Final round: Romero becomes second Argentine to win U.S. Senior Open
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- The 29th U.S. Senior Open will be remembered for the black bears that menaced The Broadmoor's East Course -- and the one cat who conquered it.
Eduardo "El Gato'' Romero on Sunday became the second Argentine golfer to hoist the silver cup, 28 years after Roberto De Vicenzo won the trophy at Winged Foot.
The 54-year-old Romero shot a final round 3-over 73 but was never seriously challenged by Fred Funk (75), who finished four strokes back.
Romero was 6-under 274 for the tournament.
Funk, who began the day two shots back, predicted Saturday that he'd have to make his move on the front nine and then just hold on.
He did neither, failing to cut into the deficit and then watching his quest to become the fifth straight come-from-behind winner die with a triple-bogey on the par-4 13th.
Mark McNulty (68) finished in third, five shots back. Greg Norman shot a 70 and finished in fourth, his third straight top-five finish.
But Norman, the 53-year-old Australian who held the 54-hole lead at the British Open two weeks ago, is skipping the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills next week. His honeymoon with tennis great Chris Evert over, he said he needs to return to work as CEO of Great White Shark Enterprises.
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The par-5, 601-yard third hole ranked the easiest with a 4.786 scoring average.
The 478-yard, par-4 11th hole was the hardest with a 4.639 scoring average.
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Over. Done. Finito. C'est fini. If a putt could talk, that's what Eduardo Romero's 40-footer on the 10th hole would have said. When he birdied that hole, he gave himself a three-stroke advantage. Though he would make four bogeys on the next four holes, his competitors faltered as well and Romero sealed his win after that competition-crushing birdie on 10."
Bernhard Langer's 66 was the lowest round on Sunday but it almost didn't happen. He nailed a 34-foot putt for birdie on the 72nd hole to post his first sub-par score for the week (see below for more on Langer's unusual week) and moved into a tie for sixth. That's good for Langer, who leads the Charles Schwab Cup race, in which players only receive points if they finish inside the top 10. | Quote of the Day | ||
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SMILE FOR HIM, ARGENTINA
By Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The last time Eduardo Romero returned home to Villa Allende, the small village with a population of 35,000 where he lives in Argentina, the entire town came out to greet him. Schools shut down. Kids came to greet him at the airport. They followed him to his car.
The cause for celebration was Romero's victory at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open, which took place a month ago on the Champions Tour. After hoisting the U.S. Senior Open trophy, Romero knows the celebration will be twice as rowdy and twice as fun.
"Now I win the U.S. Open, maybe the president come to visit me," Romero said, with a Cheshire cat grin befitting his nickname 'El Gato' (the Cat).
It wasn't the president, but Romero heard from someone closer to his heart immediately following his win at The Broadmoor. Roberto De Vicenzo, the first U.S. Senior Open champion and a fellow Argentine, called and spoke to Romero to congratulate him on his win.
In Spanish, he told Romero that all of the people -- including himself -- were following the tournament and very excited about the outcome.
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LANGER'S WEIRD WEEK
Two surprising things happened to Bernhard Langer this week at The Broadmoor.
First, during the second round on Friday, he encountered the now famous black bear that wandered onto the course, then subsequently onto TV screens and newspaper pages everywhere for his appearance on the fairway. Langer's group was the one closest to the fuzzy but hungry forest inhabitant.
"That's not going to happen again, I don't think," Langer said. "It's never happened before. First of all, you don't see many bears, period, and you don't see them running across the fairway about 15 feet from you."
Like he does on the golf course when a tournament is on the line, Langer kept cool when faced with danger. After all, you don't win the Masters in both 1985 and 1993 without some pretty steady nerves.
"I was calm," he said. "We watched the whole thing. He was coming off from the right side. He ran through the bunker, across the fairway, and I saw he was heading into the trees. That's where he wanted to go. He didn't even notice us. He just wanted to go in the trees and hide."
The other strange thing to happen to Langer -- and this one might be more surprising, considering he leads the Champions Tour in Charles Schwab Cup points and has two wins and 10 top-10s this season -- is that he only broke par once this week.
