MILWAUKEE — Loren Roberts is just coming into his prime.
Three weeks after his 45th birthday, Roberts won his second Greater Milwaukee Open on Sunday with the lowest overall score and the biggest victory margin ever recorded in the event.
He called the tournament the best four days of his career, particularly because it came at a time when most players are losing their games instead of finding them. Playing with remarkable consistency and unusual flair over the final two days, Roberts beat Franklin Langham by eight strokes.
"This was a huge victory for me, at 45 years old, playing against (golfers in their) 20s and 30s," Roberts said. "I can't tell you what this means to me. I'm not going to forget this one for a long time."
Roberts is known throughout the world as the game's best putter, but few fans realize he didn't play golf until he was 17. He was a club pro for five years, and he went to Q School five times before making the PGA Tour full-time.
His first career victory came in 1994, when he was 38. His victory on Sunday was his seventh, and his first since last year's Byron Nelson Classic. He tied for third in this year's Masters and finished eighth in the U.S. Open.
"I'm a late starter, always have been," said Roberts, the oldest player to win on tour this year. "I'm always a little behind the curve."
He was way ahead of the curve on Sunday, when he shot a 5-under-par 66 to set the 72-hole tournament record of 260. He broke the mark set last year by Carlos Franco (264), and he also bested Ken Green's six-shot record margin of victory in 1988.
With his sixth top-10 finish of the year, Roberts became the second-oldest GMO champion. The victory also gave him 900,000 Presidents Cup points, putting him among the top-10.
He admitted to a bit of relaxation while playing the final holes with an insurmountable lead. He acknowledged his cheering galleries and engaged in some smiling banter with his caddy and playing partners Langham and Frank Lickliter.
PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP
At Dearborn, Mich. — Raymond Floyd birdied three of the last four holes and won his second Senior Players Championship title by one stroke when Dana Quigley bogeyed the last hole Sunday.
Floyd, the 1996 champion who started the day at 9 under, six off the pace, shot 6-under-par 66 for a 15-under 273 total.
Quigley, who has never won a major championship, shot a 71 to tie for second with Larry Nelson. Nelson had a round of 67 despite playing the last seven holes without a putter.
Tom Kite, seeking his third win and second major of his first season on the senior circuit, took a two-stroke lead over Quigley into the final round, but shot himself out of contention with a final-round 76.
Defending champion Hale Irwin, also seeking his second major title of the season, had a round of 66 to tie Mike McCullough at 275. McCullough shot a 69.
Floyd's 12-foot birdie putt up a ridge at No. 18 got him to 15 under and pulled him into a tie with Quigley, playing in the final threesome of the day, one group behind Floyd's group.
Quigley, who spent 13 years as a club pro in Rehoboth, Mass., before joining the Senior PGA Tour, needed only to par the final hole to force a playoff.
But he pulled his tee shot left, down the bank guarding some marshland. Quigley, who strained his left leg slashing the ball out, left his approach short of the green and ended up two-putting from 25 feet for bogey.
BIG APPLE CLASSIC
At New Rochelle, N.Y. — It was a daunting shot even for the likes of Annika Sorenstam.
The ball was sitting in wet rough, 132 yards from the green and in the way was a big tree not planning to go anywhere soon. Add in that it was the last round of the LPGA Big Apple Classic and she and Rosie Jones were tied for the lead with one more hole to play.
To make it even tougher, Jones hit her second shot from the fairway about 20 feet from the pin.
"I saw the shot," Sorenstam said of what was facing her.
Then she choked down on a 7-iron and hit it.
The ball went under the tree, bounced in front of the green and rolled on, pin high and 15 feet away. After Jones just missed her putt, Sorenstam made hers, taking the lead for good Sunday and going on to her second straight victory and fifth of the year.
"I had the tree in front of me and the branches hanging down and it was wet," Sorenstam said. "I know I can hit that shot but getting exactly pin high you need a little luck and I had it there."
The victory gave Sorenstam one more victory than Karrie Webb this year and moved her past Webb and into the top spot on the money list.