James ends long victory drought
Mark James shot a 1-over-par 73 and held off Jose Maria Canizares for a one-stroke victory Sunday at the Senior Players Championship at Dearborn, Mich.
James finished at 13-under 275 and is the first European to win a Champions Tour major.
Canizares struggled on the back nine and made double bogey at Nos. 14 and 17 in a 1-under 71, finishing at 12-under 276.
Bruce Fleisher (71) finished third at 11 under, and Bruce Lietzke (71) was fourth, another stroke back. Gary McCord (74) and Dana Quigley (72) tied for fifth at 9 under.
James, who captained Europe’s 1999 Ryder Cup team at Brookline, became the sixth player to make the Players Championship his first Champions Tour victory.
A Ryder Cup player seven times from 1977-95 and winner of 22 tournaments overseas, James last won at the 1997 Peugeot Open De Espana.
John Deere Classic
At Silvis, Ill., Mark Hensby tapped in for par on the second playoff hole at the John Deere Classic, finally breaking through for his first career victory.
Hensby shot a 66 to finish at 16-under 268, and got the victory when John Morgan hit his drive on the par-3 16th far left of the green.
Morgan waved goodbye as the shot sailed into thick brush. He chipped across the green and into the bunker, nearly made the sand shot and stood by and watched as Hensby two-putted for par and the $685,000 winner’s check.
The victory would have earned Hensby a trip to next week’s British Open at Royal Troon, but he declined.
The PGA Tour initially announced the spot went to Morgan as the runner-up. But long after the tournament was over, a PGA official announced that the spot did not go to Morgan. After speaking with British Open organizers, the Tour was told there is no clause that allows the winner to pass the spot on to the next highest finisher.
Jose Coceres was third at 15-under 269 and Greg Chalmers finished two shots back in a tie for fourth with last year’s champion Vijay Singh (67), Steve Stricker (68) and Joel Kribel (65).
Canadian Women’s Open
At Niagara Falls, Ontario, Meg Mallon completed her North American double, running away to win the Canadian Women’s Open a week after winning the U.S. Women’s Open.
Leaning heavily on her sharp putting stroke, Mallon shot a final-round 2-under 70, finishing with an 18-under 270 to win $195,000 at Legends on the Niagara Battlefield course.
Defending champion Beth Daniel finished second, four strokes back, after shooting a final-round 70. Jean Bartholomew (69) and Lorena Ochoa (70) finished in a tie for third at 276.
Mallon became the first woman to win both U.S. and Canadian titles in the same year and her 18-under matched a tournament record for lowest score, first set by Brandie Burton in 1998 at Windsor, Ontario.
Scottish Open
At Luss, Scotland, Thomas Levet matched the lowest round of his career, an 8-under 63 that gave him a one-shot victory in the Scottish Open and put his vacation plans on hold.
Along with his first victory in three years, the Frenchman earned an unlikely trip to the British Open.
One spot at the British Open was available to the top finisher at Loch Lomond not already eligible. Levet, who finished at 15-under 269, got his third European tour victory and another shot at the claret jug that eluded him two years ago when he lost in a five-hole playoff to Ernie Els.
Els, the defending champion, closed with a 68 and tied for third with David Howell (70), putting him in a good frame of mind heading to Royal Troon.