Chapman wins US Senior Open
Roger Chapman has joined impressive company.
The Englishman shot a 4-under 66 on Sunday to win the US Senior Open by two strokes at 10 under.
Chapman, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Hale Irwin are the only players to win the US 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 US Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship in 1987, Nicklaus did it in 1991 and Irwin pulled off the feat in 1998.
Until Chapman's breakout this year, his shining moment was beating Padraig Harrington in a playoff for his first European Tour win in his 472nd start on that tour.
He had a conditional exemption on the Champions Tour in 2010 and lost his status last year, finishing 84th on the money list less than $90 000 after failing to crack the top 10 in any of his 11 starts.
Chapman will make about $500 000 for winning the US Senior Open after getting a check for $378 000 from the Senior PGA.
LEADING FINAL SCORES
270 – Roger Chapman 68 68 68 66
272 – Fred Funk 67 71 67 67, Bernhard Langer 66 70 64 72, Tom Lehman 70 66 68 68, Corey Pavin 67 69 68 68
274 – John Cook 69 72 67 66, John Huston 69 67 68 70
275 – Mark Wiebe 69 68 70 68
277 – Jay Haas 69 68 68 72, Peter Senior 71 72 66 68, Lance Ten Broeck 66 68 72 71
278 – Mark Calcavecchia 68 70 69 71, Fred Couples 72 68 65 73, Tom Kite 65 70 74 69
279 – Dick Mast 68 68 69 74, Tom Pernice Jr. 67 71 66 75
280 – Peter Fowler 70 74 66 70, Damon Green 68 72 72 68, Peter Jacobsen 70 70 68 72, Jong-Duck Kim 73 71 70 66, Steve Lowery 70 68 69 73
281 – Jay Don Blake 73 65 75 68, Joel Edwards 72 71 70 68, Gary Hallberg 70 74 68 69, Kiyoshi Murota 71 70 71 69, Kirk Triplett 69 69 72 71, Tom Watson 70 72 70 69
282 – Brad Bryant 70 68 74 70, Chien Soon Lu 69 68 73 72, Jeff Sluman 67 71 73 71, Rod Spittle 70 69 71 72, Robert Thompson 70 72 71 69
283 – Michael Allen 74 70 68 71, Barry Lane 70 74 73 66, Jim Rutledge 72 72 73 66
284 – Tommy Armour III 69 69 75 71, Olin Browne 69 74 70 71, Tom Byrum 70 74 72 68, David Eger 69 70 74 71, Dan Forsman 69 71 72 72, Mike Goodes 71 73 66 74, Loren Roberts 71 69 74 70, Joey Sindelar 70 72 68 74
285 – Brad Faxon 69 71 71 74, Steve Jones 69 72 71 73, Rick Lewallen 70 68 72 75
286 – Mikael Hogberg 67 75 73 71, Andrew Magee 74 70 67 75, Andy Oldcorn 70 69 75 72, Jerry Pate 69 75 68 74
288 – Ted Schulz 70 73 72 73, Bob Tway 72 71 72 73
289 – Fulton Allem 68 75 70 76, Andy Bean 70 73 73 73, Douglas Hanzel 71 72 71 75
