73 70 284
T6 Larry Mize 73 72 70 70 285
T6 Bill Glasson 69 75 70 71 285
T8 Robin Freeman 66 75 75 70 286
T8
Andrew Oldcorn 73 75 67 71 286 ($54,000).
T8 Jay Don Blake 71 69 70 76 286
T11 Peter Senior 74 70 73 70 287
T11 Michael Allen 71 72 71 73 287
T11 Chip Beck 71 71 71 74 287
T11 Chien Soon Lu 70 70 73 74 287
T15 Loren Roberts 77 70 70 71 288
T15 Olin Browne 73 73 70 72 288
T15 Mike Goodes 71 71 70 76 288
T18 Tom Watson 73 76 72 68 289
T18 Boonchu Ruangkit 73 73 71 72 289
T18 Eduardo Romero 73 72 71 73 289
T21 Jeff Sluman 77 74 69 70 290
T21 Dan Forsman 70 74 69 77 290
T23 Don Pooley 74 76 72 69 291
T23 Russ Cochran 73 72 74 72 291
T23 Bernhard Langer 66 75 75 75 291
T23 Fred Funk 72 70 73 76 291
T23 Jay Haas 73 73 70 75 291
T23 Brad Bryant 68 80 67 76 291
T29 Gene Jones 76 72 73 71 292
T29 Lindy Miller 71 75 74 72 292
T29 Joe Ozaki 74 72 74 72 292
T29 Tom Kite 69 69 79 75 292
T29 Tim Simpson 76 70 72 74 292
T34 Mike Reid 79 72 71 71 293
T34 Bob Tway +5 F E 77 73 71 72 293
T36 Gary Hallberg +6 F E 71 75 76 72 294
T36 John Ross +6 F -1 75 76 72 71 294
T36 John Cook +6 F -1 78 72 73 71 294
T36 David Eger +6 F -1 79 71 73 71 294
T36 Chris Starkjohann(CP) +6 F -3 71 77 77 69 294
T41 Des Smyth +7 F +3 74 72 74 75 295
T41 Nick Job +7 F E 72 78 73 72 295
T41 Scott Simpson +7 F +6 71 72 74 78 295
T41 Morris Hatalsky +7 F -2 78 73 74 70 295
T45 Ben Crenshaw +8 F +3 72 75 74 75 296
T45 James Blair III(CP) +8 F +4 74 72 74 76 296
T45 Bob Gilder +8 F +3 73 77 71 75 296
T45 Jim Rutledge +8 F +1 76 72 75 73 296
T45 Angel Franco +8 F E 74 74 76 72 296
T50 Keith Clearwater +9 F +2 75 76 72 74 297
T50 Bruce Vaughan +9 F +2 73 77 73 74 297
T50 Larry Nelson +9 F +1 77 72 75 73 297
T50 David Peoples +9 F +1 75 73 76 73 297
T54 Ronnie Black +10 F +5 77 72 72 77 298
T54 Bobby Clampett +10 F +1 75 74 76 73 298
T56 Gil Morgan 76 74 73 76 299
T56 Bill Loeffler 69 82 69 79 299
T56
Sam Torrance +11 F +4 78 72 73 76 299
T56 Mark James +11 F +8 78 71 70 80 299
T56 Chris Williams +11 F +4 73 74 76 76 299
T61 Tommy Armour III +12 F +6 78 73 71 78 300
T61 Bobby Wadkins +12 F +4 76 74 74 76 300
T61 Trevor Dodds +12 F +2 75 76 75 74 300
T61 Katsuyoshi Tomori +12 F +1 77 72 78 73 300
T65 Hale Irwin +13 F +5 76 74 74 77 301
T65 Jim Roy +13 F +3 74 76 76 75 301
T65 Jim Woodward(CP) +13 F +3 80 71 75 75 301
T65 Bruce Fleisher +13 F +2 73 77 77 74 301
T69 Roger Chapman +14 F +7 76 74 73 79 302
T69 Bruce Summerhays +14 F +5 74 74 77 77 302
T69 Tom Wargo 74 72 79 77 302
T69 Bob Boyd 73 72 81 76 302
T69 Bob Cameron 76 74 78 74 302
T69 Ron Vlosich 75 76 77 74 302
T75 Dave Rummells 71 77 78 77 303
T75 Bill Britton 75 76 76 76 303
T77 Mike Harwood 75 76 75 79 305
T77 Mike San Filippo 77 73 79 76 305
79 Jodie Mudd 76 73 81 77 307
80 Dick Mast 73 78 79 83 313
Oldcorn's top-ten finish cements fine Seniors start
By MARTIN DEMPSTER
FROM THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS WEBSITEEdinburgh golfer Andrew Oldcorn secured a top-ten finish in the 71st Senior PGA Championship in Colorado – his first appearance in a major on the over-50s circuit.
The Kings Acre man shot closing rounds of 67 and 71 for a two-under-par total of 286, ahead of players such as Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer and Fred Funk at Colorado Golf Club.
Oldcorn, who only made his seniors debut earlier in the month, was the leading Britain and picked about around £40,000 for his week's work.
The former PGA champion made a significant move through the field thanks to his five-under-par third round.
Level-par for the tournament at the start of that, he had six birdies and an eagle as well as a bogey and double-bogey.
Five behind the leaders going into the final round, the Scot started with two birdies to raise hopes of a fairytale victory.
He then gave those back with bogeys at the fourth and tenth holes but birdied the 14th to secure a tie for eighth.
In the end, Oldcorn finished five shots off the winning aggregate – former Open champion Tom Lehman lifting the title after beating Fred Couples and South African David Frost in a play-off.
Sam Torrance, the only other Scot to make the cut, finished 13 shots behind Oldcorn after a closing 76.
Oldcorn's performance completed a good weekend for Lothians players after Stephen Gallacher finished sixth in the Madrid Masters.
The 35-year-old closed with an excellent 67 as he maintained the good form that had secured fourth place the previous weekend in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Gallacher secured £45,000 for his latest effort, taking his earnings for the season to more than £400,000 as he cemented his position as the leading Scot in the Race to Dubai.
The former Dunhill Links champion made his closing score by storming to the turn in 31, having bagged three birdies and an eagle, which came at the par-4 sixth. He had two birdies and two bogeys coming home to finish on 13-under - eight behind winner Luke Donald.
The Scot will now head to Celtic Manor for this week's Wales Open before going to Sunningdale next Monday to try and qualify for the Open Championship at St Andrews.
Labels: SENIOR PROS
Ross McGowan nursing right wrist injury
