Langer Cruises to Fifth Champions Tour Major


Bernhard Langer closed with a 3-under 68 to cruise home with a wire-to-wire victory in the Senior Players Championship at historic Belmont Country Club in Massachusetts.

After opening with two straight 65s that separated himself from the field by four strokes, the 57-year-old German shot 67 and 68 over the weekend to finish at 19-under 265, six strokes clear of Kirk Triplett (64) in second place.

In defending his title in the major - his fifth since turning 50 - Langer duplicated the feat last accomplished in the Senior Players by Arnold Palmer in 1984-85. "It was a magical week obviously to do something Arnie did," Langer said.

"It is amazing just to be mentioned in the same (breath) and for me this was an awesome week.

"It started out wonderful, the weather was great and I found my game. I was in the lead from day one and I played some pretty good golf from the get go."

Ending up tied for third were Joe Durant (67) and Colin Montgomerie (68), while Lee Janzen (68) took sixth at 275.

Sharing seventh at 276 were Marco Dawson (68), Billy Andrade (69) and Jeff Hart (70).

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/champions/leaderboard.html.