KAILUA-KONA — Staring down the winning putt at Hualalai on Saturday afternoon, the disappointments from Tom Lehman’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship past were being broadcast for the world to hear — literally.
As he lined up his birdie try, the 59-year-old Lehman was in earshot as the televisions from the Hualalai Grille showing the Golf Channel broadcast recited his pair of second place finishes at the Big Island event.
That narrative — which was heard loud and clear on the otherwise silent 18th green — changed in a hurry.
Lehman missed the tournament-clinching birdie putt, but tapped in for par, allowing him to take advantage of David Toms’ closing three-putt bogey and break through for his first victory in Hawaii.
Lehman finished 17-under 199 for the tournament to take home the $305,000 first place check, carding a final round of 7-under 65. It his 12th victory on the 50-and-over PGA Tour Champions.
“As a competitor, you don’t want to win that way,” Lehman said. “I’m not going to give the trophy back, but you would rather make a putt than have somebody miss a putt. I felt bad for him because I thought he played extremely well.”
Lehman has played in the tournament all but one year since 2010, his runner-up finishes coming in 2011 and ‘16. He has also finished in second place on Oahu twice — in 1995 at the United Airlines Hawaiian Open and again in ‘01 when the tournament became the Sony Open.
Those close but no cigar experiences made the victory sweeter, especially against the elite 42-man field that included tournament champions from the 2017 and 2018 seasons, winners of PGA Tour Champions majors since 2014, eight additional invitees based on career PGA Tour wins and major championship titles, and World Golf Hall of Fame members who played a minimum of eight PGA Tour Champions events in 2018.
“Every player here is the best player on this tour. And typically when scores go super low it works against me because I don’t putt it quite as well as I need to at times,” Lehman said. “But I think the wind was the equalizer. The wind was really my friend this week. And the putter worked and I was able to get a really good score, and the guys didn’t shoot the grass off like they normally do, so it was all good.”
As for the noise, Lehman recommended the mute button for when it gets down to the wire.
“It was quite distracting,” Lehman said with a half-smile. “It was loud and I heard it, then I couldn’t stop listening. They need to go up there and turn the volume down when you kind of get down to the nitty gritty like that.”
Chase down
Lehman did not hold a solo lead for any part of the tournament, but never gave up on the chase, finally catching Toms on the 16th before surpassing him on the final hole.
“If the guy leading plays a great round, you can’t win, but if he gives you some openings, you can win but you can’t make mistakes,” Lehman said, who did not record a bogey for the final 43 holes. “It’s a real fine line between being aggressive and also being smart. There’s some holes out here that are difficult and you don’t want to give shots back. So if you can find a way to not make mistakes, then I think you give yourself a chance if the other guy does make a mistake. But if I make any mistakes early in the round, I still lose, so it’s really all about being as mistake free as possible.”
Toms held at least a share of the lead through the first two rounds, notching back to back 64s, building a four-stroke advantage heading into the third day. However, bookend final round bogeys on No. 1 and 18 left the door open for Lehman to make his move.
“Certainly hate to end up that way on the last hole,” Toms said. “Never even entered my mind that I was going to three-putt. But (Lehman) played great today. I would have had to play a really solid round to run away with it. I would have had to play a good round to win. I wasn’t able to do it.”
The good news for Toms is that if his current projection continues, he should be standing on the 18th green next year with the trophy. In his three tries at Hualalai, the 52-year-old has finished fourth in 2017, third in ‘18 and now second.
Best of the rest
Bernhard Langer — the only three-time winner at Hualalai — and 2018 winner Jerry Kelly each shot 67 to tie for third at 14-under. Fred Couples and Kevin Sutherland followed at 12-under.
While he didn’t get the title, Kelly had the shot of the tournament on the course’s par-5 seventh that went viral on social media.
He hit far right, deep into the lava, but got two fortunate bounces off the sharp rocks. The ball took a few more bounces over the cart path, finding its way past spectators before rolling onto the green. He made a long putt for eagle to keep himself in contention.
“I heard,” Kelly said of the commotion his shot caused on social media. “My wife said, ‘My phone’s blowing up, you said ‘s—-.’
“I hit it in the middle of the club and it spun off there. And then I was like, ‘All right, I’m going to hit a provisional,’ and somebody says, it’s in the middle of the green. Okay, might as well make it.”
Fight to the finish
It’s the second year in a row where the tournament came down to the final hole. Last year, Kelly nailed an 18-foot birdie putt, while Colin Montgomerie missed a 6-footer for par, allowing Kelly to claim the title in one of the most thrilling finishes in tournament history.
Divots
• This marks the 19th year that the winner of this event has carded three rounds in the 60s (with the exception of 2017 when only two rounds were played) and the only player to post a round over par and win the event was Hale Irwin in 1997 when he shot a 1-over 73 in the opening round. However, winds were clocked at 35-40 mph in that first round.
• Fred Couples posted a final-round 66 on Saturday. Although he has yet to win in Hualalai, he has posted eight top-10 finishes in his 11 total starts.
• Tom Watson finished tied for 10th, which was his first top-10 on PGA Tour Champions since a solo-second-place finish at the 2015 PURE Insurance Championship. The finish was his best at Hualalai since a solo-third-place effort at the 2011 event.
• The toughest hole of the round was the par-3 5th, where only two birdies were recorded by the 42-man field and the average score was 3.405. Conversely, the easiest hole was the par-5 10th, with a scoring average of 4.214 and 29 birdies made throughout the round.