Langer wins first Senior PGA crown
Sweden’s Noren shoots 10-under in Wentworth victory.
Bernhard Langer played near-flawless golf and took advantage of Vijay Singh’s l a t e mi s t a ke s t o win t he Senior PGA Championship at Trump National in Sterling, Va., on Sunday for his record ninth senior major.
The Senior PGA was the only major that had eluded the German, 59, during his dominant decade-long run on the 50-and-over circuit.
Despite a few dozen protesters, the drama remained on the course at President Donald Trump’s club on the shores of the Potomac River. Trump, coming off a nine-day trip abroad, did not attend the final round.
Langer pulled ahead of Singh with a 12-foot birdie on the par-4 16th. Singh threeputted 17 to give Langer a two-shot advantage. After Singh birdied 18, L anger c almly t apped in for par and a one-shot victory. He shot a 4-under 68 to finish at 18-under 270. Singh closed with a 70.
Langer also won the season-opening event in Hawaii and has 32 career senior victories.
European PGA: Swedish golfer Alex Noren rediscovered his sensational form of 2016 in shooting a 10-under 62 to win the BMW P GA Championship at Wentworth on Sunday. Starting the day seven shots off the lead, the 13th-ranked Noren made six birdies before rolling in an eagle putt from 6 feet on No. 18 to complete what he described as “probably the best round of my life.”
LPGA Tour: Shanshan Feng won in Malaysia and Japan during an impressive stretch toward the end of the 2016 season. On American soil, however, it had been a while since her last victory.
That dry spell ended when Feng shot a 4-under 68 on Sunday to win the LPGA Volvik Championship in Ann Arbor, Mich., by one stroke over Minjee Lee and Sung Hyun Park. It was her first victory of the season and seventh of her career — and her first in the U.S. since the CME Group Titleholders in 2013.
“Very happy that I c an actually prove to the fans in the U.S. that I can actually win here,” she said.
She led by one shot after a bogey-free third round Saturday, then kept the com- petition at bay on the 6,734yard course at Travis Pointe Country Club.
Feng, a bronze medalist for China at the 2016 Olympics, led by four strokes with four holes to play, but she made a bogey on No. 16 and Lee birdied 17. Needing a bogey on the 18th to win, Feng easily tapped in for one and finished at 19-under 269.
Lee (65) made six birdies on the front nine, and Park (66) made four on the back.
Playing a couple groups ahead of Feng, Lee knew she needed a strong finish to catch the leader, and after her birdie on No. 17, she tried to reach the green on the par-5 18th in two. Lee missed well to the left and ended up near the scoring tent before scrambling to make par.
Mizuno Open: Chan Kim of the United States fired a 4-under-par 68 in Okayama, Japan, to qualify for the British Open.