GOLF PGA SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP : Nicklaus Continues Domination of Tour

Jack Nicklaus won the PGA Senior Championship by six strokes.

It wasn’t that close.

It wasn’t a surprise.

“Just what I expected,” Lee Trevino said.

“That’s what happens when the best player in the world is playing good,” Chi Chi Rodriguez said Sunday after Nicklaus’ runaway victory.

He was in command after building an eight-shot lead in the third round Saturday and finished with a 17-under par 271 total on the course he redesigned in 1989.

In the final 18 holes, Nicklaus coasted. He led by nine shots with nine holes to go and was 10 in front with seven to go. He needed only a closing 70 to score his fourth victory in six career starts among golf’s 50-and-over set.

In those six starts, including four in his rookie season, he is 71 under par for 23 rounds.

In those tournaments, only three players have finished ahead of him: Trevino in the 1990 Senior U.S. Open, and Gary Player and Rodriguez in this event a year ago.

No one was close this time.

Player, the defending champion and a three-time winner of this title, matched par 72 and was 15 behind at 286.

Trevino appeared to injure himself on a shot from the deep rough, but said it “was just a spasm. I’m OK.”

He shot 71 and finished 16 shots back at 287. Rodriguez was one more back at 288, after a 73.

Nicklaus joined Trevino and Rodriguez as the only two-time winners on the senior circuit.

“I played a controlled, conservative round,” Nicklaus said. “I did what I wanted to do, what I thought I had to do. It wasn’t a round to shoot a low score, but I didn’t need a low score.”

Bruce Crampton made up four shots over the last seven holes and finished second at 277, after a 68.

Did he think he had a chance?

“For second?” Crampton responded.

It was a familiar position for Crampton, who did not win a major title in his two decades on the regular tour but was runner-up to Nicklaus in the Masters and U.S. Open in 1972, and in the 1973 and ’75 PGA championships.

“I like being a defending runner-up to Jack,” he said.

No one else was within 11 shots of the winner.

New Zealand left-hander Bob Charles was third at 71-282. He was followed by Homero Blancas, 71-283, and George Archer, 74-284.

Despite the big lead at the start of the day and his reputation as being among the most pressure-proof athletes of his generation, Nicklaus said he had a queasy stomach when he got up.

“I always do,” he said.

And, while he enjoyed the victory, he said, the day’s play was more like work.

“I always enjoy it when I’m competing against myself,” he said. “And I enjoy it when I’m able to control myself like I did today.

“But playing with a big lead and playing just to hang on, that’s not a lot of fun.”