PARKER — The Sunday playoff in the Senior PGA Championship was a remake of the three-man duel at the conclusion of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Tom Lehman was the very good straight shooter, and the other two both shot badly and coyote ugly.
Sudden demise for Fred Couples and David Frost; swift victory for Lehman.
Lehman got his sweet revenge in south suburban Denver four years later. In what turned out to be The International’s last PGA Tour golf tournament at nearby Castle Rock in 2006, Lehman lost the second hole of the playoff. In what was the first Senior PGA Championship in Colorado — and the entire Wild, Wild West — in 2010 Lehman won the first hole of the playoff.
In the playoff Freddie Couples hit his tee ball like Freddie Krueger, and David Frost thrashed three shots like Richard Nixon.
Only Lehman pured the extra, 19th hole Sunday like a champion, and, at the end, he was.
Couples had pulled off a rare, late double-double eagle-eagle to levitate into a tie for the lead, and Frost sizzled to a 65-67 weekend and also ended at 7-under par. All Lehman accomplished at the grueling Colorado Golf Club was steady-as-he-goes rounds of 68-71-71-71 to become the final participant in the go-on.
Three world-class players, one grizzly bear of a 445-yard, par-4 hole. Tuco, Angel Eyes and Blondie were replaced by Boom Boom, the South African and Everyman.
But the staredown became a beatdown.
Lehman drew the piece of paper with a “1.” He teed off first, followed by Frost, then Couples.
Lehman, who sank a bullsnake of a birdie putt at the same No. 18 on Saturday to share the lead, split the middle and had only 132 yards to the pin. Good.
Rough finish for two
Frost hooked his drive into the deep, mound-guarded bunker to the left. Bad.
Couples overcooked his ball, also to the left and was seized by a bush, hopelessly unplayable.
If either had asked what was over there on the left, his caddie would have replied, “Your plane ticket home.”
Frost tried to brute-force his second shot, which soared wayward left again, through the dense crowd and into a gnarly shrub.
Couples took a penalty and a drop in the rough, then hit heavy 10 yards short of the green.
Lehman calmly wedged his approach to within 15 feet of the hole, waited and watched the two-train wreck.
Frost and volunteers removed beer cups, pine cones and TV cables, but they couldn’t remove the tree between him and the green. He reached into a cactus, yelled “Ouch” and retreated to his entangled ball. Frost stabbed it across the green and down the hill.
Couples puffed out his cheeks in anguish and, without much forethought, popped his next shot on the green, short.
It looked like a 2-handicapper against two weekend guys who couldn’t break 100 on a par-3 course.
If there were a 10-run mercy rule in golf, the match would have been called. In match play, Couples and Frost would have picked up and conceded. But the players had to play it out.
Frost and Couples ultimately converted double bogeys, and Lehman’s birdie putt hung on the lip, as if it mattered. The only way he could lose was with four whiffs.
Frost and Couples had combusted simultaneously and instantaneously.
Afterward, when it was mentioned to Frost that he had a 6, the response was, “Doesn’t matter.” The vineyard owner from South Africa promptly left — perhaps to slurp a bottle of his own wine.
Couples didn’t respond to anything. He disappeared from CGC. The Champions Tour rookie had won three of the six events he entered this year — and lost another in a playoff to Tom Watson. He now has a sixth in the Masters and a co-runner-up check at the Senior PGA Championship. Couples could be the only player in history to place in the top 10 in nine ’10 majors (there are five for the AARP pros).
Lehman admitted he lost count of his opponents’ scores in “a bizarre playoff. I’m not sure I’ve ever experience anything like that. I turned to my caddie and said, ‘How many shots have they taken?’ . . . I thought maybe Fred had taken an unplayable, but I wasn’t sure.
“I started thinking these guys are making double. I have to be honest. I was nervous.”
Playoffs pay off
Yet, Lehman felt he had the advantage after completing regulation last and teeing off first in the playoff. Frost was in the clubhouse “a long time” and Couples “had to wait a half hour. I just basically finished, signed my card and went back (to the 18th tee) and hit again.”
Couples and Frost hit again and again and again and . . .
Oddly enough, in his first 11 appearances at The International, Lehman earned $365,000. He received $360,000 on Sunday at Colorado Golf Club. In his playoff loss at Castle Pines, Lehman was consoled with $594,000. He has banked almost a million bucks in two playoffs here.
“The check is nice, but give me the trophy.”
In a spaghetti western playoff, the good Lehman was the last shootist standing.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
