COLORADO SPRINGS — The 155 kids who caddie at Eduardo Romero’s home golf course in Villa Allende, Argentina, get to play a round of golf today — just as they can every Monday, when the course is closed to the public, just as Romero did in the early 1960s when, beginning at age 7, he also learned the game by toting bags.
Perfect timing. After Romero’s four-stroke victory Sunday in the U.S. Senior Open at Broadmoor East, nobody will feel much like working. Romero’s whole village of 35,000 may close down for the day. Heck, the province of Cordoba and Argentines everywhere might drop everything and celebrate.
Romero finished 72 holes in 6-under-par 274, ultimately coasting with a cushion over runner-up Fred Funk (278). Romero said his final round of 3-over 73 felt more like a grind out there, but in this sport style points don’t matter.
“Beautiful! It’s fantastic!” said Romero, 54, with that unmistakable grin reserved for a major champion, even on the Champions Tour.
After receiving a congratulatory phone call from his hero and countryman Roberto De Vicenzo minutes after hoisting the trophy, Romero could only imagine what’s next.
He can pitch in the champagne with part of his $470,000 check.
“Lots of receptions,” said Romero, who is scheduled to connect today to a nonstop flight from Dallas to his homeland. “The last time I win (the Dick’s Sporting Goods Championship on July 6 in Endicott, N.Y.), the school is closed in my little village. When I arrive to the airport, all of the kids go to follow me and my car.
“Now I win the U.S. (Senior) Open. Maybe the president come to visit me . . . maybe. I don’t think so.”
There will be celebrations enough in the fun-loving country that brought the world the tango. And Romero could finally breathe. The yoga classes he has taken during the past 10 years didn’t seem to help during a stretch of four consecutive bogeys, beginning on No. 11 and, curiously, after a 45-foot birdie at 10.
Romero said he couldn’t help but think of Greg Norman blowing a big lead on the back nine in the 1996 Masters.
“When the bogeys started,” Romero recalled, “I was a completely different player. ‘I can’t see it. I can’t hit it!’ I said to myself. ‘I have to stop the bogeys.’ I said to my caddie, ‘I have to make a putt, just one putt.’ ”
As things turned out, Romero need not have worried. It takes two to tango, and Funk could not “put the heat on,” as he put it. Funk lipped out a 6-foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth and then unraveled. He played the back nine in 5-over and knew “the party was over” after making a triple-bogey 7 on the 476-yard 13th that left him four shots back with five holes to play, even with Romero’s bogey on the hole.
Funk pulled his 3-wood tee shot on No. 13 into some of the nastiest rough on the golf course. He thought he could advance the ball out of the calf-high grass, but the ball barely flew 15 yards and failed to reach the fairway, burying into more thick stuff. Funk then blasted out with his third swing but, with the clubface turning in the turf, the ball squirted across the fairway and into dense rough again.
His third shot rolled through the green, and a poor chip left him a 15-foot putt for double bogey. He did not even get a piece of cup, then tapped in for 7.
Funk’s tribulations on No. 13 resulted from a miscalculation rather than from anything superstitiously unlucky. Before attempting that second shot from the hay, he put a sand wedge back in his bag and reached for a 7-iron. Greed kills.
“I thought I could get it somewhere near the green. I thought wrong,” Funk said.
John Cook started three strokes back but slopped around to a 77 and fell to fifth, slipping behind Mark McNulty (279) and Greg Norman (280). Cook missed six putts inside 10 feet.
“You have to have a clear mind to putt these greens, and I wasn’t very clear,” Cook said.
This was Romero’s second senior major championship, adding to his victory in the 2006 Jeld-Wen Tradition. He became the first foreign Open champion since Graham Marsh of Australia in 1997. Romero was well aware that De Vicenzo won the inaugural U.S. Senior Open title in 1980.
“This is my best championship. Fantastic,” said Romero, a winner almost 100 times worldwide.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
Bests: McNulty great on tough greens
Putting.
Mark McNulty, left, finished as the only golfer to go the entire week without a three-putt. On what he called “the toughest set of greens I’ve seen in a major championship, bar none,” McNulty needed just 118 putts over 72 holes.
Celebration.
After making his 45-foot birdie putt on No. 10, U.S. Senior Open champion Eduardo Romero’s fist-pumping spin got the crowd roaring — even more so than Fred Funk’s 30-foot birdie putt on No. 7.
Day.
After not breaking par all week, Bernhard Langer had a 4-under-par 66, which was the best round Sunday.
David Krause, The Denver Post
Worsts: Backed up at the tee box
Delay.
With Greg Norman getting a ruling at the No. 9 green, the final three groups behind him were stacking up. With two groups on the tee box, Eduardo Romero and Fred Funk waited 15 minutes before teeing off.
Final day.
After five birdies Saturday, John Cook started Sunday with a bogey on No. 1, and it didn’t get any better. He finished at 7-over-par 77 for the day and dropped to fifth place.
Schedule.
Next up on the Champions Tour is The Tradition, which starts Aug. 14 in Oregon. It’ll be the seniors’ third major in four weeks.
David Krause, The Denver Post
Hole of the day: Par-4, 476-yard No. 13
It’s not often a golfer in a major championship walks off after a bogey and picks up two strokes. But after Fred Funk’s seven-stroke adventure on the dogleg right 13th dropped him to 3-under par, Eduardo Romero suddenly had a four-stroke lead going down the homestretch despite a bogey 5. Funk was busy zigzagging the hole after pushing his tee shot into the rough on the left. He topped his second shot, “and from there it was a debacle the rest of the way,” he said.
David Krause, The Denver Post
