Flesch is winner after 38-hole day for senior tour
Steve Flesch needed 38 holes Saturday to win the Mitsubishi Electric Classic for his first PGA Tour Champions victory in Duluth, Ga.
Flesch, 50, birdied the second hole of a playoff with Scott Parel at TPC Sugarloaf in the event completed a day early because of forecast rain and lightning. Bernhard Langer dropped out on the first extra hole.
Flesch, Parel and Langer each finished at 11under-par 205.
“You never know if you’re ever going to win again,” Flesch said. “Honestly, it’s been harder than I anticipated winning on this tour. The guys are so good. That Langer guy is hard to beat.”
Parel bogeyed the par-5 18th on the second playoff hole after his approach hit the bank short and left and went into the water. Flesch hit long and right into the back bunker, and blasted out to 3 feet. The left-hander won in his 22nd start on the 50-andover tour after winning four times on the PGA Tour.
Facing a forecast of 11⁄2 inches of rain overnight Sunday and the threat of lightning Sunday, tournament officials decided Friday to play both the second and third rounds Saturday. Because of the possibility of the playoff finishing Sunday, the players were allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairway during the extra holes.
Flesch and Parel birdied the 18th to start the playoff. Flesch and Parel each reached the green in two, with Parel leaving a 60-foot eagle try 3 feet short, and Flesch rolling a 50-footer to a foot. Langer laid up and missed a 15foot birdie try.
Parel matched the course record with an 8-under 64, making a 15-foot birdie putt on 18 in regulation to post at 11 under.
LPGA Tour: Brooke Henderson pulled away at gusty Ko Olina Golf Club in Kapolei, Hawaii, to win the Lotte Championship for her sixth LPGA Tour victory. The 20-year-old Canadian closed with a 3-under 69 for a fourstroke victory. A stroke ahead entering the round after late putting trouble in a third-round 73, Henderson finished at 12under 276.
Spain’s Azahara Muñoz had a 67, the low round of the day, to finish second. Top-ranked Shanshan Feng (71), thirdranked Inbee Park (72) and sixth-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn (69) tied for third at 7 under.
Jutanugarn secured her fifth top-10 finish this year but couldn’t get the eighth victory of her career. She parred her final 11 holes.
Michelle Wie had a 71 to tie for 11th at 3 under.
PGA Tour: Ian Poulter shot a 4-under 67 to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, S.C, putting him in position for his second victory in three weeks. He was at 13-under 200, a stroke ahead of Luke List (67) and Si Woo Kim (68).
Before April, Poulter had not won on tour since winning the World Golf Championship HBSC Champions event in China in November 2012. Now, he’s one more solid round away from adding another title to his dramatic win at the Houston Open on April 1.
Second-round leader Bryson DeChambeau imploded with a triplebogey eight on the normally birdie-able par-5 second and was in freefall form there. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson had bogeys on four of his first 11 holes before rallying to finish with a 72 and was 10 shots in back of Poulter.
European Tour: Irish golfer Paul Dunne held onto a one-shot lead of the Spanish Open in Madrid after shooting a 4-under 68 in the third round to move to 17 under overall. Nacho Elvira of Spain (66) reduced Dunne’s threeshot overnight lead to a single stroke. World No. 4 Jon Rahm (66) of Spain and Henric Sturehed of Sweden (66) finished the day two strokes back.
Rahm, a local favorite coming off a fourth-place finish at the Masters, made seven birdies to move into contention.