Fleisher Takes Safe Route to His First Major Title

Bruce Fleisher sat in the clubhouse at even par, safe from the looming lightning strikes and the threat of five challengers to his first major championship.

“Looking on the board, no one really wanted to take control,” Fleisher said Sunday after winning the U.S. Senior Open at Peabody, Mass., by making par on the final 12 holes in a two-under-par round of 68 that gave him a one-stroke victory over Isao Aoki and Gil Morgan.

“To have four guys at even par with two holes left and one guy to hang on doesn’t surprise me with how difficult this course was. I’m glad it’s over.”

Playing the last two days in 90-degree heat interrupted by thunderstorms that delayed the third round and accelerated the fourth, Fleisher was well-served by his conservative approach to the 6,709-yard Donald Ross-designed Salem Country Club course.

Aoki shot 73 and Morgan carded a 70 to finish at one over. Jack Nicklaus, who held the lead after Saturday’s rain-shortened play, shot a 70 and was two shots back.

“I kind of enjoyed being in the hunt,” Nicklaus said. “Standing on the 10th green, I turned around and I said, ‘You know, I’m a little nervous.’ I said, ‘That’s good. That’s fun.’ ”

Fleisher, who won once in 28 years on the PGA Tour, has 13 victories on the Senior Tour.

A year after losing the tournament to a red-hot Hale Irwin, Fleisher joined Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as the only men to win the U.S. Amateur and the Senior Open. Fleisher won the U.S. Amateur in 1968.

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Betsy King won the ShopRite LPGA Classic for the third time, shooting a four-under 67 for a two-stroke victory over Lorie Kane at Absecon, N.J.

King, who finished with a 12-under 201, will be 46 in August. JoAnne Carner is the oldest player to win an LPGA tournament, taking the Safeco Classic in 1985 at 46 years 5 months and 9 days.

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Colin Montgomerie shot a five-under 66 to win the Irish Open by five strokes at Cork, Ireland, his first European Tour victory in more than a year.

It was his 25th European Tour title, but the first in which he led after every round.

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Casey Martin finished in a nine-way tie for 38th place in the Buy.com Tour’s Knoxville (Tenn.) Open. It was the first tournament in which Martin made the cut since winning a Supreme Court decision that allows him to use a cart on the PGA Tour and its satellite Buy.com Tour.

Heath Slocum shot a 68 to win the tournament by six strokes.

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Up Next

PGA: Thursday through Sunday--Western Open, Lemont, Ill.

LPGA: Thursday through Sunday--Jamie Farr Kroger Classic, Sylvania, Ohio

Senior PGA: Friday through Sunday--Foremost Insurance Championship, Ada, Mich.