Watson beats odds in winning major
Denis Watson heard too often that he'd never play golf again. It took 23 years to prove everyone wrong.
Watson took advantage of Eduardo Romero's late mistakes -- a bogey on No. 13 and a double bogey on 14 -- to take the Senior PGA Championship in Kiawah Island, S.C., yesterday, his first US victory since winning three times on the PGA Tour in 1984.
"This validates my golfing career," Watson said. "It's gratifying to know that I've still got it after all these years."
Watson, from Zimbabwe, shot a 4-under 68 to finish at 9-under 279, edged Romero by two strokes, and became the first international Senior PGA winner since Gary Player in 1990.
Watson, 51, was a rising star in the 1980s when he won the Buick Open, World Series of Golf, and Las Vegas Invitational. The next year, he tied for second at the US Open. In 1986, though, Watson's rise ended when he hit into a hidden stump during a tournament in South Africa.
Watson kept playing, but eventually found out he damaged his neck, wrist, back, and shoulders. There was nerve damage, too.
"I never played a decent round of golf [after that]," he said.
Watson's had eight or nine surgeries, he said, been in a back brace for weeks, and spent years in rehab. No less an expert than teacher David Leadbetter told Watson his swing was dead.
But things began to turn this season, his first full year on the Champions Tour. Watson tied for second at the Turtle Bay Championship, then added three more top 10s heading into the weekend.
"Words cannot describe the feeling," Watson said. "Just to believe in my ability again."
PGA -- Rory Sabbatini won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in Fort Worth, beating Jim Furyk and Bernhard Langer with a 15-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff.
After beginning the final round tied at 11 under, Sabbatini, Furyk, and the 49-year-old Langer closed with matching 3-under 67s to finish at 14 under.
All three hit their playoff drives into the fairway on the 433-yard 18th. Their approach shots all landed safely on the green.
Furyk, No. 3 in the world ranking and the only one of the top 12 players at Colonial, missed his 34-foot putt. Sabbatini then made his putt before Langer, with the shortest putt and a chance to force another hole, missed an 8-footer to the right. It was the first three-man playoff ever at the Colonial.
Sabbatini finished the rain-delayed third round early yesterday with a 62, missing the tournament record by a stroke when his 8-foot birdie attempt scooted just left on No. 9, his last hole in Round 3.
LPGA -- Young Kim won her first Tour title, rallying with two birdies over the final five holes and capturing the
Young Kim shot 4-under 68 and finished at 20-under 268. The win came in Kim's fifth year on Tour and her 103d start.
Creamer, whose driver deserted her -- she hit only 6 of 14 fairways -- finished with a bogey for a 71 to fall into a tie with Mi Hyun Kim (70).
European -- Anders Hansen rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole to beat Justin Rose and win the BMW PGA Championship in Virginia Water, England.
Hansen shot 69 and Rose 71 in persistent rain at Wentworth to finish on 8-under 280, a stroke ahead of Vijay Singh, who had the day's best score (66), and Richard Sterne (74).
Nationwide -- Paul Claxton shot a 5-under 67 for the second straight day for an 18-under 270 total to win the Prince George's County Open in Mitchellville, Md., by a stroke over Brookline's James Driscoll (68) and Jaco Van Zyl (68). Providence's Patrick Sheehan, a third-round coleader with Claxton and Van Zyl, shot 74 to fall into a tie for 14th at 277.
