KA'UPULEHU-KONA, Hawaii -- Tom Lehman made putts early. Duffy Waldorf made putts late, including a 25-footer for birdie on the 18th hole, and that was the difference in his one-stroke victory over Lehman on Saturday in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship.
Actually, Waldorf putted well throughout the round, and throughout the tournament, which helps to explain how he managed to get through 54 holes at Hualalai Golf Course without making a single bogey, even though he hit a few loose shots. And on Saturday, he made three birdies in the last six holes as he rallied for a 66 and a cumulative 198, 18 under par.
This was the first Champions Tour event of 2016. Entries were limited to major champions from the last five years, Senior Tour winners from the last two years, and sponsors exemptions. The victory was worth $300,000 to Waldorf, a 53-year-old former UCLA All-American who was the College Player of the Year in 1985. He won four times on the PGA Tour, but didn't claim his first senior title until November, more than three years after he joined the Champions Tour.
Now he seems to have gotten the hang of it. He's won two of the last three tournaments he's played in.
Lehman also shot 66. He had a 14-foot birdie putt at the 410-yard, par-4 18th, and he had it on line, dead in the center of the hole -- but it came up an inch short. That put him at 199. An inch too short, and a shot too many.
"I'm happy for Duffy," said the 56-year-old Lehman, who has been a friend of Waldorf's for nearly three decades (they played together in four-ball tournaments in their younger days and won one team tournament). "He played very well. He made some really good putts when he had to make them. The greens here are so straight, so many putts are straight that it's easy to get line conscious. That's what happned on 18. You just worry about the line so much that you don't hit it"
As a kind of consolation, he got $177,000 for his efforts.
Davis Love, who will be the captain of the U.S. team in the Ryder Cup Matches at Hazeltine this fall (Sept. 30-Oct. 2), shot 68 and finished alone in third at 201.
Jay Haas matched the best score of the day, a 65, and that moved him up into a tie for fourth, along with Joe Durant, at 202. Durant closed with a 68.
Lehman graduated from the University of Minnesota (where he was an All-American) in 1981 and turned professional a year later. It took him 10 years to finally establish himself on the PGA Tour, but for the next decade he was widely regarded as one of the best ball-strikers in the world. He won five times on the Big Tour, including one major championship, the 1996 British Open. He should have won more, most notably the 1994 Masters and 1997 U.S. Open -- if only he could have made a few more putts when it really mattered.
The Mitsubishi Electric Championship falls into the same category.
That birdie putt on 18 notwithstanding, Lehman putted pretty well at Hualalai. He made two eagle putts longer than 20 feet on Friday, while tying the Champions Tour record for most eagles in a single round (three), and he made a 25-footer for another eagle at the 526-yard, par-5 fourth hole on Saturday. That got him to 4 under for the day (he had birdied the par-4 first and par-4 third holes) and 15 under for the tournament.
At that point, he was 9 under for the last five par-5's he had played, and he held a one stroke lead over Waldorf, who had started the day one ahead of Lehman and Love.
But Lehman's magic on the par-5's seemed to end there. He was only 1 under on the last three par-5's he encountered.
A pull hook prevented Lehman from getting on in to at the 538-yard seventh hole, and he had to settle for a par there. Waldorf did get on in two and two-putted for a birdie, which put him back in a tie for the lead.
Up ahead of them, Love had started slowly, with a par at No. 1 and a bogey at No. 2. But he quickly reversed course and got going in the right direction, making birdies at 3 and 4. He also ran off three consecutive birdies at the seventh, eighth and ninth holes, which gave him a one-third share of the lead, at Minus 15.
It appeared that Love would go ahead when he reached the green at the 566-yard, downhill par-5 10th hole in two. But he three-putted for a par.
Lehman missed the green with his second at No. 10, but he pitched to a foot and tapped in for a birdie to pull back in front of Love and Waldorf, who parred the 10th.
Love and Waldorf both made putts in the 4-to-7-foot range at the par-4 11th to remain one behind Lehman. But then Lehman, who had just missed a couple of long birdie putts on the front nine, got one to fall from 25 feet at the par-3 12th, and now the lead was two.
Not for long, however.
Waldorf, who had been a little shakey with his irons for two and a half rounds but had saved himself on numerous occasions with his putter, seemed to find his form with the irons on the back nine Saturday. He began his stretch run by making a 7-footer for birdie at the 387-yard, par-4 13th hole. At roughly the same time, Love was making a birdie at the last of the par-5's, the 519-yard 14th. So he and Waldorf were both minus 16, and back within one of Lehman.
Lehman and Waldorf both hit indifferent pitches at the 14th and failed to make birdies. Then it appeared that Lehman might slip back into a tie with his closest pursuers when he shoved a short iron into an ugly lie to the right of the 15th green, but a nifty flop/explosion shot and a clutch, 8-foot putt saved his par.
At the 440-yard, par-4 16th, Love made bogey and fell two behind. Lehman should have birdied the hole, but he got hosed, basically. After a good drive and an 8-iron approach to 18 feet, he hit a putt that looked good all the way. The ball started down into the hole -- and then it spun out. He deserved to make it, but didn't.
Waldorf was just inside Lehman at the 16th, 15 feet away, and he buried his putt, which got him to Minus 17 and even with Lehman once again.
A pulled 7-iron at the 164-yard, par-3 17th put Waldorf into yet another predicament, and his putter came to the rescue yet again. A 7-foot par putt kept him tied with Lehman, who two-putted for par, and set the stage the winning 25-footer for birdie at 18.
"It was obviously 20 feet longer than I wanted," Waldorf said. "But when I got to it, it just looked good. It looked like this putt doesn't break at all. Sometimes you'd rather have a longer putt that you really feel good about the break. So anyway, I just felt good about it."
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS
Mitsubishi Electric Championship
At Hualalai Golf Course
Par 72, 7,053 yards
Ka'upulehu-Kona, Hawaii
Final results
1. Duffy Waldorf $300,000 67-65-66--198
2. Tom Lehman $177,000 68-65-66--199
3. Davis Love $123,000 66-67-68--201
T4. Jay Haas $96,200 71-66-65--202
T4. Joe Durant $96,200 65-69-68--202
T6. Fred Couples $75,000 70-67-66--203
T6. Kenny Perry $75,000 70-66-67--203
T8. Mark O'Meara $55,000 69-66-69--204
T8. Bernhard Langer $55,000 70-67-67--204
T8. Vijay Singh $55,000 72-64-68--204
T11. Tom Watson $38,000 69-65-71--205
T11. Olin Browne $38,600 68-66-71--205
T11. Fred Funk $38,600 68-70-67--205
T11. Miguel Angel Jimenez $38,000 66-70-69--205
T11. Jeff Sluman $38,000 68-72-65--205
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