Jimenez wins Senior Open, joins Seve as a winner at St Andrews

Johnson in control as storms halt Canadian Open

ST ANDREWS: ‘The Mechanic’ leaked oil in the home straight but Miguel Angel Jimenez held on to win the Senior British Open by one stroke from Bernhard Langer at St Andrews on Sunday. Jimenez sank a clutch 10-foot par putt at the famous parfour 17th road hole before securing victory with a tap-in par at the last, the same hole where his late Spanish countryman Seve Ballesteros clinched the 1984 British Open. “It’s a place where everybody wants to win,” said Jimenez. “It’s a place where Seve won his second Open and it’s amazing to win here and make history.

Jimenez, nicknamed ‘The Mechanic’, carded 69 to finish at 12-under-par 276, while Langer shot 68 for second place. Playing ahead of Jimenez, the German could only par the last after misjudging his approach shot to leave himself with a 50-foot putt for the tie. Earlier, Jimenez broke clear and had a short putt at the par-five 14th to go four shots ahead. But he missed the chance and when he bogeyed the next the margin, thanks to a Langer birdie at the same hole, was down to one stroke, which is where it remained as both players parred the final three holes. A 21times winner on the European Tour, Jimenez, 54, finished equal second at the US Senior Open in June.

In another development, Dustin Johnson was zeroing in on his third PGA Tour title of the season, holding a three-shot lead over South Koreans Kim Whee and An Byeong-hun, when play was halted at a stormy Canadian Open on Sunday with the world number one on the ninth hole. The final round began with a logjam at the top of the leaderboard with Johnson, An, Kim and Kevin Tway all sitting on 17 under and holding a four-shot advantage over the chasing pack. With 18 PGA Tour wins and a pair of runner-up finishes at Glen Abbey, Johnson’s experience provided the edge as he wasted no time breaking free of the pack by collecting birdies on the first two holes while the three co-leaders, who are all chasing their first PGA Tour titles, picked up early bogeys.

With his challengers off to a shaky start Johnson seized control, opening up a three-shot lead through four holes. The American’s charge stalled as he struggled with his putter and he had to settle for five consecutive pars before rolling in a 12-footer at the parfour eighth for his third birdie of the day. Tway, whose father Bob Tway won the Canadian title in 2003, saw his chances of joining him as Canadian champion evaporate with a disastrous outward nine that featured three bogeys before he recorded his first birdie at the ninth to leave him five off the pace.