U.S. Senior Open: Final-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff HAVEN, Wis. -- Brad Bryant won the U.S. Senior Open Sunday in his third appearance in the championship and claimed his first senior major title in his 10th attempt. Bryant's previous best finish in a senior major came at the 2006 Senior PGA Championship when he lost in a playoff to Jay Haas at Oak Tree Golf Club. Bryant's previous best finish in a U.S. Senior Open was a T14 last year at Prairie Dunes. He missed the cut in 2005 at NCR Country Club.  Ben Crenshaw's final-round 70 vaulted him up into a solo second, his best finish on the Champions Tour. (Morry Gash/AP)
• Brad Bryant's best finish in 20 appearances in major championships on the PGA TOUR was a T13 at the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, N.Y. • Brad Bryant's victory Sunday is his fourth career title on the Champions Tour and second in 2007 (Regions Charity Classic). Bryant joins Jay Haas, a winner of four titles on the 2007 Champions Tour, as the only other multiple winner on the circuit thus far this year. • Brad Bryant's made up five strokes in the final round, the second biggest comeback by a winner in U.S. Senior Open history. In 2005 at NCR Country Club, Allen Doyle came from nine strokes back to win thanks to a final-round 63. Tom Watson's three-stroke advantage after 54 holes equals Ray Floyd's three-shot margin in 1998 at Riviera Country Club as the largest 54-hole lead by a non-winner. • Brad Bryant's check for $470,000 was easily his largest ever as a professional and increased his 2007 official earnings to $1,657,047, second only to Jay Haas (Bryant is now just $35,371 short of his best earnings year ever on TOUR (2006). • Brad Bryant's 4-under 68 was the low round on Sunday and one of just two scores in the 60s. George Zahringer, an amateur from New York, carded a 3-under 69 in the morning. Larry Nelson (70), Ben Crenshaw (70) and Donnie Hammond (71) were the only other players to break par in the last round. • Brad Bryant was the only player in the 2007 U.S. Senior Open to record four consecutive rounds of par/better. • Ben Crenshaw's final-round 70 vaulted him up into a solo second, his best career finish ever on the Champions Tour. Crenshaw's previous-best finish on the circuit was a T3 earlier this year at the Toshiba Classic. Crenshaw has now made 21 appearances in senior majors and his previous-best came earlier this year at the Senior PGA Championship at Kiawah Island when he finished T12. Crenshaw's previous-best efforts USGA events were a T2 at the 1972 U.S. Amateur (three strokes back of Vinny Giles) at Charlotte Country Club and a T3 in the 1975 U.S. Open Championship at Medinah Country Club. • Tom Watson's fourth-place performance at Whistling Straits means he has now has finished among the top-5 five times in the last six years at the U.S. Senior Open, including three runner-up performances (2002, 2003, 2006). Watson's five top-5s in this event in this championship tie him with Gary Player for the third most. Both Jack Nicklaus and Hale Irwin have seven career top-5 performances in the U.S. Senior Open. In addition to his three seconds, Watson was T5 in 2005 at NCR Country Club. • The field scoring average on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island at this year's Senior PGA Championship was 75.493 (+3.493). At the Senior PGA Championship, Denis Watson won with a 9-under-par 279 total and there were just six players under par after 72 holes. Sunday at Whistling Straits, only four players finished under par for the championship and Brad Bryant won with a 6-under-par 282 score. • In the 2004 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, Vijay Singh, Chris DiMarco and Justin Leonard all finished 72 holes at 8 under (Singh won with birdie on the first playoff hole) and a total of 36 players finished 72 holes under par. • The fourth-round scoring average of 76.014 (+4.014) Sunday at Whistling Straits is the highest for a fourth round on the Champions Tour since the 1998 Las Vegas Senior Classic, when an all-time record of 76.474 was established at the TPC at Summerlin. • The par-4 18th hole again played as the most difficult (4.589), yielding just 23 birdies over four rounds. There were 49 double bogeys on the hole and eight others. The 18th on the Straits Course at Whistling Straits now ranks as the second-hardest hole on the Champions Tour this year, ranking only behind the par-3 17th on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island (3.596). • Loren Roberts' solo third-place finish gives him three consecutive top-10 performances in the U.S. Senior Open and keeps alive his run of never finishing higher than T14 in a senior major championship (2006 JELD-WEN Tradition). In his 10 appearances in senior majors, Roberts has a pair of victories (2005 JELD-WEN Tradition, 2006 Senior British Open) and seven top-5 performances. • Next year's U.S. Senior Open will be played on the East Course at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., July 31 to August 3. The Champions Tour is in Endicott, N.Y., next week for the inaugural Dick's Sporting Goods Open. • Brad Bryant earned 940 Charles Schwab Cup points for his win and vaulted into the lead in the season-long race. Bryant came into this week in third place with 1,079 points, 672 fewer than leader Jay Haas. He now has 2,019 points on the season. Haas earned 156 points for his T5 finish this week and increased his yearly total to 1,907 points through 17 of the 29 official events that have been played in 2007. Loren Roberts jumped from fourth into second place after earning 353 points for his solo third performance at the U.S. Senior Open. Roberts now has 1,407 total points on the season. At the end of the official season, the player earning the most points will receive the Charles Schwab Cup, signifying the most consistent player on the Champions Tour over the course of the season. |
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