Joe Daley wins Players Championship
Joe Daley won the Senior Players Championship on Sunday for his first Champions Tour title, closing with a 2-under 68 for a two-stroke victory over Tom Lehman.
The 51-year-old Daley, winless in his brief PGA Tour career, had a 14-under 266 total at Fox Chapel. He earned $405 000 and full Champions Tour status for a calendar year.
Lehman finished with a 69. He was trying to win his second straight Champions Tour major after taking the Regions Traditions in his previous start.
Olin Browne was third at 11 under after a 65. Mark Calcavecchia, tied with Daley for the third-round lead, had a 72 to match 2011 winner Fred Couples at 10 under. Couples finished with a 71.
Daley capped the victory with a 15-foot putt on the final hole for his tournament-high 24th birdie.
Couples, fighting chronic back problems all weekend, bogeyed Nos. 15 and 16 to drop out of contention.
Lehman also faltered late in the 90-plus-degree heat, bogeying three of the final six holes.
Before this weekend, relative unknown Daley was perhaps best known for missing out on a PGA Tour card in 2000 when a short putt popped out of the hole during Q-School.
He missed out on his tour card by a single stroke that year and was a member of the PGA Tour only in 1996 and 1998. He has one top-10 finish in 59 PGA Tour starts, but can add next season's Players Championship to that total after earning an exemption with the victory.
Daley's best finish in 10 previous Champions Tour events was a tie for fourth in the Senior PGA in May. The $405 000 check figures to go a long way toward earning a full tour exemption next season as a top-30 finisher on the money list.
Daley extended his lead to two strokes with a long birdie putt from near the fringe at 10, his second-to-last birdie of the weekend before his capper on 18.
Daley was at least 2 under during all four rounds, gradually working his way up the leaderboard by the end of each round. Daley was two shots off the lead at the end of the first round, one shot back behind Couples after the second and tied with Calcavecchia after shooting a 68 on Saturday.
Daley took sole possession of the lead with a birdie on the 483-yard par-5 second hole, pulling ahead of Calcavecchia and Lehman. Daley also birdied No 9.
Couples wasn't the same after a second-round 63, shooting 1 over the final two days. His back stiff, Couples was stretching and moving gingerly throughout the tournament.
Coming off a win last weekend at the Montreal Championship, Calcavecchia played the worst of the players in contention Sunday. He did not have a birdie until the back nine.
Jeff Freeman briefly pulled within one of the lead with an eagle at No 2, but finished with a 74 and ended up 11th at 6 under.
LEADING FINAL SCORES (US unless stated)
266 – Joe Daley 66 64 68 68
268 – Tom Lehman 66 67 66 69
269 – Olin Browne 73 62 69 65
270 – Mark Calcavecchia 69 65 64 72, Fred Couples 66 63 70 71
271 – Kirk Triplett 71 69 65 66, Bill Glasson 67 67 68 69
272 – Kenny Perry 68 69 67 68
273 – Michael Allen 66 68 70 69, Fred Funk 65 72 64 72
274 – Jeff Freeman 70 65 65 74
275 – Chien Soon Lu (TPE) 74 67 67 67, Willie Wood 70 66 70 69
276 – Jim Rutledge (CAN) 74 69 67 66, Mike Goodes 74 67 68 67, Steve Lowery 73 69 67 67, Mark Wiebe 71 73 64 68, Bruce Vaughan 64 74 67 71, Roger Chapman (ENG) 70 68 66 72
277 – Corey Pavin 70 70 70 67, John Cook 74 67 68 68, Brad Bryant 69 76 64 68, Morris Hatalsky 71 67 69 70, Jay Don Blake 69 65 73 70, Jay Haas 71 69 66 71, Tom Watson 70 67 69 71, Steve Pate 68 69 68 72
278 – Mark Brooks 73 71 70 64, David Frost (RSA) 71 69 68 70
279 – Hale Irwin 72 68 72 67, Gil Morgan 70 71 71 67, Russ Cochran 71 71 69 68, Joel Edwards 73 66 70 70, Sandy Lyle (SCO) 73 69 67 70, Tom Jenkins 73 71 65 70, David Eger 70 68 70 71, Larry Mize 70 65 70 74
280 – Brad Faxon 69 73 70 68, Rod Spittle (CAN) 68 74 68 70, P.H. Horgan III 72 68 69 71, Loren Roberts 70 73 66 71, Peter Senior (AUS) 69 73 66 72
Selected
283 – Larry Nelson 72 72 68 71
284 – Tom Kite 71 68 74 71
285 – Greg Norman (AUS) 67 74 73 71, Bob Tway 72 72 70 71
286 – Hal Sutton 74 68 76 68
288 – Chip Beck 71 71 71 75
290 – Craig Stadler 70 70 72 78
298 – Mark McNulty (IRE) 76 75 73 74
