NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Richard Bland shot a 4-under 66 in the final round of the U.S. Senior Open, catching leader Hiroyuki Fujita after rain postponed the finish to Monday morning and then banging a chip shot off the pin to beat him on the fourth playoff hole and win his second straight senior major.
The Senior PGA champion gained five shots on Fujita in the final round, which was delayed by thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon with eight holes remaining. When the golfers returned to the par-70, 7,024-yard Newport Country Club on Monday, Fujita’s consistency — he hit 38 straight fairways in regulation before the rain delay — had abandoned him.
After both posted 13 under in regulation and matched scores in a two-hole, aggregate playoff and the first hole of sudden death, the golfers returned to the par-4, 466-yard 18th hole for the fourth time of the day. Bland’s shot from a greenside bunker caught the pin and settled two inches from the cup; Fujita missed a 25-footer to prolong the tournament, and Bland tapped in to claim his second senior major in as many tries.
“To get this one as well, to go two for two, is beyond my wildest dreams,” said Bland, who won the Senior PGA at Harbor Shores last month. “I was just hoping going into the PGA that I was good enough to contend; I hadn’t played against these guys. But to be here with two majors — I’m at a loss for words at the moment.”
Richard Green shot 71 and finished third, one stroke ahead of Steve Stricker. The 2019 champion and the runner-up in each of the last two years, Stricker shot 66 in each of the first three rounds but turned in a 73 in the fourth, making a bogey on the 72nd hole that dropped him into sole possession of fourth place.