SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Bernhard Langer was more than willing to be the villain if it meant winning the U.S. Senior Open.
Playing in an atmosphere more suited for a Ryder Cup than the final round of a major, Langer was undeterred by a partisan crowd that was rooting hard for hometown hero Fred Couples.
Langer shot a bogey-free, 3-under-par 67 on Sunday, took advantage of Couples’ one critical mistake and completed a trans-Atlantic double by winning his second straight Champions Tour major.
A week after winning the Senior British Open at Carnoustie, Langer finished at 8-under for the tournament at Sahalee Country Club. He fought off jet lag and had to tune out galleries hoping Couples could pull out victory 20 miles east of where he grew up.
“It’s never much fun, but I’ve had it before. When you play in the same group with Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer or any of the big names in America, certainly the Ryder Cups, I’ve played 10 Ryder Cups, five on American soil, you get a lot more of this,” Langer said. “So I knew what was coming, which doesn’t make it any easier.”
Langer became the first German to win any U.S. Golf Association championship and the first Champions Tour player to win back-to- back majors since Tom Watson took the Senior British and the Tradition in 2003.
Couples put himself in prime position for his first major title on the Champions Tour by taking the lead with a birdie at No. 1 Sunday. Then came the second, and gone was any realistic chance of Couples winning the tournament.
It was the easiest hole on the course all week, a par 5 at 503 yards. For the first time, Couples laid up after pushing his tee shot right and deciding not to chance a hybrid from the first cut of rough. The layup left him about 65 yards to the pin for his third.
His pitch landed in a greenside pond, well short of the green. The transgression was magnified when Couples hit his fifth shot over the green, then needed two putts to walk away with a triple bogey. Suddenly a one-shot lead for Couples became a three-shot deficit. And Langer never opened the door to give Couples hope of rallying.
Tseng wins third major
SOUTHPORT, England — Yani Tseng of Taiwan made a 6-foot putt on the 18th hole to win the Women’s British Open by one stroke over Katherine Hull of Australia. It was the 21-year-old Tseng’s third major title and second of the year to go along with the Kraft Nabisco.
Hull came into the round trailing by four strokes and closed to one heading into the 18th. But she missed a 20-foot birdie putt and settled for a 70, and Tseng made her par putt to shoot 73 and total 11-under 277 at Royal Birkdale.
Eagle lifts Fisher
KILLARNEY, Ireland — Ross Fisher won the Irish Open by two strokes over Padraig Harrington after shooting a 6-under 65 in the final round.
Fisher led by one shot going into the final round but stretched that advantage to three after sinking a 15-foot eagle putt at the par-5 seventh hole. The Englishman totaled 18-under 266.
The Associated Press