Langer opened with a 2-over 72, followed that with an even-par 70 then needed 74 strokes to navigate the East Course in the third round. But he had his best round when he needed it, firing a 66 on Sunday to vault into the top 10.
"Finally broke par. It feels good. Made some putts. That was really the difference, and had some good up and downs on the back side," Langer said.
In the final round, Langer sank four birdies on the front and a dramatic 34-foot putt for another birdie on the 18th hole. His lone blemish on the card came at the par 4, 427-yard 14th when he could only muster a bogey.
EAKS FINISHES DESPITE DOUBLE KNEE INJURY
R.W. Eaks played through the pain of walking on his two injured knees and thrilled his local supporters, family and friends by completing the U.S. Senior Open. His knees really began to bother him on the back nine on Saturday, and Eaks considered withdrawing before the final round. He decided to play -- especially since many friends had made the trek to watch the Colorado Springs native -- and finished with 72 on Sunday to sit at 6 over for the week.
He plans to meet with his doctor on Monday to ascertain the extent of his injuries and determine if he can play in the JELD-WEN Tradition after the Champions Tour takes an off week. It's another major, which means no riding for Eaks, who won the 3M Championship two weeks before the U.S. Senior Open with a cart.
Still, he's stubborn and doesn't want his competitors to know just how big of a problem his knees.
"I won't even tell anybody. I'll just keep playing. Gotta have an edge," he explained.
Because the bones in his knees are grinding and grating against each other, Eaks has a hard time hitting shots below his feet and can't stand for long enough to concentrate when putting. Yet he expects to complete the year and wants that exempt status for 2009.
"I'm pretty stubborn. You think I got bone on bone down here (pointing to his knees), you oughta see it up here, baby. It's solidified up there," Eaks said, gesturing towards his head. "No. I just love playing golf. Doesn't matter if I'm hurt or healthy or what. I just love being out here and playing, because you never know when you're going to play good."
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DEFENDING CHAMPION BRYANT SAYS 'THANK YOU'
Brad Bryant, the 2007 champion at the U.S. Senior Open, did something unusual on Sunday and actually volunteered to come into the media center for an interview. But that's just Bryant, one of the most down-to-earth and classy players on any golf tour.
Bryant met with the media because he wanted to send out a big "thank you" to the USGA, the tournament volunteers and the staff at The Broadmoor for making his year as champion truly special.
"Basically I just came over here today as the past champion to say thank you to all of the people who have made the last year so wonderful for me, because it's very seldom does a person get to spend a year living his dream, and for the last year, I got to be the U.S. Senior Open Champion," Bryant said.
When he won at Whistling Straits last year, Bryant overtook Tom Watson on the back nine by shooting a 4-under 68 for the day.
"(The USGA) understands I'm not a superstar and they really wanted Tom Watson, we all know that but that's okay," Bryant joked about having to do media appearances and represent the USGA as their champion throughout the year.
| 5 | The number of International players, including Eduardo Romero, who've won the U.S. Senior Open. |
| 103 | How many International players have been crowned USGA champions. |
With his victory, Bryant got a spot in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines -- "I got to play at San Diego this year, where I embarrassed myself badly, hitting it in the deep rough all week long," he said -- and held the shiny, silver trophy for a year. But Bryant, ever the gentleman, let the Lone Palm Club, his home course in Lakeland, Fla., keep it on their property to the delight of the members.
That is, Bryant let them borrow it once he actually got to view the trophy. He had a slight mishap after it arrived at his house in an enormous metal crate -- "there was a note on (it) that says, 'If you lose this trophy, we will come kill you,'" he joked -- and found he didn't know the code to get past the combination lock.
"We finally got the trophy opened and had the trophy there in my house for a while and everyone just loved it," Bryant said. "I have lots of friends that have their pictures made with the trophy."
Though he was 5 over par for the week, Bryant still enjoyed his time at The Broadmoor.
"The hospitality here this week has been unbelievable," he said. "We have been treated way too good. We will all be much more prima donnas next week than we were when we got here."
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