By John Strege
The takeaway from the Chubb Classic on Sunday is that Bernhard Langer can’t win ‘em all, even when the odds turn in his favour, as they did late in the final round.

For the record, Miguel Ángel Jiménez won with a par on the first hole of a playoff with Langer and Olin Browne at the Classics at Lely Resort in Naples, Fla.

Jiménez, 55, won with a final-round five-under par 66 and a back-nine rally that included four birdies.

Prior to that, it was Stephen Ames’ tournament to win, then Browne’s, then Langer’s.

Ames, leading by one, had not made any score worse than a par until he hit his tee shot out of bounds on the 11th hole, leading to a double bogey that became a three-stroke swing when Browne made a birdie to go two ahead.

Browne arrived at the 18th tee with a two-stroke lead, made his own double-bogey to fall into a tie with Jiménez, Ames and Woody Austin. Moments later, Langer holed a short birdie putt at 15 to make a fivesome atop the leader board.

Ames made two bogeys coming in and Austin bogeyed the 17th hole to fall out, setting up Langer to win for the second straight week.

At the par-5 17th hole, he hit his second shot just right of the green and pitched to about five feet of the hole. But his birdie putt to take the outright lead just slid off to the right and he parred the 18th, sending it to a playoff.

On the first extra hole, Langer’s approach to the green was short of the green while Browne hit his second off the grandstand and into an impossible lie in the bunker. Each made bogey and Jiménez’s two-putt par gave him his seventh PGA Tour Champions victory. He also has won a senior tournament in six straight years.

“It’s nice to start a new season having another victory,” he said. “I’m looking forward now to having a week off in the Dominican and getting back to Tucson [the Cologuard Classic].”

As for Langer, he was in pursuit of his 40th senior victory. Instead, he settled for a tie for second, to go along with a win at the Oasis Championship the previous week and a tie for third at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship to open the season.

The post Miguel Ángel Jiménez rallies to win in a playoff with Bernhard Langer and Olin Browne appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Victory continues to elude Steve Stricker on the PGA Tour Champions, but it eluded him on this Sunday when Joe Durant expertly kept him from it.

Durant played the final six holes on the Talon Course at TwinEagles Golf Club in four-under par to win the Chubb Classic in Naples, Fla.

He shot a five-under par 67 to win by four, though he came to the par-4 18th hole leading Stricker by a shot. Durant, however, hit his second shot to 10 feet of the hole. Stricker followed by hitting his second shot into a hazard right of the green. Durant made his birdie putt and Stricker wound up with a double bogey to tie Billy Mayfair, Lee Janzen, David Toms and Tim Petrovic for second.   “I couldn’t have been more happy with my second shot at 18,” Durant said. “It was one of the best iron shots I’ve hit under pressure in a long time.”

Durant, 53, hit several quality shots under pressure in winning for the third time on the PGA Tour Champions. He trailed Stricker by one when arrived at the par-5 13th hole. He hit a perfect second shot to set up an eagle putt that he made, while Stricker missed the green and made a par, allowing Durant to go one up.

“I felt like if I could make the three there I had a shot,” Durant said. “I was just so nervous starting today and it showed on the first few holes. I missed some short putts. My goal was just to hang in there. If you can stay around it you never know what could happen the last three or four holes. That’s all I was trying to do.”

Durant, who began the final round with a one-stroke lead, followed with a birdie on 14 to go two up, but surrendered the lead on 16 when he made bogey and Stricker made birdie. At the par-5 17th hole, he regained the lead by hitting a perfect 3-wood to the fringe, setting up a birdie, then hit a perfect approach at 18.

“I very was fortunate I put a new 3-wood in my bag this week,” he said. “It doesn’t have any left in it typically, so I knew the water [on the left] was probably out of play. Right wasn’t very good, but I hit a good shot there [at 17].

Stricker, who will turn 51 on Friday, was making his season debut on the PGA Tour Champions, though he had played twice on the PGA Tour and had played reasonably well ,tying for 31st at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and tying for 26th in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

“I did a lot of good things today and didn’t get the ball in the hole like I did yesterday,” he said. “I felt like I hit a lot of putts that were just on the edge. That’s the nature of the game sometimes. But I hung in there good, drove the ball well, and gave myself a lot of opportunities. Joe hit some great shots when he had to, put the pressure on all of us when it mattered most, and he started holing some putts on the backside, too. Some that he wasn’t holing early on, he started to make, and he played great.”

It was Stricker’s seventh senior start since turning 50 and he has yet to win, despite finishing in the top three in five of them.

The post Joe Durant’s strong finish deprives Steve Stricker of first senior win appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

We were a little disappointed with the celebration, if we’re being honest. The golf shot, though, was not disappointing in the least.

?Hole-in-One?@PGA_JohnDaly with an ace @ChubbClassic! pic.twitter.com/ZPiZ5LaxqF

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) February 18, 2018

Big JD put together three rounds in the 60s at the PGA Tour Champions’ Chubb Classic for an eventual top-10 finish. We’d love to see how Daly will celebrate the ace, in addition to the solid finish, tonight.

Watch out, Naples. We have a feeling the bar tab at the TwinEagles Golf Club will be taken pretty deep with JD picking up the tab.

The post Watch John Daly make a hole-in-one at the Chubb Classic while wearing American flag golf pants appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.