By John Strege
Colin Montgomerie won the Invesco QQQ Championship and Bernhard Langer lost it, and each did so in an extraordinary fashion on Sunday.

Montgomerie shot a tournament course record 63 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., that allowed him reach a playoff with Langer in the second of three Charles Schwab Cup playoff events.

On the first extra hole, the par-4 18th, Langer missed the green right, his ball landing in a bunker, leaving him an exceedingly difficult third shot. And fourth shot. And fifth shot. And sixth shot.

Yes, it took him four to extricate his ball from the bunker, handing Montgomerie, who had an easy par, his first victory of the season and the seventh PGA Tour Champions win of his career.

“How often does that happen?” Montgomerie said. “How often does Bernhard Langer take four in the bunker?”

Montgomerie acknowledged the difficulty of the first bunker shot. Langer short-sided himself and the ball came to rest on a downhill lie. It hit the lip and rolled back into a more difficult position, as did his second bunker shot. His third from the bunker gave him a level lie and he hit his fourth bunker shot onto the green.

The first 18 holes for Montgomerie had put him in a position to win. He went out in four-under 32, then holed pitch shots at 10 for birdie and 11 for eagle. He added another birdie at 16, then holed a 40-foot birdie putt at 18.

He finished 54 holes at 14-under par 202 to tie Langer, who closed with a 67.

“You start five behind, you obviously do the best you can,” Montgomerie said. “I was starting in eighth position. You hope you do OK, but not with the guys ahead of me — the Langers, the [Retief] Goosens, the [Scott] Parels, some great players. Just so happens you score 63 and hole a putt from the back of the green.”

The victory keeps his hopes alive for winning the Charles Schwab Cup, though Scott McCarron still has the advantage leading into the Charles Schwab Cup Championship next week at Phoenix Country Club.

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By John Strege
The PGA Tour Champions, in its infancy, was designed to provide a stage on which legends of the game could continue to perform. Secondarily, it allowed those who have never had a stage a belated opportunity to star on one, albeit against prohibitive odds.

This brings us, again, to Scott Parel, for whom even the description journeyman was a stretch. Parel, 53, did not turn professional until he was 31, never made it to the PGA Tour, and now, with one more tournament to go, is among the favourites to win the senior tour’s season-long Charles Schwab Cup.

Parel won the Invesco QQQ Championship at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., on Sunday, his second PGA Tour Champions victory.

The first, in the Boeing Classic, came only two months ago, and in the interim he has had two second-place finishes and now has moved to second in the Schwab Cup standings, trailing only defending champion Bernhard Langer.

“As long as I keep playing like I am, I think I’ll have a chance,” he said, looking ahead to the season finale, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club in two weeks. “Golf’s a fickle game, so you never know. But right now I feel pretty good over the ball and over the putter, so I’ve got as good a chance as anyone.”

Parel, a resident of Augusta, Ga., began the final round trailing leader Miguel Angel Jimenez by one. He closed with a bogey-free four-under par 68 to beat Paul Goydos by one.

Goydos had pulled into a tie with birdies at 14 and 15, but fell one behind when Parel, playing behind him, birdied the 13th and Parel never relinquished the lead after that.

“I was very comfortable,” Parel said. “When you’re playing pretty good and hitting the ball well and playing solid, you just try to keep those positive thoughts. And when you’ve done it before, it’s a little easier to stay positive.”

Parel earned $305,000 for the victory, running his season total to $1,809,190, proving for some, at least, that life begins at 50.

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