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By Tom Zulewski

SONOMA, CA –

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying 2015 has been one of the most stressful years in the career of Kyle Busch. He missed nearly three full months after suffering multiple broken bones following a wreck at the Daytona XFINITY race that opened the season in February.

Winning races took a back seat to regaining his health. The Chase was a distant thought, but Busch knew the sooner he could get back to full health and be cleared to race, the faster he could start the charge to get to the goal.

Win a race, get to the top 30 in points, and earn a spot for the Chase.

It took all of five races, but Busch can kick the first part of the mission off the to-do list.

Taking the lead away from Jimmie Johnson with five laps to go, Busch grabbed the checkered flag at the Toyota/SaveMart 350 on a sunny Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway. Kyle beat Kurt Busch by .532 seconds and zoomed into Chase contention.

He may have one more hurdle ahead to make the Chase, but the win was the most satisfying moment for the younger Busch brother. Busch broke a streak of 10 straight different race winners at Sonoma and won for the first time on the 1.99-mile road course since 2008.

“Normally it’s kind of a nightmare for us sometimes and this 18 team, but we had a great day today,” he said in the post-race media center interview. “We needed to come in and get tires, and that was going to be our best chance to win the race.”

After the last of the race’s five cautions came out at lap 100, only 10 laps from the finish, Busch’s crew chief, Adam Stevens, knew the timing was right to get the work done.

“We had decent short run speed and were able to show it on some mock runs,” Stevens said. “There at the end, it just kind of fell into the strategy that we wanted to run anyway, and we knew that we didn’t have what we needed to outrun them on old tires, so it was a no-brainer call for me to come down and do everything we could to put him in a position where he could drive to the front.”

Mission accomplished, but the hard part is still to come.

With 10 races remaining until the Chase field is set, Busch sits 37^th in points, 136 behind 30^th-place Cole Whitt. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver likes his chances to be in the championship mix.

“Yeah, you know, certainly it’s feasible. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be,” Busch said. “This team is good enough to be that way, and I should be good enough to be that way.

“Now having a win, I think that that treats us a little bit better.  We don’t have to race as hard for a win.”

NOTES: Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer (who finished third after qualifying sixth) were the only drivers who qualified and finished in the top 10 Sunday at Sonoma. Pole-sitter and Los Gatos native A.J. Allmendinger had to replace a fuel cell in his No. 47 and finished 37^th, 12 laps down. … Fox finished its 15^th season of NASCAR broadcasts at Sonoma and will make one big change for 2016. Larry McReynolds will move from the booth to the Hollywood Hotel, and Jeff Gordon will join Mike Joy and Darrell Waltrip to call the races. … NBC Sports will return and start its coverage of the rest of the 2015 season at Daytona for the 4^th of July weekend. The XFINITY Subway Firecracker 250 runs Saturday on NBC Sports Network, then the Coke Zero 400 happens next Sunday night on NBC. Rick Allen will call the races after 12 years as the voice of the Camping World Truck Series on Fox.

By Jeff Hall

SACRAMENTO –

The leaderboard was a hint that an amazing event might occur at the Del Paso Country Club for the 36^th Annual U.S Senior Open Championship. For Jeff Maggert that was make lots of birdies to come away with a two shot victory over defending champion Colin Montgomerie.

With all the players beginning their round at the first tee, it seemed it might be the difficult final holes that would have an impact on. This round would not be affected as much by heat as it would by skill.

Or if you want to survive on the back nine, you better score well on the front nine and Jeff Maggert did just that

Maggert began the final round as the co-leader with Bernhard Langer. birdied the first three holes of the back nine to Maggert was not shaken when his playing partner eagled the par 5 first hole to quickly move to 7 under par. Maggert responded with a birdie of his own to get back.

“When he (Langer) made the eagle putt on number 1, I said to myself I’m going to have to make birdies today if we’re Im going to have a chance to win.” , said Maggert following his round.

Maggert did just that and birdied the second hole making a 40 foot put and birdied the third hole. He shot even par five through eight and on the par four ninth where the tees were moved up which made the hole reachable for many including Maggert he landed on the back of he green and two putted for his fourth birdie on the first nine. Magert birdied fourteen and fifteen to give himself he largest lead of the tournament. He bogeyed the difficult sixteenth and played safely to the finish by making the pars on his final holes. His Par on the eighteenth was a little more challenging

After the eagle on the first hole Langer would struggle and fall into a tie for third with Grant Waite, both three shots behind Maggert.

The competition was fierce with 20 players within 4 shots of the leader at the start of the round.

Billy Andrade had the low round of tournament shooting a final round of 63. Finished in tied for fifth place with his playing Partner Lee Janzen. Andrade’s low round was the second lowest round in USGA Open history. Only Loren Roberts’ 62 is lower.

