Watson gets the job done in a playoff at Valencia

The Bryant brothers’ dream nearly came true.

Brad Bryant wanted to win the Champions Tour tournament at Valencia Country Club on the same day his younger brother Bart won his PGA Tour event in Florida.

But they both finished with one shot too many.

Denis Watson knocked out Brad Bryant and then Loren Roberts in a sudden-death playoff to win the AT&T; Champions Classic and its $240,000 first prize on a chilly, gusty Sunday in Santa Clarita.

A few hours earlier, Bart Bryant lost the Arnold Palmer Invitational by a stroke when Tiger Woods birdied the 18th hole to win at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla.

News of Woods’ putt reached Brad as he played the ninth hole at Valencia, on his way to an even-par 72 that left him at seven-under 209 for the tournament with Watson and Roberts.

“I feel really good that [Bart] came up one shot short,” Brad, 53, said of his 45-year-old brother. “When you finish a shot behind Tiger, you’re going to win lots and lots of money.

“And it was a good week for me,” said Brad, a native of Amarillo, Texas. “To finish second on this course is good for me.”

Under the Valencia tournament’s playoff format, the group replayed the 18th hole twice and then the 10th.

All made par on the first playoff hole, and Bryant bogeyed the next one to fall out.

Watson then defeated Roberts on the par-four 10th when he hit his approach to within three feet and made the birdie putt.

It was Watson’s third win on the 50-and-over Champions Tour, and he got into the playoff after surging from the middle of the pack with a sizzling seven-under 65.

And Roberts got in with a dramatic chip-in eagle on the 54th and final hole of regulation play.

Roberts also lost at Valencia last year in a playoff to Tom Purtzer on the fourth hole of extra play.

Watson, 52, said he told himself that “if you can shoot a low back nine [Sunday] you might have a chance.” But even after shooting his 65, “I thought I was going to be one short” to make the playoff, he said.

Watson also had to wait more than an hour to find out as Bryant and Roberts finished, “and it was nerve-racking,” Watson said. “I was more nervous than when I was playing.”

Jay Haas finished regulation play at six under to miss the playoff by a stroke. He was followed by four players at five under: Jerry Pate, John Cook, Scott Simpson and Bernhard Langer, who beat Haas in a playoff a week ago to win the Toshiba Classic in Newport Beach.

Bryant had a chance to win outright if he could have birdied the final hole of regulation. But he managed only par, forcing the third consecutive extra-hole playoff on the Champions Tour.

Watson opened his round with an eagle on the first hole, and on the ninth he chipped in from off the green to score a second eagle. Then he carded four birdies on the back side.

“I’d say it’s up there with one of my best rounds ever,” Watson said. “The wind was tough. But I hit a lot of really good shots when I needed to.”

Watson is a Zimbabwe native whose golf career nearly ended with a freak accident in 1985.

During a tournament in South Africa, he hit a shot not knowing that a tree stump was underneath his ball.

The impact damaged his wrist, elbow and neck, requiring multiple surgeries and years of rehabilitation.

james.peltz@latimes.com