Lehman Last Man Standing in Senior PGA

By no fault of his own, Tom Lehman got cheated Sunday.

Don't worry, he'll get over it.

After all, Lehman did win the Senior PGA Championship along with a high-rise condo-sized trophy and $360,000 check that goes with it. He shot a final-round 71 -- the only player in the field to break par all four days -- to finish 7 under at Colorado Golf Club outside Denver and wrapped things up by besting Fred Couples (69) and David Frost (67) on the first playoff hole.

Sounds exciting.

It was -- up until the point where it should have really started to get interesting.

Senior golf was looking just like it wants to be seen. The back didn't ache. There is not a hint of bursitis. No sign of bunions.

The stars had come out.

Then they fell down.

Senior golf is its best when on a first-name basis -- and talk about names you know by heart: Along with Lehman, Couples and Frost, the leaderboard had Mark O'Meara and Nick Price.

Frost got to the playoff first, making birdie on the 17th to reach 7 under, posting weekend rounds of 65 and 67 after being tied for 45th after 36 holes.

Then came Couples, who made back-to-back eagles at 15 and 16 to push his way to overtime. And finally Lehman joined the playoff by stepping up with a dandy up-and-down par save from 20 yards short of the green on the 72nd hole.

It was golf you didn't want to miss. Oddly enough, it quickly was followed by a playoff that made you want to turn away.

"I think I had an advantage from the start because I had just finished," Lehman said. "The longer you have to wait I think the tougher it gets to play in a playoff. So David Frost obviously ... I wouldn't say the deck was stacked against him, but he had a longer, more uphill battle. I guess he finished such a long time before we did.

"Fred had to wait a half an hour. I just basically finished, signed my card and went back and hit again. And I think being No. 1 off the tee, I was really hoping that I would get the first pick, so I could hit first. I think if you miss that fairway the hole becomes much more difficult."

No one will argue, not after the sudden death basically took one shot each.

Lehman went first and split the fairway with his tee shot.

Frost and Couples followed with a pair of absolute clunkers.

Frost found a bunker with his tee shot on the left, and on his second shot went even further left behind trees and knee-high grass on his way to making double bogey.

"I didn't hit a great drive," Frost said. "The wind's quite strong right-to-left. I didn't have enough guts to aim it way out right and bring it back like Tom did. But I won't let one hole bother me when I played so many good holes out there yesterday and today."

Couples, who on the final hole of regulation missed badly on a seven-foot birdie attempt that would have won, was even worse off the tee. He went even further left than Frost, saw his ball come to rest under a bunch of trees and took an unplayable lie. He also carded a double-bogey 6.

With pretty much no pressure, Lehman stopped his approach shot 12 feet from the hole and finished with a tap-in for an easy par.

After congratulating Lehman, Couples put his head down and stomped quickly to the clubhouse, where he grabbed a couple of irons out of his locker and bolted for the parking lot.

"It's pretty disappointing," was all Couples bothered to say before jumping into a waiting car.

The finish may not have produced the expected captivating theater initially promised, and because of that Lehman's victory may not be remembered as a senior major championship reference point. But don't expect to hear him complain.

The victory is Lehman's first individual Champions Tour victory since becoming eligible for the senior circuit in March of last year. While Lehman teamed with Bernhard Langer to win the 2009 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, his last previous individual title in a U.S. tour event was the 2000 Phoenix Open.

"It feels wonderful," Lehman said. "I'm a very consistent player, basically I've always been pretty steady, and conditions like this have always worked in my favor. I normally hit it solid, which you need to do in the wind. So a championship like this, really, it kind of works right into my wheelhouse.

"To kind of hang in there -- which was what it was -- I started off poorly and just kind of hung in there and I made a couple birdies and then I got in a playoff."

Which, as it turned out, was the easy part.