Furyk adds Senior Open title to trophy case
Jim Furyk recovered from a rough start Sunday in the final round of the U.S. Senior Open in Omaha, Nebraska, to hold off Retief Goosen and Mike Weir by three strokes.
Making his debut in the event, Furyk closed with a 1-over 71 to become the eighth player to win both the U.S. Open and Senior Open, joining the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Billy Casper and Gary Player.
Furyk finished at 7-under 273 at Omaha Country Club.
He won the regular Open in 2003, is a 17-time winner on the PGA Tour and won his first two PGA Tour Champions events upon turning 50 last year. This was the third senior major he’s played. He tied for 16th in the Senior PGA and was sixth in the Senior Players Championship.
Furyk played the first three holes in 3 over, finding the unforgiving rough three times on the second hole and a tricky lie in the greenside bunker on the third. Suddenly, his four-shot lead was down to one.
Furyk righted himself with a birdie on the par-5 sixth and, after going out in 2 over 37, regained the four-shot lead by the time he made the turn.
It wasn’t until he stuck his 109-yard approach to 3 feet to birdie the par-5 16th that he put away his closest pursuers, major champions Goosen and Weir. That put him three up with two holes to play.
Furyk played his final 15 holes in 2 under and finished at 7-under 273 to win the Francis D. Ouimet Memorial Trophy and $720,000.
Weir tied for lowest round of the day with a 67, and Goosen shot 69.
Furyk looked to be in full control after he followed his 64 on Friday with a 66 on Saturday.
But he bogeyed the par-5 second hole after his layup attempt from the right rough rolled across the fairway and into the left rough, and his next shot found the greenside cabbage.
Then he put his tee shot just below the lip of the left bunker on the par-3 third and needed two swings to get out. He two-putted for a double bogey that dropped him to 5 under for the tournament.
Goosen birdied the first hole and tapped in for another on the sixth to get to 4 under. It looked as if he would stall out with bogeys on two of his next four holes, but he played his last seven in 2 under to hang around.
Madison’s Jerry Kelly finished in a tie for eighth, eight shots back.
PGA Tour
Lucas Glover ended 10 years without a victory Sunday in Silvis, Illinois, when he birdied five of his last seven holes for a 7-under 64 to win the John Deere Classic by two shots.
Glover won for the fourth time in his career, the most recent in 2011 at Quail Hollow.
He was among two dozen players separated by three shots on the rainsoftened TPC Deere Run when the former U.S. Open champion went on a tear.
It started with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 12th hole. He hit his approach into 4 feet and 7 feet on the next two holes, and then flushed a 7-iron to 3 feet on the 15th hole to take the lead.
Glover finished his run with a 12-foot birdie on the par-5 17th, and a 6-foot putt to save par from the bunker on the 18th that he figured would come in handy.
It never got to that. No one could catch him.
Glover kept it simple, with his game and his observations, saying he “ironed” it well and made a bunch of putts. That’s the recipe on a course with smooth greens and soft conditions.
“They went in and I kept the pedal down,” Glover said when he finished at 19-under 265. “There’s a lot of birdies out there, a lot of great players coming in.”
Kevin Na tried to make a run with three birdies in four holes until he was slowed by a bogey on the 15th and couldn’t make up enough ground. He shot a 68. Ryan Moore also closed with a 68 for a runner-up finish.
LPGA Tour
Nasa Hataoka of Japan was declared the winner of the Marathon LPGA Classic in Sylvania, Ohio, when the final round Sunday was washed out by relentless, heavy rain.
Hataoka had a six-shot lead over Elizabeth Szokol and Mina Harigae. She won for the fourth time on the LPGA Tour, and her first LPGA title in two years.
The final round began at 7 a.m. with hopes of beating the rain. That lasted only a few hours before Highland Meadows was soaked, and soon became unplayable.
American Century
Vinny Del Negro became the first basketball player to win the American Century Championship in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada, birdieing the par-5 18th hole twice Sunday to beat John Smoltz.
Del Negro, the 54-year-old former NBA player and coach making his 20th appearance in the celebrity tournament, birdied the 18th in regulation to force a playoff and won with another birdie on the first extra hole.
Del Negro had a 20-point round at Edgewood Tahoe in the modified Stableford scoring event to match Smoltz (18) with a three-day total of 69.
Burlington’s Tony Romo was third with 66 points after a 24-point day.