Rocco Mediate held off strong challenges from Colin Montgomerie and Bernard Langer to clinch a maiden Senior Major Championship at the US Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid.
The American holed out from a greenside bunker on the 17thto all-but guarantee victory, that birdie allowing him to take an unassailable three shot lead over defending champion Montgomerie down the 72ndhole where he duly sealed a wire-to-wire win with a par.
The 53 year old’s 19 under par total broke Sam Snead’s record from 1973 and, though both Langer and Montgomerie closed the margin to just one shot at points on the final day, a closing round of 66 gave Mediate a deserved victory at Harbor Shores.
Montgomerie, who was chasing a hat-trick of wins in the event, put up a brave defence of his title but ultimately had to concede that the better man won.
“I did nothing wrong,” said the 52 year old Scot. “I went out and shot a 67, but all credit to Rocco, he shot 66, and you can’t knock it.
“All credit to him, but I can hold my head high here and say I put in a great performance. I just have to congratulate Rocco and come back next year and see if I can win this again.”
Mediate, who opened the tournament with a course record 62 and never relinquished that lead, credited memories of narrowly losing out to Tiger Woods in the 2008 US Open for helping him deal with any final day nerves.
“A lot of great things happened today and I don’t believe I’m sitting here, I really don’t,” he said. “I won with the putter this week, simple as that. I made a bunch of par putts that I had to make.
“Memories from 2008 absolutely helped, because I played some of the best golf I ever played in my life that day and lost – to the best player of all time.
“Today I’m playing against pretty much the other best player in the world of our age. Bernard obviously too, but Colin doesn’t make a whole bunch of mistakes.”
Langer birdied his final two holes to finish on 13 under par, the German tying for third place with American Brandt Jobe.
