Club Pro Wins the Senior British Open

Club pro Peter Oakley shot a two-under 70 on Sunday to fend off Tom Kite and Eduardo Romero and win the Senior British Open, his first Champions Tour title, in Portrush, Northern Ireland.

Oakley, the pro at The Rookery in Rehoboth Beach, Del., who had to qualify for the tournament, chipped out of a greenside bunker and rolled in a 10-foot par putt on the 18th at Royal Portrush to win the major championship by one stroke. His only other tournament victory came at the PGA Senior Club Professional Championship in 1999.

He dropped his putter to the ground and took a few seconds to acknowledge the applause of the fans after winning the title also held by the likes of Gary Player, Bob Charles and Tom Watson.

“It still hasn’t sunk in,” said Oakley, who shot a four-under 284 over the four days. “Somebody told me that I’m exempt to play on the U.S. Senior Tour now for a year or something. I just can’t believe that. My life is changing right before my very eyes. I don’t know what to think.”

Oakley, who only decided to join the tour last November as company for his older brother David, won $295,000, almost 12 times his previous best.

“That’s some cash,” he said. “Now I can get out of debt.”

His career earnings entering the tournament totaled $54,309, with his biggest check being $14,801 after finishing tied for 35th at last year’s U.S. Senior Open.

In eight previous Champions Tour tournaments, Oakley’s best finishes came at the 1999 U.S. Senior Open and the 2002 Senior PGA Championship. He finished tied for 32nd at both.

Kite shot a 69 and Romero a 67 to tie for second at three-under. Mark James, who won the Champions Tour’s previous major two weeks ago, the Senior Players Championship, finished another stroke back in fourth place after a 70.

Oakley took the lead with an eight-foot birdie putt at the 11th and had a three-stroke advantage after a curling 25-foot putt at 14 earned him his sixth birdie.

He dropped a shot at the par-four 16th after driving into the right rough and being forced to chip out sideways.

With Kite, Romero and James all making birdie at 17, that sliced his lead to one shot as he went to 18.

“I saw that I was five-under on 16. I had a two-shot lead with two to go. Who could have wished for more?” Oakley said. “Then on 17 I saw that Kite and Romero were three-under and I’m gulping like it’s gone out of style.”

His second shot from semi-rough landed in a greenside bunker and there was a strong chance of a three-way playoff if he had bogeyed.

But with no view of the flag, Oakley rolled the bunker shot 10 feet past the hole, setting up the championship putt.

“On 18 I hit a great bunker shot and I made the putt and that’s how I putted all week. It was divine, the way I putted,” he said.

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Carlos Franco, a Paraguayan who spent his free time fishing for bass at a friend’s pond during the week rather than practicing his golf game, shot a three-under-par 67 in Milwaukee to win the U.S. Bank Championship, which was known as the Greater Milwaukee Open when he won it in 1999.

Franco’s 13-under 267 bested Fred Funk (66) and Brett Quigley (69) by two strokes each on a cool day at Brown Deer Park.

Patrick Sheehan (70), Billy Andrade (67) and Olin Browne (67) finished three shots behind, tied for fourth place.

Franco is the seventh two-time winner in Milwaukee. He began the final round tied with Quigley and Sheehan atop the leaderboard, his first 54-hole lead since the 2000 COMPAQ Classic of New Orleans, which he won in a playoff to defend his ’99 title.

Neither Sheehan nor Quigley, who teed off last, had ever led going into the final day of a tournament on the PGA Tour and the inexperience proved costly.

Sheehan made the turn a stroke ahead of Franco at three-under for the day but posted a bogey on No. 11, a double-bogey on 12 and a bogey on 13.

Quigley shot a steady but unspectacular round, never making a charge.