By Jeff Hall
SACRAMENTO –
The leaderboard was a hint that an amazing event might occur at the Del Paso Country Club for the 36th 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 10th 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 18th
” 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.
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