BLAINE, Minn. — Bad knees and all, R.W. Eaks never felt better.
Eaks, a Colorado Springs native who attended Northern Colorado, shot a final round 7-under-par 65 to win the Champions Tour 3M Championship.
His 23-under total was the lowest score in the tournament’s 16-year history to finish with a 54-hole total of 193. His total is the fourth-lowest score in the tour’s 29-year history.
“I never dreamed I could shoot that low,” Eaks said. “I’ve had a chance to get in the 20s a couple of times and just could never get there.”
“I didn’t think you could go that low,” said Bernhard Langer, who tied Castle Rock’s Gary Hallberg for second at 17-under 199.
But it wasn’t easy down the stretch. Eaks, who had one top-10 finish in the 14 events he completed this year, led by as many as six on the front nine at the TPC Twin Cities, but back-to-back birdies by Gene Jones cut the lead to two on 14.
Eaks’ second shot on the par-4 15th went through the green, but he regrouped and chipped in out of the rough for birdie. He estimated the shot went 22 or 23 feet.
“It was an absolutely perfect lie, uphill into the wind,” he said. “It was one of those you look at it and you go, ‘I think I can chip this in.’ ”
Jones bogeyed and double-bogeyed the next two holes. He finished fourth.
Both of Eaks’ knees need replacements, and he now accepts that he needs to ride in a cart for most of his round. Twice this year he has withdrawn from tournaments because he could barely get out of a cart.
“To win this tournament after all I’ve been through, I just can’t explain it,” Eaks said. “Even hurt, I love this game, and I don’t want to quit.”
Swede Johnson breaks the ice
MILWAUKEE — Richard S. Johnson birdied three of his last four holes to shoot a 6-under-par 64 and win the U.S. Bank Championship for his first PGA Tour victory.
Johnson finished at 16-under 264. He is the sixth golfer from Sweden to win on Tour and seventh first-time winner this year.
Johnson, the first-round leader after shooting a 63, sank a birdie putt of about 12 feet on the par-4 17th hole to break a tie with Ken Duke at 14-under. He then birdied the par-5 18th from less than 2 feet.
He needed that final birdie to win because Duke also birdied the last hole. Duke shot 65 to finish second at 15-under.
Dean Wilson (65), Chad Campbell (65) and Chris Riley (66) tied for third at 13-under. Kenny Perry closed brilliantly with a 64 to get to 12-under and finish tied for sixth.
Footnotes.
Second-year LPGA golfer Ji Young Oh won her first tournament, sinking a 6-inch putt for par to win the State Farm Classic in Springfield, Ill., in a playoff over rookie Yani Tseng.
• Reigning U.S. Amateur champion Colt Knost shot a 10-under 62 to cap a four-shot victory in the Nationwide Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Championship in Springfield, Mo., and earn his 2009 PGA Tour card.
The Associated Press
