By John Strege
Jerry Kelly is a man without a poker face who nonetheless took down his challengers with an ace that no one saw coming on Sunday afternoon.

Kelly, his lead slipping away, won the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship by virtue of a hole-in-one on the 177-yard 12th hole at the South course at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.

With a single swing, Kelly’s one-stroke lead became three, then four when playing partner Scott Parel bogeyed the 13th hole. From there it was little more than a formality before he could begin to celebrate his seventh PGA Tour Champions victory and the first major championship of his career.

He beat Parel by two, earning $450,000 and an exemption to the PGA Tour’s Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass next spring.

A @jerrykelly13pga ACE!!

The @BridgestoneSP leader aces No. 12 and stretches his lead to 3. pic.twitter.com/foy01TQHB8

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) August 16, 2020

“I love that idea, the Players Championship,” Kelly said. “I can’t wait to go back there. And just to have a major out here is pretty huge for me. Never getting one, not even getting that close on the regular tour, it feels great.”

Kelly, 53, is an animated player whose demeanour takes any guesswork out of how every shot’s result while it’s in the air. That special highlight on the 12th hole was no exception.

“Come on,” he shouted, easily heard over the absence of a din with no fans permitted on the premises.

Only moments before, Kelly had bogeyed the 11th hole to see his lead cut to one. Then on the next tee, he changed clubs.

“I know the wind switched,” he said. “It was going in and left to right and now it’s in and right to left. I was able to take some off it and cut a little 5-iron instead of a 6- and starting it over the bunker. It made me a little happier.”

Kelly won with a final round of one-under-par 69 on a familiar course for PGA Tour veterans, and one that over four rounds played up to its major championship pedigree. His aggregate score was three-under 277 on a course that has hosted three PGA Championships as well as 20 World Golf Championship events.

Parel was the only other player to finish under par (one under) after completing a round of even-par 70.

Parel, who never played the PGA Tour but has won three times on the PGA Tour Champions, began the final round trailing Kelly by a stroke. Parel briefly tied for the lead at the outset and again trailed by one after three holes, when inclement weather caused a two-hour, 15-minute delay.

By then, it basically was only a two-man competition, and it remained tight until Kelly’s tee shot on 12, struck on a perfect line, hitting about eight feet short of the hole and rolling out and into the cup.

Colin Montgomerie, who began the final round tied for second, shot a one-over 71 and tied for third with Miguel Angel Jimenez, who closed with a 69.

The post Jerry Kelly punctuates his first senior major victory with a special highlight appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
The inevitable prevailed over the unlikely in the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship on Sunday, when Retief Goosen finally won on the PGA Tour Champions and 65-year-old Jay Haas’ bid to win came up two strokes short.

Goosen, a World Golf Hall of Fame member with two U.S. Open victories on his resume, birdied the final two holes at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, the margin of victory over Haas and Tim Petrovic.

“It was an up-and-down year so far,” Goosen said, “and I had my chances a few weeks ago and didn’t do it. It’s nice to pull this one off.”

Goosen, 50, had been closing in on his maiden senior win, hence the inevitability. In his last four starts, he was fourth at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, tied for 11th at the Principal Charity Classic, tied for second in the American Family Insurance Championship and tied for 14th in the U.S. Senior Open.

An unlikely winner would have been Haas, given his age and the fact that his last of 18 senior wins came three years ago. Yet Haas was one of five tied for the lead at four-under par midway through the round and was the leader in the clubhouse when he completed his round of three-under par 67.

Petrovic, who shot a two-under 68, joined Haas in the clubhouse at four-under par and waiting to see whether it would be good enough for a playoff opportunity.

It wasn’t. Goosen saved par from a back bunker at the par-5 16th hole, then birdied 17 with a 4-iron tee shot, a 7-iron second to 10 feet, and a perfect putt to take the lead at five-under par. At 18, he hit a perfect drive, an iron to eight feet and holed the putt to win by two.

Goosen began the day one off the lead and shot a two-under par 68 for a 72-hole score of six-under 274.

“I knew it was going to play tough for everybody and I just had to hang in there,” he said. “I thought after the bogey at the first, here we go again, but I had a nice driver, 4-iron on the second and made a nice eagle there. It sort of settled me down and from there I was just trying to hang on.”

Scott Parel, the 54-hole leader, and Kent Jones were the others tied for the lead on the back nine. Parel double-bogeyed 17 and Jones bogeyed 15 and 18 and they tied for fourth.

Goosen receives $450,000 for the victory and a spot in the PGA Tour’s Players Championship next March.

The post Retief Goosen birdies final two holes to secure his first PGA Tour Champions victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.