Langer ties Nicklaus’ senior mark.
Bernhard Langer pulled away from the other contenders — and pulled even with Jack Nicklaus.
Langer cruised to his second straight Regions Tradition victory in Birmingham, Ala., shooting an 8-under-64 on Sunday to match Nicklaus’ record of eight Champions Tour major titles.
“Yeah, that’s pretty neat,” Langer said. “Not many people can say they match Jack Nicklaus in anything. To have won as many majors on this tour as he has is outstanding obviously and a thrill for me.
“I’m still way behind on the regular tour, though, in majors.”
The 59-year-old German star was way behind at times in this one, too.
He wiped out a sixstroke deficit over the weekend and entered the final round two strokes behind Fred Funk, but once again made sure there was no drama. He finished at 20-under 268 for a fivestroke victory over Scott McCarron (69) and Scott Parel (70), after winning last year by six.
It’s the first time Langer has won a major after coming from behind on the final day.
He wasn’t challenged after a birdie on the 12th, when Funk had a triple bogey. Suddenly, Langer led by three strokes over Parel and four over Funk.
Langer has 31 victories on the 50-and-over tour, also winning the season-opening event in Hawaii in January. The Hall of Famer won the Masters twice for his lone regular majors, leaving him 16 behind Nicklaus.
Funk shot a 72 to tie for fourth with Marco Dawson (66). He lost a share of the lead with the messy 12th after his drive went out of bounds and Langer took his first solo lead.
Madison’s Steve Stricker closed with a 66 and was 10 shots back.
PGA Tour: Billy Horschel won the AT&T Byron Nelson in Irving, Texas, with a par on the first playoff hole after Jason Day pulled his 4foot par putt left and past the hole. That miss by Day almost wasn’t even needed for Horschel, whose 36foot birdie chance was rolling straight toward the center of the cup before stopping just short. He won for the fourth time on the PGA Tour and for the first time since taking the 2014 Tour Championship for the FedEx Cup title.
With a 1-under 69, including a 60-foot birdie putt at the 14th hole, Horschel matched Day at 12under 268. Day had a 68.
Third-round leader James Hahn was a stroke back. He just missed a miraculous eagle at the 18th hole that would have gotten him in the playoff with his playing partners.
Because of early morning rain that delayed the start, threesomes were used instead of the usual weekend twosomes. No one outside of that final group made a real charge to contend with the final trio. LPGA Tour: Lexi Thompson shot a 6-under 65 to finish off a wire-to-wire victory in the Kingsmill Championship in Williamsburg, Va., with a tournamentrecord 20-under 264 total.
Thompson broke the tournament record of 19 under at Kingsmill’s River Course set by Annika Sorenstam in 2008.
In Gee Chun shot a bogey-free 67, but was no match for the leader, finishing five shots back.