Canizares Takes Long Way to First Senior Win

The Toshiba Senior Classic had to end somehow.

The only questions were whether Gil Morgan’s erratic play would do him in, Jose Maria Canizares finally would make a putt or if darkness would put off the crowning of a champion until today.

The answer came on the ninth hole of a sudden-death playoff Sunday at Newport Beach Country Club, where Canizares, with nightfall rapidly approaching, stroked a smooth 18-foot putt that curled right, disappeared into the hole and ended the tournament and the second-longest playoff in Senior PGA Tour history.

It is the first career senior tour victory for Canizares, who has had four second-place finishes in four years on the tour, including three playoff losses.

“Muy contento,” the Spaniard said. “This is very happy for me. It’s very nice to win because I’m playing against the best players in the world. For me, it’s fantastic.”

Canizares had potential tournament-winning birdie putts lip out on the first, second and fourth playoff holes, but kept his composure.

Morgan, an 18-time senior tour winner who now is 0-4 in playoffs, missed fairways and greens throughout Sunday’s playoff, yet somehow kept bailing himself out.

He got up and down for pars after missing greens on each of the first two playoff holes and did the same from a greenside bunker on the sixth playoff hole.

On the seventh playoff hole, the par-five 18th, he hit his drive behind a tree in the right rough but managed to hit a low running hook into the fairway, then pitched to 16 feet and made it for birdie.

Morgan had a chance to end the tournament on the eighth playoff hole, but watched his eight-foot birdie putt lip out.

Canizares took advantage. He struck a three-iron on the final playoff hole, the 185-yard par-three 17th, and delivered the final blow with his putter nearly 6 1/2 hours after he teed off Sunday morning.

It was only the fourth birdie of the day on No. 17, which played as the toughest hole on the course in the final round.

Morgan and Canizares, who finished regulation play at 11-under-par 202, were unlikely candidates to take part in a playoff when the day began.

Morgan started at four under, seven shots out of the lead. Canizares was five strokes back.

But when Terry Mauney, Bob Gilder and Larry Nelson faltered in the lead group Sunday, a five-under 67 by Canizares and a 64 by Morgan put them on top. Morgan, who shot a front-nine 30 Sunday, posted his score first.

“In golf you always have a chance,” Canizares said. “In 18 holes, anything is possible.”

Bob Gilder, who began the day in second place at 10 under, can attest. A four-hole stretch on the front nine dropped him from contention. He was seven over in that stretch, including a triple bogey and two double bogeys. He shot 77 and ended up tied for 12th.

Nelson, the leading money winner on the senior tour this year who began the day in third place at nine under, bogeyed the first, third and fifth holes and slipped off the leader board. He shot 72 and finished tied for seventh, his 13th consecutive top-10 finish.

Mauney, the first-round leader who began the day at 12-under, bogeyed Nos. 5, 7 and 8. He got back to 11 under with birdies at 9 and 11, but slipped back with a double bogey at 14. He shot 77 and finished tied for 10th at six-under 207.

“It wasn’t the double at 14 that hurt,” Mauney said. “It was on one, two and three when I had birdie putts on each hole inside of eight feet and I didn’t even touch the hole. That would have made a big difference if I could have started with a couple of birdies. I just didn’t settle down.”

Playoffs, even lengthy ones, aren’t uncommon at the Senior Classic. In 1997, Bob Murphy and Jay Sigel went nine holes before Murphy ended it with a 70-foot putt on the same hole where Canizares won Sunday.

In 1999, Gary McCord needed five playoff holes to defeat John Jacobs, Allen Doyle and Al Geiberger.

The longest playoff in Senior PGA Tour history was a 10-hole playoff between David Graham and Dave Stockton at the 1998 Royal Caribbean Classic, won by Graham.

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TOP THREE

(-11) $210,000: Jose Maria Canizares*

(-11) $123,200: Gil Morgan

(-10) $100,800: Allen Doyle

* won on ninth playoff hole

*

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