Jeff Maggert wins United States Senior Open

with defending champion Monty second

FROM GOLFWEEK.COM

By James Achenbach 

SACRAMENTO, California – Like an advanced-concept car, this was the new and improved 2015 Jeff Maggert – more stability, more power, better acceleration, better mileage, no bumps, no breakdowns, an impressive list of options.
Coming down the stretch in the U.S. Senior Open, Maggert took a chauffeured ride on a polished highway as his Maggertmobile cruised to victory at Del Paso Country Club. His winning total was 270, 10-under par.
This new vehicle was long overdue. Golf had waited 12 years for a rejuvenated version, the previous Maggertmobile dating back to 2003.
With 25 golfers bunched within four shots of the lead heading into the final round of the U.S. Senior Open, Maggert birdied the first three holes to speed away from the field. He shot 65 for the day and defeated defending champion Colin Montgomerie by two strokes. Bernhard Langer and Grant Waite were three back.
For 12 long years, Maggert has been saddled with a reputation. He was the guy who couldn’t close it out, couldn’t bring it home, couldn’t win even when it seemed destiny was on his side.
Despite an abundance of talent, he won only three times in 23 years on the PGA Tour. The pothole in the road, the one that put a serious dent in his career, appeared at the 2003 Masters.
Maggert went into the final round of that major championship with a two-shot lead over Mike Weir. After a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 third hole and a quintuple bogey 8 on the par-3 12th, Maggert finished fifth, five strokes out of a sudden-death playoff between Weir, the eventual champion, and Len Mattiace.
The everlasting image from the 2003 Masters was that of Maggert being struck by his own golf ball. While trying to escape a fairway bunker on the third hole, Maggert watched helplessly as his ball caught the bunker lip and bounced back into his chest.
At the time, this rules infraction called for a two-stroke penalty. It has since been reduced to one stroke.
Now, 12 years later, Bunkergate was a memory banished from Maggert’s mind. He played with resolve. He displayed a calm internal demeanor that previously was not part of his repertoire.
“Jeff played outstanding,” said Bernard Langer, tied for the lead with Maggert after 54 holes. “I mean, I was with him, obviously, all day. I saw every shot, and he played brilliant. He hardly ever missed anything. He was just striping it down the fairway and on the green. it was just a matter of making a putt or not. It was fun to watch.”
Maggert’s assessment: “When I play at this level, I play scenarios in my head -- how to handle myself, how to play well. I was nervous as heck, but I fought my way through it.”
To compute Maggert’s dominance in the final round, it should be noted that he was either 9 under, 10 under or 11 under at the conclusion of every hole on the back nine. No other player achieved a score of 9 under at any point during the tournament.
To gauge the benefit of his increased golf maturity – and how much he has changed in the past 12 years – listen to Maggert’s own reflection. He was 39 in 2003 and is now 51.
“I lacked a little maturity to pull it off,” he said, referring to major championships in which he contended. “But certainly, now that I’m an old guy, I’ve learned a lot and was able to just steady myself and play well.”
Last month, Maggert won the Regions Tradition tournament on the Champions Tour. This is a wonderful event and is labeled as a major championship, although it carries neither the history nor the importance of the U.S. Senior Open.
Let’s be clear: At the U.S. Senior Open, Maggert dominated the most pressure-packed tournament in senior golf. In car racing, this would be the Indy 500.
Tournament statistics demonstrated Maggert’s solid all-around play. He was first in birdies (19), tied for fifth in greens in regulation (54 of 72), tied for 13th in fairways hit (38 of 56), 15th in average driving distance (287.8 yards), and tied for 24th in total putts (117, or an average of 29.25 per round).
One meaningful insight into Maggert’s personality: He has a civil engineering degree from Texas A and M. According to Ping’s communications director, Pete Samuels, he is “our most technical player.”
What does this mean? “Well,” said Samuels, “he spends a lot of time in the Tour trailer with our guys, challenging them to get as precise as possible (with the specs on his golf clubs).”
How precise can that be? Try digesting this one: Each of Maggert’s Ping S55 irons has a swingweight of D2.2.
“I like things to be exact,” Maggert said.
Like, say, a fine-tuned new car.
Maggert earned $675,000, Montgomerie $405,000 and the joint thirds $214,000 each.
Paul Wesselingh (23rd) earned $35,047 and Ian Woosnam (33rd) $21,846
TO VIEW ALL THE PRIZE MONEY ALLOCATION
CLICK ON THE NEXT LINE
Final scores, earnings

