Final round: Weibring relishes initial major win
TIMONIUM, Md. (AP) -- D.A. Weibring can remember times when he played exceptionally well and still ended up watching someone else receive the winner's trophy at a major tournament.
And so he made no apologies after it finally became his turn to take home the hardware.
Down by four strokes with 14 holes to play, Weibring soared past a fading Nick Price and held off a host of challengers Sunday to win the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, his first career major victory in 65 tries.
Weibring closed out a 2-under 68 with a 2-foot par putt on the 72nd hole. He finished at 9-under 271, one stroke better than hometown favorite Fred Funk (66).
On a day in which four of the top seven finishers bogeyed No. 18, closing with five straight pars was good enough to provide Weibring with a lovely crystal trophy and $390,000 -- the biggest payday of his career.
"I had a couple of fortunate things happen," Weibring said. "I didn't play my best golf. I've played better in the final round and haven't been rewarded. It was just my time, and I'm very proud to have won."
Price (71), Ben Crenshaw (66) and Jeff Sluman (69) finished at 7 under, and Jay Haas (68) followed at 6 under.
It was Weibring's fifth win in six years on the Champions Tour, and one of the most significant of his entire career. He was 0-for-39 in major tournaments on the PGA TOUR and 0-for-25 on the 50-and-over circuit.
"It will all sink in as time goes on," he said. "But I did always believe I could win a major championship. Sometimes things happen, and they just fall into place."
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| Sunday's Best |
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The par-5, 583-yard fourth was the easiest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.649.
The par-4, 496-yard 18th was toughest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.325.
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Mike Goodes had 136 yards to the pin for his third shot on the 17th hole. The ball sailed onto the green, bounced several times and landed in the cup for a birdie at the penultimate hole.
Three players shot 66 in the final round but it was Fred Funk's who helped him the most. He finished at 8-under in solo second place and vaulted into the lead in the Charles Schwab Cup race.| QUOTE OF THE DAY | ||
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WEIBRING THRILLED TO SHARE MAJOR WITH FAMILY
By Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator
TIMONIUM, Md. -- D.A. Weibring had the shiny crystal Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship trophy sitting right next to him, but it was his buzzing phone that caused him to get choked up with emotion.
"It wouldn't be worth it if you didn't have someone to share it with," Weibring said, holding back the tears, as his cell phone buzzed with his mother calling to congratulate him.
When he knocked his final putt in to close with a 68 and a 9-under total for the week, the 55-year-old Weibring finally got his first major victory. He'd been 0-for-64 in major championships on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour combined and, even 30 minutes after the round, it hadn't quite sank in that he could now call himself a major champion.
| 1 | How many players, in this case just Bernhard Langer, who had top-10s in all five majors in 2008. |
| 17 | Number of different winners on the Champions Tour this season. |
| 3 | Number of players -- Fred Funk, D.A. Weibring and Bruce Vaughan -- who earned this first major this season. |
It was his daughter-in-law Stephanie who had the most profound impact on Weibring's final day. Stephanie is married to D.A.'s son Matt, who's also a professional golfer and, at 20th on the Nationwide Tour money list, will likely earn his PGA TOUR card next season. Before each of Matt's rounds, Steph usually sends a text message with positive thoughts.
D.A. got wind of this a few weeks ago and, soon after, Steph began sending him text messages as well. Usually they're nothing fancy, he says, just basic principles and positive thoughts. She hadn't sent him any all week, though, until Sunday morning. He copied down her text on a piece of paper, kept it in his pocket and pulled it out often during his round to remind himself of the message.
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MAJOR ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT FOR FUNK
Fred Funk completely changed his attitude on Sunday morning -- and it showed on his scorecard. After rounds of 66 and 68 got him into the weekend, he shot 72 on Saturday and dropped into a tie for sixth.
He was dismayed by his third round and was trying so hard to perform well in Maryland, his home state. So Funk's wife Sharon gave him a talking to on Saturday night and Sunday morning -- "she probably wore out the battery in her cell phone talking to me," he said -- and he closed the tournament with a 66.
"Basically, she was telling me what I need to do and to get my head out of my ass," Funk said. "...I did a pretty good bounce back after yesterday's debacle coming in. My whole game just went south (on Saturday) and I put a lot of heat on my putter.
"...Yesterday I was focusing on the negative but I don't want to do that. After an attitude adjustment, I went out with a positive attitude (on Sunday). Instead of being mad, I got it out of my system and went out and enjoyed the walk, the golf, the competition."
Thanks to his solo second-place finish at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, Funk now leads the Charles Schwab Cup race. But he knows it will be a tough battle down the stretch with Jay Haas and Bernhard Langer for the trophy and will likely not be settled until the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in three weeks.
"On the Champions Tour, at the end of year, there are golf courses that I like. I was always planning on playing out here," Funk said, noting that he was not going to spend any time on the PGA TOUR for the remainder of the season. "I thought (the Charles Schwab Cup race) was going to be anyway going in (to this week). It's really tight now and we have double points again at Sonoma."
| What the top finishers said... | ||||||||||||||||
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LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
If Matt Weibring can retain his position inside the 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list, he'll play on the PGA TOUR next year.
When he was younger, however, it was his father's position on the money list that he was worried about. D.A. was injured in the late 1980s and underwent surgery in 1989 and 1990. Matt, then about eight years old, was worried because he heard people in the galleries talking about his dad being hurt and potentially losing his card.
"I saw him one day lying on the floor and he said, 'Hey, Dad, if you win a tournament, where would you go on the Money List?' I wondered why all of the sudden that got his attention," D.A. recalled.
So D.A. asked what exactly Matt was talking about.
"He says, 'Dad, I want you to win. I want you to win a tournament.' It's pretty bold when your son shares that with you," D.A. said.
They made a deal. If Matt would focus on his grades and athletics, D.A. promised he would win the next year. And both made good on that promise.
D.A. won in 1991 and earned Comeback Player of the Year honors on the PGA TOUR.
Matt worked hard for years on his athletics and grades to become an All-American golfer at Georgia Tech. Now, if he continues that hard work, makes the PGA TOUR and plays well in 2009, both father and son could compete together at THE PLAYERS Championship next season.
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