Maggert takes U.S. Senior Open by 2
Jun 29, 2015 - 1:01 AM Sacramento, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Jeff Maggert fired a 5-under 65 in Sunday's final round to go on and win by two shots at the U.S. Senior Open Championship.Maggert, who finished the week at 10-under-par 270, also captured the first major championship of the season, the Regions Tradition. He is now a three- time winner on the Champions Tour.
"My game got better every day. Struggled a little bit ball striking early in the week, but it just got better and better," Maggert said. "I probably let a few U.S. Opens get away in my younger days just from lack of maturity, but obviously being 50 years old I have no excuse for being immature."
Last year's champion Colin Montgomerie carded a 4-under 66 at Del Paso Country Club to finish alone in second place at 8-under 272.
Senior PGA winner Bernhard Langer, who shared the third-round lead with Maggert, shot a 2-under 68 and ended the week tied for third with Grant Waite (67) at minus-7.
Billy Andrade (63) and Lee Janzen (64) finished one shot further back and tied for fifth at 6-under 274.
It was a wild start to the day as the top of the leaderboard was packed. At one point early in the day, there were seven players tied for the lead.
Alongside Langer in the final pairing, Maggert pulled away from the pack early on with three straight birdies from the first. Langer was still within one due to an eagle at the first and he tied the lead once again with a birdie at the fourth.
"I wanted to start out playing pretty aggressive," said Maggert. "A lot of guys near the lead. I expected a few to kind of break out of the pack, but man, Bernhard made the long eagle putt, and I birdied the 1st hole. All of a sudden, he's already 7-under, and I'm thinking, we need to make some birdies today. I made a monster putt on the second hole. I was just trying to lag it down there close, and then hit a great shot from the fairway on three and made another nice birdie there."
Montgomerie holed birdies at three, four and eight to pull within one of the leaders, while Janzen joined him at minus-7 with seven birdies through his first 15 holes.
An errant tee shot on six led to a bogey and dropped Langer back one. He also bogeyed eight to drop back to minus-6 and he never fully recovered. The German played the back nine at 1-under with three birdies and two bogeys to end three back.
Montgomerie was the next player to join Maggert at the top with a 10-foot birdie on 10.
However, Maggert made the turn in style with a 2-putt birdie on nine after driving the green. He grabbed the outright lead again and never relinquished it.
Maggert rolled in four straight pars from 10 before draining back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15, pushing his lead to three. Montgomerie finished with eight straight pars.
His first and only bogey of the day at No. 16 dropped Maggert back to 10- under, but he was still two shots up. He closed the championship with a pair of pars.
NOTES: Maggert also has three career victories on the PGA Tour ... He earned $675,000 with this victory ... Montgomerie was trying to become the sixth player to win this event multiple times and the first to ever repeat as champion ... The Champions Tour is off next week, but returns on July 10th for the Encompass Championship, where Tom Lehman won by a shot last year.
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