Jeff Maggert carded a 5-under-par 65 to beat defending champion Colin Montgomerie of Scotland by two strokes in the U.S. Senior Open at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento.
The 51-year-old Maggert, who claimed his first major title last month in the Regions Tradition, birdied the first three holes and added three more before taking his only bogey at No. 17.
“It’s satisfying just because the guys out here on the Champions Tour are the same guys that I was trying to beat 20 years ago,” said Maggert, who won three times on the PGA Tour, on which he had 13 top-10 finishes in the majors without winning.
“I had a lot of good runs in the U.S. Open over the years and probably lacked a little maturity to pull it off. But certainly, now that I’m an old guy, I’ve learned a lot and was able to just steady myself and play well.”
Montgomerie, who also never won a major championship in his younger days but has won three in the last two seasons on the Champions Tour, closed with a bogey-free 66.
Bernhard Langer of Germany, the two-time Masters champion who has won five majors on the senior circuit, was tied for the 54-hole lead with Maggert but finished with a 68 and wound up three shots back in a tie for third with Grant Waite of New Zealand, who shot 67.
Lee Janzen, a two-time U.S. Open champion, carded a 64 that included a lone bogey on the 16th hole and was four strokes behind in a tie for fifth with Billy Andrade, whose bogey-free 63 was the best score of the day.
Kevin Sutherland, the local favorite from Sacramento and Fresno State, posted a 68 to tie for seventh with Tom Watson of Stanford and Scott Dunlap, who both had 69s.
Duffy Waldorf of Northridge and UCLA recorded a 69 to tie for 10th, sixth shots behind, with Scott Hoch, who came in at 66.
