Roger Chapman won the Senior PGA Championship by two shots at Harbor Shores on Sunday.
The Englishman, who had never won on the Champions Tour, held on to triumph in the year's first senior major despite bogeying three of his last five holes as nerves no doubt finally started to set in.
Thankfully, the five-shot cushion he had at the start of the day's play proved decisive, a final-round one-over-par 72 that took his total to 13 under par good enough for a two-shot victory.
John Cook finished second on 11 under after a 69, while Hale Irwin was third after a 68, another stroke back.
There were plenty of lower scores further down the field. Peter Senior (63), Sandy Lyle (64), Joe Daley (64), Bernhard Langer (65) and David Frost (67) finished in a tie for fourth on nine under, while the low round of the day, a 62, belonged to Kenny Perry, who finished a shot behind them in ninth.
Chapman started strongly on Sunday, much as he had all week, birdying the third, sixth and seventh. At that stage he led by an incredible nine shots, but Cook started to pick up some shots - at the ninth, 13th and 14th - while Chapman bogeyed the ninth and then the 14th to cut the lead down to four.
Two more bogeys were to come for Chapman at the 17th and 18th, but Cook failed to make up any more ground and the two-shot win was secured.
Before this week, the only real highlight of Chapman's pro career was a win in Brazil at a European Tour event in 2000 and the Senior PGA Championship was only the second competitive tournament he'd played in all year - making his wire-to-wire win all the more remarkable.
golf365.com