Jimenez grabs lead at Regions
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Miguel Angel Jimenez wasn't about to change his evening plans even with a shot at winning his first senior major championship.
Jimenez shot a 6-under 66 on Saturday to take a three-stroke lead into the final round of the Regions Tradition and planned to relax with cocktails and a cigar.
"I think I'm going to do exactly the same thing I did (Friday) night," he said. "I'm going to have a margarita as an aperitif, and then I'm going to have a nice bottle of Rioja (wine) and smoke a big fat cigar."
Jimenez birdied the final hole to reach 17-under 199 at Greystone Golf & Country Club, matching Gil Morgan's 54-hole Tradition record set in 1997. Steve Stricker was second in the first of five PGA Tour Champions majors.
Jimenez has six top-five finishes in senior majors but is seeking his first victory. The Spaniard has four PGA Tour Champions titles.
Jimenez got his fourth birdie over the final nine holes on No. 18 after caroming his approach shot off the grandstands and back to about 15 feet from the hole. That set up a two-putt for birdie.
Stricker eagled the par-4 eighth in a 65. He estimated his eagle was about 158 yards with a 9-iron, and he didn't get to watch it go in.
"It was kind of over a little knob, a bunker that we couldn't see the green," he said. "And then birdied 9, so that two-hole stretch kind of really got my momentum going, made the turn in 4 under instead of maybe 2 or something like that."
Kevin Sutherland, Joe Durant and Gene Sauers were four shots back. Durant shot 67, Sutherland 68, and Sauers 70.
Sauers had shared the second-round lead with Jimenez. He was a shot back before a double bogey on No. 15 when his approach shot went into the woods right of the fairway and he wound up three-putting.
Sauers had opened with his first bogey of the tournament on No. 1 but then started a run of five straight birdies on the 10th hole.
Durant closed with his second eagle of the round on No. 18.
"I got really lucky because I pulled my second shot, and I didn't think it would carry the water to be quite honest, but it did," Durant said. "And I took advantage and made a good putt."