EDMOND, Okla. – Brad Bryant couldn’t remember whether it was before or after he made that double bogey at the 11th hole on Saturday. He just knows his caddy was right.

“Hang in there,” Tony Smith had said, encouraging his boss. “It’s a war of attrition out here today.”

No one was winning the battle, either. The wind was gusting to nearly 30 miles an hour, and Oak Tree Golf Club was playing like the toughest course in America the diabolical Pete Dye originally was asked to design in 1976.

The scoring average on Saturday during the third round of the Senior PGA Championship was a whopping 75.771, more than four strokes over par. Only three players shot in red numbers in the unforgiving conditions.

So while the leader, Gil Morgan, may be the sheriff of the Oak Tree Gang, Bryant was hardly the Lone Ranger.

Morgan, who lives a mile from the Oak Tree clubhouse, gutted out an even-par 71 that left him at 6 under for the tournament. The resilient Bryant, though, thanks to birdies on two of his last four holes on the way to a 72, is one stroke back and alone in second.

Bryant has played those last four holes in 7 under this week. Come Sunday, that knowledge and his sterling final-round scoring average of 68.90, could be a huge confidence boost.

“Today I played kind of really mediocre, but I finished with two birdies, and I’m really proud of that because I could have given up out there pretty easy today,” Bryant said. “I’m very tired and I’m emotionally just drained. It was hard, but I hung in there.”

Bryant, who has already won twice on the Champions Tour this year, actually had sole possession of the lead when he rolled in an 8-footer for birdie at the seventh hole, which he called “my one shining moment of the day.”

The ninth hole was just the opposite. “Much uglier,” he said. Bryant hit his drive on the 411-yard par 4 into the tall grass and trees on the left side of the fairway and was barely able to advance his second. He finally got his third shot near the green, chipped to a foot and made the putt for bogey.

Bryant’s normally dependable 3-wood betrayed him on the 11th hole and he found his tee shot stymied behind another tree. He chipped out and hit a 7-iron onto the green but then proceeded to three-putt for the double.

Another bogey on the 14th hole dropped Bryant back to 3 under for the tournament, and made Smith’s advice even more prescient. The self-deprecating 51-year-old said he was glad he didn’t realize how far he’d fallen from sole possession of the lead.

“I might have got mad,” Bryant said. “It was such a hard day that you knew some bad things were going to happen. And on a day like today, patience and composure are more important than anything else, and I did a nice job out there today.

“I didn’t make a fool of myself once.”

Bryant is the quintessential late-bloomer, not unlike his brother, Bart, a journeyman pro who won his first PGA TOUR event at the age of 41. The elder Bryant needed 475 PGA TOUR starts before his lone victory, at the age of 40.

His first win on the Champions Tour came much more quickly, in just his 27th tournament, and he followed that with a victory four weeks later. Those victories have given Bryant not only confidence but a sense of belonging.

Jacobsen even said that Bryant is “playing some of the best golf we’re seeing out on the Champions Tour.”

Brad Bryant has already won two tournaments in 2006. (Getty Images)

“I swear I don’t feel any different,” Bryant said. “I know the guys treat me differently a little bit. It’s been really strange, you know, actually having the guys respect me.

“I think it’s been a long time coming for me to reach an age of maturity that allows me to play the kind of golf that I’ve played this year. I’m much more proud of the way I’ve conducted myself this year, I think, than my golf game even.”

Ten years ago, Bryant said, he might not have handled the brutal conditions as well as he did on Saturday.

“I think that in a great many respects, I’ve really grown up over the last five to eight years,” he said. “I mean, none of us are perfect, but I feel like I know myself a little better. I think that my faith in Christ is a lot stronger.

“I think I understand a lot better than my significance is going to come from my relationship with God -- not from how well I play golf. And I think that those things matter a lot.

“And then having two teenagers at home really makes you grow up. That’s really been a struggle for me because there’s sometimes when my 13-year-old is a lot smarter and more well adjusted than I am (and) definitely a lot more patient.”

Not on Saturday, though.