67-year-old Bernhard Langer won for the 18th straight year on the PGA Tour Champions, holing a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole to hold off Steven Alker in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship; Alker secures season-long Schwab Cup title with runner-up finish
Monday 11 November 2024 06:40, UK
Bernhard Langer recovered from losing a five-shot lead to extend his historic PGA Tour Champions career with a dramatic victory at the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
The 67-year-old closed with a five-under 66 at Phoenix Country Club - shooting his age or better for the third straight day and 23rd time on the tour, with a 30-foot birdie on his final hole seeing him snatch a one-stroke victory.
Langer finished on 18 under ahead of defending champion Steven Alker - who won the season points title and a $1m bonus - and Richard Green, with the victory meaning the two-time Masters champion has now won on the PGA Tour Champions for the 18th consecutive year.
The two-time Masters champion's success is his first at the season-ending event and extend his record as the oldest PGA Tour Champions winner in history, with his 47th title on the over-50s circuit his first since tearing his left Achilles earlier in the year.
"It's unbelievable, I can't describe it," Langer said. "To win this big tournament after what I've been through and to make 18 years in a row out here, it's quite amazing. I'm very grateful, very blessed."
Langer took a one-shot lead into the final day and made the dream start with birdies on each of his first four holes, with the German picking up further shots at the seventh and ninth to race to the turn in 30.
Back-to-back bogeys to start the second nine quickly cut into Langer's five-shot buffer, with the leader birdieing the 13th but finding himself tied for the lead when he scrambled for bogey at the par-three 17th as Alker made a tap-in birdie.
Langer drove into trees at the par-five last and reached the green in before holing the long birdie putt, which was enough for victory when Alker failed to get up and down from the back of the green and had to settle for a closing par.
Alker matched Langer's 66 and tops the season-long standings for the second time in three years, with Ernie Els dropping off top spot in the final event after ending 11 strokes back in tied-13th.
"It's a season-long race, there's a lot of golf to be played and the competition's getting better, so to have No. 2 is pretty special," Alker said, having also won the Schwab Cup in 2022. "It would have been nice to win it all today, the whole lot, but hey, I've got the Schwab Cup and that's important to me."
Green birdied five of his last eight holes to share second with Alker, with Alex Cejka a further four strokes back in fourth and Australia's Rod Pampling rounding off the top five.
The former Open champion ended the week in tied-sixth, while Miguel Angel Jimenez, Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen were all in tied-eighth spot. The top 36 players on the season-long points list qualified for the event, with Steve Stricker the only eligible golfer not to feature.
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