Watson captures Senior British Open in three-hole playoff

Tom Watson had already won the British Open twice before he figured out the nuances of links golf. So there was no better place for him to end a two-year drought on the Champions Tour.

In Aberdeen, Scotland, no less.

Watson matched Des Smyth along the back nine at Royal Aberdeen, then won a sudden-death playoff with par on the third extra hole Sunday to capture the Senior British Open for his fourth senior major.

He also won the Senior British Open two years ago at Turnberry, and Watson won five British Open titles during his PGA Tour career, all but one of them in Scotland.

"I really think that it goes back to my understanding of links golf," Watson said. "Before '79, I didn't particularly like links golf. I was an American golfer. I liked it through the air, hit the ball high, couldn't hit the ball low with much accuracy. ... I finally told myself, 'You know, this is game is played on the ground. And you have to expect some bounces.' And I've had some terrible bounces out here. But I've had some great bounces."

Watson closed with a 1-under 70, while Smyth made up a three-shot deficit on the front nine and shot 67. Both finished at 4-under 280.

They made par twice on the 18th hole in the playoff before going to the 187-yard 17th, where Smyth found a pot bunker just right of the green, blasted out to 20 feet and took two putts for bogey. Watson was just beyond the green, but chipped close enough to make par for the victory.

"Maybe my concentration dipped a little," Smyth said. "Just seemed to get ahead of it and put it in a tough position in the bunker. But Tom won, and he's a great champion. So that's nothing new."

Greg Norman nearly joined them in a playoff, making birdie on the last hole for a 68 to finish one shot back at 281 in his Champions Tour debut.

"As the day went on, I was saying to myself, 'You've got a chance to win, let's just go play our normal golf.' And unfortunately, it came up short," Norman said.

It was the second time Watson won the Senior British Open in a playoff. He defeated Carl Mason at Turnberry two years ago, then won another major at the Tradition. He had not won since then.

Watson joined Gary Player (1988, 1990, 1997), Bob Charles (1989, 1993), Brian Barnes (1995-96) and Christy O'Connor Jr. (1999, 2000) as multiple winners of the Senior British Open.

PGA Tour

Notorious dawdler Ben Crane, whose slow play irked fellow players at the Booz Allen Classic last month and perturbed his playing partners this week, shot a 1-under 69 in sweltering heat to win the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee by four strokes over Scott Verplank.

Chad Campbell (65) finished five shots back in third, and two-time winner Jeff Sluman (68) was fourth at 14 under on a hot, humid final day in which the heat index hovered around 105 degrees.

Crane finished at 20-under 260. He's only the second wire-to-wire winner in Milwaukee and the first at Brown Deer Park, where the tournament's been played for 11 years. Ed Snead did it in 1974 at Tuckaway Country Club.

Crane, whose only other PGA tour win came at the 2003 BellSouth Classic, is the fourth player this year to put his name atop the leaderboard all four rounds of a tournament, joining Phil Mickelson (AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am), Justin Leonard (FedEx St. Jude Classic) and Tiger Woods (British Open).

He pocketed a $684,000 check for the victory.

European PGA Tour

Sweden's Niclas Fasth made a 10-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to beat Angel Cabrera and win the Players' Championship of Europe in Alveslohe, Germany.

Fasth's third European Tour victory came after he birdied three of the last five holes, and Cabrera bogeyed his last, forcing the playoff.

John Daly shot a closing 65 to tie for third with Scotland's Stephen Gallacher (69).

Cabrera and Fasth finished at 14-under 274. Fasth shot 72-68 in the final two rounds played Sunday because of Thursday's washout. Cabrera shot 68-67.

-- From wire reports