ALL THE FINAL TOTALS
 par 280 (4x70)

1	Jeff Maggert	70	65	70	65				270
2	Colin Montgomerie	68	68	70	66				272
T3	Grant Waite	69	68	69	67				273
T3	Bernhard Langer	71	66	68	68				273
T5	Billy Andrade	69	71	71	63				274
T5	Lee Janzen	67	72	71	64				274
T7	Kevin Sutherland	68	69	70	68				275
T7	Tom Watson	66	69	71	69				275
T7	Scott Dunlap	68	70	68	69				275
T10	Scott Hoch	71	69	70	66				276
T10	Duffy Waldorf	72	67	68	69				276
T12	Bart Bryant	71	65	71	70				277
T12	Barry Lane	68	70	69	70				277
T12	Kenny Perry	70	72	64	71				277
T15	Russ Cochran	72	67	70	69				278
T15	Jim Carter	67	69	70	72				278
T17	Jeff Hart	67	72	71	69				279
T17	Peter Fowler	69	66	72	72				279
T17	Miguel Angel Jimenez	72	68	67	72				279
T20	Kohki Idoki	70	71	73	66				280
T20	Rocco Mediate	72	66	70	72				280
T20	Fred Funk	70	68	68	74				280
T23	Paul Wesselingh	69	68	74	70				281
T23	Esteban Toledo	69	70	72	70				281
T23	Tom Lehman	70	71	69	71				281
T26	Tom Byrum	71	72	71	68				282
T26	Mike McCoy	70	72	71	69				282
T26	Michael Allen	67	71	74	70				282
T26	Corey Pavin	70	68	74	70				282
T26	Guy Boros	72	68	72	70				282
T26	Peter Senior	69	69	74	70				282
T26	Woody Austin	67	70	69	76				282
T33	Neal Lancaster	74	71	71	67				283
T33	David Frost	73	70	71	69				283
T33	Kiyoshi Murota	68	69	74	72				283
T33	Marco Dawson	71	69	71	72				283
T33	Ian Woosnam	70	70	70	73				283
T38	Paul Goydos	71	74	72	67				284
T38	Willie Wood	71	72	74	67				284
T38	Stephen Ames	72	71	72	69				284
T38	Masahiro Kuramoto	71	68	75	70				284
T38	Brad Lardon	73	69	71	71				284
T38	Olin Browne	73	69	71	71				284
T38	Tom Pernice Jr.	70	73	68	73				284
T38	John Riegger	70	71	68	75				284
T38	Jay Haas	71	69	69	75				284
T47	Gene Sauers	69	70	76	70				285
T47	Philip Golding	69	74	70	72				285
49	Tommy Armour III	73	69	74	70				286
T50	Scott Simpson	72	73	71	71				287
T50	P.H. Horgan III	67	74	74	72				287
T50	Joel Edwards	70	70	73	74				287
T50	Scott Verplank	71	70	71	75				287
T54	Jay Delsing	74	71	72	71				288
T54	Geoffrey Sisk	74	69	71	74				288
T54	Brad Bryant	70	70	74	74				288
T57	Brian Wilson	70	75	77	67				289
T57	Chien-Soon Lu	74	71	75	69				289
T57	Kirk Triplett	69	73	75	72				289
T60	Marion Dantzler	72	73	75	70				290
T60	Steve Jones	76	69	70	75				290
T62	Steve Schneiter	69	75	76	71				291
T62	Greg Bruckner	71	73	74	73				291
T62	Mark Wiebe	74	69	73	75				291
65	Mark Brooks	70	75	76	71				292
T66	Mike Mitchell	71	71	74	77				293
T66	Jerry Smith	72	73	69	79				293
T68	Mark Mielke	73	72	77	73				295
T68	Jon Levitt	72	69	74	80				295
70	Hale Irwin	70	73	76	77				296
71	Mike Finster	76	69	79	73				297
72	Dave Ryan	73	72	74	81				300
T73	Don Bell	71	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	146
T73	Doug Hanzel	71	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	146
T73	Miguel Angel Martin	72	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	146
T73	Bruce Nakamura	78	68	MC	MC	-	-	-	146
T73	Charles Raulerson	76	70	MC	MC	-	-	-	146
T73	Doug Rohrbaugh	72	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	146
T73	Joey Sindelar	75	71	MC	MC	-	-	-	146
T73	Sonny Skinner	72	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	146
T81	Dave Bunker	73	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	147
T81	John Cook	72	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	147
T81	Joe Durant	75	72	MC	MC	-	-	-	147
T81	Jack Larkin	72	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	147
T81	Bryan Norton	75	72	MC	MC	-	-	-	147
T81	Mike Reid	75	72	MC	MC	-	-	-	147
T81	Wes Short Jr.	76	71	MC	MC	-	-	-	147
T81	Bob Tway	76	71	MC	MC	-	-	-	147
T89	Joe Boros	72	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	148
T89	Tommy Brennan	74	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	148
T89	T.J. Brudzinski	76	72	MC	MC	-	-	-	148
T89	Rick Gibson	72	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	148
T89	Randy Haag	74	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	148
T89	Todd McCorkle	74	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	148