It was a fabulous day. My partner was Lee Janzen, who shot 64. So we kind of fed off each other. We both were going back and forth, making birdies, not making mistakes, getting it up and down. We had to for pars. It was just a wonderful round of play, and it was nice to not screw up. When you play U.S. Opens and you play this type of conditions and atmosphere, you know you’re going to — if you miss a fairway, you have a chance of making a bogey or a double bogey. It was nice today that I didn’t make any mistakes. It was nice to finish it off on 18 with a nice par putt.”, Andrade said.

Andrade started the day six strokes behind the leaders and raved about the course and the crowds.

“This golf course is fantastic, great crowds. The people here are amazing. I wish the Champions Tour could come here on a yearly basis. The USGA has done a wonderful job setting the course up. Today we had a little variety with No. 9 playing short and No. 15 playing shorter. So you have some chances there to make birdies. But all in all, I’m tickled to death and very happy with the outcome.”

Absolute crowd favorite Tom Watson, who was the first round leader finished the day 1 under par by making a long birdy putt on the eighteenth which may have created the loudest roar by the crowd on the course

Watson was pleased with the way the day ended and his overall play this week.

“It’s great to be able to finish with a putt like that and get under par for the day. I struggled with a couple of bad iron shots in the front nine and a couple bad chips. But just I didn’t hit it close enough to the hole. But I take away a lot of things. I made three good putts today. I made a good putt at 10, 12 and 18. I drove the ball well. I think I missed — I might have missed a couple fairways, but one was just in the short cut. That was it. The driver was really my friend this week, and going into this, I knew I had to drive the ball well, after playing the practice rounds. This course is set up as a USGA event. If you hit the ball in the rough, you’re going to be penalized.”

Watson spoke about his overall play.

“First of all, the golf course was in marvelous shape. It was a good, really good USGA Open test. Rough was tough. Greens, you had to hit quality iron shots, which that was my weakness this week. I didn’t hit enough quality iron shots. But I drove the ball beautifully, I putted well, and I chipped the ball well. Except for today, I didn’t chip the ball very well today, but the other days, I did. All in all, it was an above average week for me. I drove the ball just great and putted the ball well. So if I can get my iron game just a little bit sharper, I’ll be going into St. Andrews with some positive vibes.”

This open was filled with so many great storylines, we can’t forget about defending champion Colin Montgomerie.

The defending champion did not go down easy Montgomerie finished the tournament 8 under par. Montgomerie birdied number eight then missed a short birdie putt on the shortened par four ninth hole.

That was a killer really. That had to go in.” Montgomerie said about  missing the birdie putt on the ninth.

Montgomerie birdied the 10^th to get to eight under and looked like he was making a run to repeat as champion. .

“I thought to get to 8 under would have been good enough, to be honest. All credit to Jeff Maggert for scoring what he’s scored because I thought four 68s, that was my target at the start of the week. I started with two 68s, had a 70 yesterday and

66 today. 8 under was my target, and I thought it might be good enough.”, said Montgomerie after his round

Tournament Host and Sacramento Native Kevin Sutherland pulled within just two shots of the lead

Sutherland had the added pressure of trying to perform well for the hometown followers and playing on his home course, he delivered playing solid throughout the round. After completing the round Sutherland applauded the thousands of spectators sharing his appreciation that many of them have showed him this week. Sutherland finished tied for fifth place just five shots back from Maggert.

“It’s been an amazing week. How I played, putting that aside, the way I was treated by the fans in the gallery and the hometown people was just, it was truly amazing. The ovation I got on the 1st tee the first day caught me, just kind of threw me back a little bit. It was something special. To have my brother on the bag, just to both enjoy that, and have my parents and my family, my son and my wife out here was truly an amazing week. Just enjoyed it. I played well. I think I played well enough to maybe get right there where the leaders are, but kind of got myself — I played really well the front nine. I hit every shot right on the button and had a couple of two-putt birdies and made a birdie on 7. But I just couldn’t manage to get to that 6 or 7 number I needed to get to. The double on 16 was a killer and kind of took the wind out of my sails a little bit. But it was a great week overall. “, said Sutherland

The tournament ended with a very happy moment for Jeff Maggert and his family who flew from South Carolina at 5 am Sunday morning to make it to Sacramento to see him win. His wife and two small children embraced Him after he made his victory putt on the 18^th

” That was Fantastic. It’s hard to coordinate travel with your family out here. Playing professional golf for 30 years, it seems like you want them there, and then you’re playing bad. And then all of a sudden, you’re playing good, and they’re not there. They missed my first two Champions Tour wins. They weren’t able to get there. So we talked last night. They were all the way in Sea Pines, South Carolina, and they said they were coming today. I said, all right, we’ll make it happen. Fortunately, they were up at 5:00 in the morning East Coast time and off to the airport. They got here in Sacramento about 11:30 this morning. So the timing was perfect, and it was awesome to have them out there.”, said Maggert.

