Watson Wins Another British Title

L.A. Times Archives

July 25, 2005 12 AM PT

From Associated Press

Tom Watson made par on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff to beat Des Smyth and win the Senior British Open on Sunday at Aberdeen, Scotland.

Watson, a five-time British Open champion, won the Senior British for the second time in three years. In 2003, he beat Carl Mason in a playoff at Turnberry.

He joins Gary Player (1988, 1990, 1997), Bob Charles (1989, 1993), Brian Barnes (1995, 1996) and Christy O’Connor Jr. (1999, 2000) as multiple winners of the championship.

“This trophy certainly means something to me,” the 55-year-old Watson said. “It was something of a struggle and it looked as if we could have played that 18th hole all night and still been locked together.”

Watson won his seventh senior title and first since the 2003 Jeld-Wen Tradition. The victory is his fourth senior major, including the 2001 Senior PGA Championship, the Senior British in 2003 and the Tradition.

Watson held a one-shot lead heading into the final round and closed with a one-under-par 70, finishing tied with Smyth (67) at four-under 280.

Greg Norman, making his Champions Tour debut, shot a 68 and finished third at three under. He made a 25-foot birdie putt at the 18th to finish two shots ahead of Craig Stadler (72). Loren Roberts, also playing his first senior event, had a 67 and finished four back.

After both Watson and Smyth parred No. 18 twice, the playoff moved to the par-three No. 17, where Watson made a par and Smyth made bogey after hitting his tee shot into a greenside bunker. He hit his second to within 20 feet, but missed the par putt.

“Maybe my concentration dipped a little,” Smyth said. “Just seemed to get ahead of it and put it in a tough position in the bunker. But Tom won, and he’s a great champion. So that’s nothing new.”

Watson opened with a four-over 75 and followed with an even-par 71 before shooting a 64 on Saturday.

“This is a beautiful course, everything you look for in a links test,” Watson said of Royal Aberdeen Golf Club. “We got to know it better over the last two rounds and that showed in the scoring.”

Ben Crane shot a one-under 69 in sweltering heat at Milwaukee to win the US Bank Championship by four strokes over Scott Verplank. Chad Campbell (65) finished five shots back in third, and Jeff Sluman (68) was fourth, six shots behind.

Crane finished at 20-under 260. He’s the second wire-to-wire winner in Milwaukee and the first at Brown Deer Park, where the tournament has been played for 11 years. Ed Snead did it in 1974 at Tuckaway Country Club.

Crane, whose only other PGA Tour win came at the 2003 BellSouth Classic, is the fourth golfer this year to put his name atop the leaderboard all four rounds of a tournament, joining Phil Mickelson (AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am), Justin Leonard (FedEx St. Jude Classic) and Tiger Woods (British Open).

After enduring a stormy three days that included nearly 10 hours of rain delays, tornado warnings, two course evacuations and a suspension on account of darkness, the golfers slogged through a hot, humid final day where the temperature hovered around 105 degrees.

Up next

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* What: Buick Open.

* When: Thursday-Sunday.

* Where: Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club, Grand Blanc, Michigan.

* 2004 winner: Vijay Singh.

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* What: Women’s British Open.

* When: Thursday-Sunday.

* Where: Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Southport.

* 2004 winner: Karen Stupples.

CHAMPIONS TOUR