T89	Eduardo Romero	74	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	148
T89	Jeff Sluman	76	72	MC	MC	-	-	-	148
T89	Jeff Wilson	73	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	148
T98	R.W. Eaks	71	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T98	Mike Grob	75	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T98	Roger Hoit	73	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T98	Jim McGovern	71	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T98	Jerry Pate	75	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T98	Paul Trittler	76	73	MC	MC	-	-	-	149
T104	Mark Calcavecchia	70	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T104	Terry Foreman	76	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T104	Skip Kendall	77	73	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T104	Cesar Monasterio	74	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T104	Bob Niger	76	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T104	Brent Studer	75	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T104	Pat Tallent	75	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T104	Lance Ten Broeck	75	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T104	Mike Tucker	76	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T104	Gus Ulrich	76	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	150
T114	Robin Byrd	74	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T114	Ian Harris	76	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T114	Eduardo Herrera	78	73	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T114	Yong-kun Lee	76	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T114	John McClure	76	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	151
T119	Roger Chapman	79	73	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T119	Jerry Courville	74	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T119	Bob Gilder	82	70	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T119	Peter Jacobsen	76	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T119	Mike Miles	75	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T119	John Ross	77	75	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T119	Craig Stadler	75	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T119	Robert L. Thompson	78	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	152
T127	John Huston	71	82	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T127	Steve Madsen	82	71	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T127	Loren Roberts	80	73	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T127	Mark Sanchez	79	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	153
T131	Danny Elkins	78	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T131	Eric Hanson	78	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T131	Pat Thompson	74	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	154
T134	Kevin Burton	79	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	156
T134	Dave Davis	80	76	MC	MC	-	-	-	156
T134	Dave Delich	76	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	156
T134	Dave Eichelberger	77	79	MC	MC	-	-	-	156
T134	Mark Houser	76	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	156
T139	Kirk Maynord	83	74	MC	MC	-	-	-	157
T139	Rick Woodson	80	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	157
T141	Jim Knoll	81	77	MC	MC	-	-	-	158
T141	Fran Marrello	76	82	MC	MC	-	-	-	158
T141	Doug Williams	79	79	MC	MC	-	-	-	158
144	Scott Krieger	78	81	MC	MC	-	-	-	159
145	Tal Tartaglia	82	78	MC	MC	-	-	-	160
T146	Vincent Buzzini	80	81	MC	MC	-	-	-	161
T146	David Ishii	82	79	MC	MC	-	-	-	161
148	Steve Jurick	80	82	MC	MC	-	-	-	162
T149	Patrick Carrigan	83	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	163
T149	Chip Johnson	81	82	MC	MC	-	-	-	163
151	J.R. Leonard	84	80	MC	MC	-	-	-	164
152	Jim Gaugert	92	84	MC	MC	-	-	-	176
153	Mike Keymont	93	87	MC	MC	-	-	-	180
154	Mark O'Meara	69	WD	WD	WD	-	-	-	69
155	Steve Lowery	70	WD	WD	WD	-	-	-	70
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