Good feelings were all around at the end of the thirty-sixth U.S Senior Open Championship as it reached completion at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento. Who knows, may not be too long before Del Paso hosts another Champions tournament event. It seems most of the players are supportive of the idea.

By Jeff Hall

SACRAMENTO –

It was moving day at the third round of the U.S. Senior Open at Del Paso Country Club.

One of the biggest moves came from Kenny Perry

Perry began the day 2 over par and was seven shots behind the leaders when he started his round.

Perry was six under par after the first nine holes. Perry played even par on the back side to finish his round with a 64.

‘I made more birdies in the first three holes than I did in the past 3 days.”, Said Perry after his round.

Perry has had some experience winning Championships trailing from far behind.

“I’m thinking if you can keep it in the fairway, that’s such a huge advantage here. I needed to somehow get my putter going. I was in the rocking chair seat, what I call today, a seat that there’s no pressure on you. You just need to relax, I’m 2 over, I’m seven behind, but I won this championship at ten behind. So I knew if somehow I could get 3, 4, 5 just get close, you know, maybe that magical round shows up when you do it. Opened up birdie six of the first seven. I’m thinking, you know what? This could be the day.”

Perry joined a large group of players at 4 under par just one shot behind the co-leaders Jeff Maggert and Bernhard Langer.

Tom Watson is part of that large group at 4 under. Watson struggled again on the front nine, which is the portion of the course that the players have been considering the easier nine. He was two over par on the front side. And dropped to 3-under.

Watson did birdie the par four eleventh hole to get back to 4 under par and he joined a large group of golfers at four under and one shot behind

“I had a couple hiccups, late par in the front nine. I missed a short putt at 7 and three-putted 8. But made a good putt at 11 for birdie and just didn’t hit too many good shots, but I kind of hung around there, drove the ball pretty well, except for the last hole.” , Watson said following his round.

Watson was the leader at the start of the round analyzed his third round play.

“Off the tee was good. The iron play was pretty sketchy. I had a good — hit some good shorter irons. But longer irons, I wasn’t very good in the long irons. Almost fanned the one at No. 5, had a 6 iron and almost fanned it there. Short game was really good. Out of the rough around the greens, I’ve been very successful so far. The putter’s been working well. So driving the ball, short game’s good around the greens, putting well — it’s kept me in it. Let’s put it that way, it’s just kept me in it.”

“That’s the key for me. If I keep driving the ball well and put the ball in the fairway every hole, I’ll have a shot at it.”, Watson Added.

Co-leader Bernhard Langer drove the ball well today and found himself with a share of the Lead after the third round.

“Yeah, just kept the ball in play and hit a lot of decent shots. Just couldn’t make any putts early on.” Langer said after his round.

Langer and Jeff Maggert share the lead at five under par.

Putting will be the key to winning this tournament.   The greens are in outstanding shape and very true. If a player has his stroke on line, he should have success. Just ask Woody Austin one of the many one shot behind. Austin has missed multiple putts literally by a hair in the first three rounds. His frustration reached a peak when he let out a yell when his putt failed to fall on the par four ninth hole, and just rested on the edge of the hole.

“I don’t know how the ball is still sitting there. All it has to do is go two dimples, and it roles all the way back to the hole. Just very disappointing to hit good shots and not get rewarded for it. And then to hit good shots like on 16 and still miss a putt, that’s an aggravating finish. Very aggravating finish.”

The fourth and final round should be an exciting one with 20 players just 4 shots off the lead with eight players just one shot back.

Sacramento Native Kevin Sutherland is still in it and he finished the round even par and is currently 3-under par, two shots back back of the lead, heading into the final round.

Sutherland said he felt lucky to still be in the tournament.

“I didn’t really play that well today. I feel like I had a lot of good I had some good putts that just didn’t go in, but I also struggled a little bit hitting the ball. I think at the end of the day, even par is probably a good score for me.” , said Sutherland

While disappointed with his round, Sutherland should not be disappointed with his performance overall as well as the performance the players have brought to his hometown golf course and have displayed what looks to be an exciting end to a classic championship event where so many players have an opportunity to win the tournament in the final round. In the first two rounds the question was if the hot weather would impact the tournament, tomorrow, it will be the hottest player that will leave a lasting impact.

“It’s like a horse race,” Watson said. “Getting close to the wire.”