Retief Goosen shot a final-round 68 to claim a two-stroke victory at the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship.
Goosen, who was paired with Scott Parel in Sunday’s final group, finished his fourth day at Firestone Country Club with a double and two bogeys offset by an eagle and four birdies, including back-to-backs on Nos. 17 and 18 to reach 6-under par, two clear of Jay Haas (67) and Tim Petrovic (68).
Parel, the 54-hole leader, struggled to a 73 and fell to T4 alongside Kent Jones at 2-under par.
The win ended a decade-long victory drought (2009 Valspar) for the 50-year old South African native.
“It’s been 10 years since I’ve last won a tournament. The nerves were there, and to have those nerves a little bit again in the last few weeks, you know, you’ve just got to put yourself in a position all the time to get used to it again and that’s what I’ve done and it finally paid off this week,” said Goosen, who won seven times on the PGA Tour including two U.S. Open titles.
For his maiden Champions Tour win, Goosen earned $420,000 and will move to No. 8 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
Final Top 5 Leaders
Pos-Player-To Par (Final Rd)
1. Retief Goosen -6 (-2)
2. Jay Haas -4 (-3)
2. Tim Petrovic -4 (-2)
4. Kent Jones -2 (+1)
4. Scott Parel -2 (+3)
Quotable
“I mean, it’s an unbelievable course. It’s a golf course that hitting the fairways is number one priority, and even if you’re on the fairway, sometimes you struggle to get close. It’s a great golf course. This week it played tough with the way the wind blew. It blew pretty much across the whole course, the whole week, so you either had it off the left or off the right, so it wasn’t always that easy to hit the fairways.”
– Retief Goosen
