Bernhard Langer held the lead at the beginning of the final round on Sunday, but had to win the Constellation Senior Players championship in a playoff with Jeff Sluman.
Sluman made three birdies on the front nine and added two more on his back side to get to 15-under-par for the tournament. He had opened with rounds of 69-67 and posted 64-67 on the weekend.
Sluman won the 1988 PGA Championship, but is still looking for his first major championship win on the Champions Tour.
Langer made four birdies and two bogeys to shoot two-under-par 33 on his first nine holes. He hit a rough spot with a bogey at No. 10 and a double-bogey at No. 12.
Defending champion Kenny Perry made a run at Langer posting a four-under-par 31 on his front nine, but three bogeys on his back nine left him at 13-under-par and two shots out of the playoff with Sluman and Langer.
With Sluman holding the clubhouse lead, Langer had to drain a bomb for a birdie-two at the difficult par-3 No. 17 and hold on to make par at the last to force the playoff.
Both players made routine pars on No. 18, the first playoff hole. Sluman, however, had the advantage and just missed holing his birdie putt. It appeared to be in the center of the hole, but gently slid across the front edge of the cup, leaving Sluman to wonder what could have been.
Returning to the 18th tee for the second playoff hole, both players found the fairway, and both began to show some nerves on their second shots.
Sluman nearly topped his three-wood to the par-5 green, but ended up safe in a good location to approach the flag.
Langer pull-hooked his second into thick rough short of the green with little green to work with.
The advantage seemed to be with Sluman, but he came up woefully short with his 60-yard chip shot and Langer made a miraculous lofted wedge to the pin for a makeable birdie putt.
Sluman missed his long putt and Langer made his for the birdie and the win.
It was Langer’s first senior major championship victory since the 2010, when he won both the Senior Open Championship and the U.S. Senior Open.
He seems determined to win the Charles Schwab Cup this season after letting his early lead for the cup disappear last year to the eventual winner Kenny Perry.
Perry won consecutive senior major championships in 2013 at the Senior Players and the U.S. Senior Open to catch Langer and win the Charles Schwab Cup last year.
The additional points available in the senior majors make a huge difference at the end of the year in determining the winner of the Charles Schwab Cup race.
Langer has been the man to beat all year and his win this week at the Constellation Senior Players puts a comfortable 880 point distance between himself and second place Jay Haas.