golfweek.com/USA Today Photo: Pure Insurance Champion Behnard Langer basks in victory after taking the top prize at Pebble Beach on Sunda
By Jeremy Harness
PEBBLE BEACH – Bernhard Langer just knows how to win golf tournaments.
The 60-year-old German, who in 1986 became golf’s first official number one-ranked player, won his 34th PGA Champions Tour (formerly known as the PGA Senior Tour) win on Sunday, taking home the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach.
This marked his fifth win of the year, a string that includes the Senior PGA Championship as well as the Senior Open Championship.
Langer suffered a bogey at the par-4 eighth, but that was the last real mistake he would make for the rest of the day. He righted the ship with a par at the ninth, and then played a bogey-free back nine that saw him record four birdies, including three straight at holes 13 through 15.
His closest pursuer, Jerry Kelly, shot a bogey-free 67, but after a lights-out front nine that saw him go four-under, he just could not make up ground on the back nine after Langer hit the accelerator. As a result, he settled for a second-place finish.
Kenny Perry, who entered Sunday trailing by only one stroke, struggled a bit out of the gate, dropping a shot in the first four holes without a single birdie. He did record a pair of birdies in his second nine, but he simply made too many mistakes to be a factor down the stretch, as he shot a two-over 74 on Sunday and finished in a tie for fifth.
Langer began Sunday’s proceedings with a one-shot lead but soon saw it increase to three. However, it would not take long before he had some company again.
Kelly, who won the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship last weekend in Victoria, British Columbia and also took the Boeing Classic two weeks before that, made a huge charge on the front nine on Sunday.
He birdied the first two holes and then made eagle at the par-5 sixth to tie Langer at the top, at 13-under.
Soon thereafter, Langer bounced back from a bogey at the par-3 fifth with a birdie on the very next hole to go back in the lead by himself. He would not relinquish that advantage, and he only built on it as the afternoon progressed.
Scott McCarron, the first-round leader who lost ground on Saturday, got himself within striking distance on Sunday, shaking off a bogey at the par-4 fourth and ran off three birdies in a row at holes six through eight to get to within three shots of the lead.
He lost some of that momentum by bogeying the ninth, but he got it back on the back nine, as he made back-to-back birdies at the 14th and 15th holes. However, he just could not generate enough of it – and started the final round too far back – to make a real challenge to the title once Langer got going.
Sports Radio Service 