LIGONIER, Pa. — Mike Reid was on the wrong end of one of championship golf's worst collapses. This time he benefited from not one but two improbable breakdowns minutes apart for a Senior PGA victory even he didn't think was possible.
Reid, down by three shots with one hole to play, forced himself into a three-way playoff with Dana Quigley and Jerry Pate with a long eagle putt on No. 18, then birdied 18 again on the only playoff hole for his first tournament win since 1990.
All day, the senior tour major was Quigley's to win, then Pate's, but, somehow, Reid — a Provo resident — won instead, leaving the how-did-this-happen winner in tears.
"I'm as shocked as anybody," said the 50-year-old Reid, who wasn't eligible for the Champions Tour until last year and hadn't won since the 1990 Casio World Open in Japan.
Pate, absent from tournament golf for more than 20 years until last year, missed an 8-footer for birdie that would have forced a second playoff hole. Quigley was out of it after hitting his second shot into the water on the 515-yard, par-5 playoff hole.
"It's a funny thing how your mind works," said Reid, who missed his son's high school graduation to play in only his 17th Champions Tour event. "I was out to lunch in the middle of round . . . but then I sort of thought, 'A couple of more birdies, and, geez, I've got a new life.' "
What rallied Reid was the memory of Payne Stewart's comeback in the 1989 PGA Championship to steal a title Reid seemingly had won.
As Stewart birdied four of the last five holes, Reid took a bogey on No. 16 and a double bogey on No. 17 and lost by one shot. That year, Reid led the Masters with four holes to play but also couldn't hold on.
Reminded of that PGA collapse, Reid's eyes welled in tears.
"I had control of that tournament and by all rights, I should have won," Reid said. "And today it was Dana Quigley and Jerry Pate, they had control and should have won. . . . Fate takes a hand and I can't explain it. My putt went in, Jerry's missed and I'm feeling like I stole something."
That Reid even made the playoff was remarkable, even though he was the only player to break par in all four rounds.
Reid, nicknamed Radar for his accuracy off the tee, trailed Quigley by six shots with eight to play and Pate by three shots with only the 18th left. But Reid dropped a 20-footer for an eagle 3 to finish off a back-nine 32 and a final round 2-under 70 while Pate, who was playing with Reid, bogeyed by three-putting from 18 feet.
Pate, up by a shot over Quigley going into the final hole of regulation, tried to play No. 18 safe. He laid up with his second shot on the par 5 rather than cutting over the water that guards the right side of the green — a decision tournament host Arnold Palmer said shocked him.
"It was a 5-iron shot; I should have played it," Pate said. "So it was just a bad decision I made. I wasn't even thinking of laying up, to be honest, it never crossed my mind, but my caddy (Chris Frame) said, 'I want you to lay up. All you've got to do is make 5 and you win.' "
The strategy seemed to work as Pate landed his 92-yard pitch shot onto the left side of the green. But he lagged his first putt, and his 3-foot par putt skidded to the right of the hole.
No. 18 befuddled Pate all weekend, as he managed only three pars and two bogeys.
Quigley, playing his 259th consecutive Champions Tour event, led Pate by three shots with eight to play after he eagled No. 10 and by two shots with four to play. But Quigley took a bogey on the par-3 17th by hitting into a bunker and missing his par putt from 6 feet. Pate took the lead by hitting his tee shot on the par-3 17th to a foot, then tapping in for birdie.
Quigley birdied No. 18 in each of the first three rounds, but his second shot found a tiny pot bunker to the left of the green. He managed a par even after his bad-angle sand wedge traveled only about 6 feet, but a birdie would have won it.
"I kept thinking pars would be OK, and maybe toss in a birdie on No. 18," Quigley said.
Quigley charged into the lead during the Sunday morning completion of the rain-delayed third round, getting three birdies in the last four holes to finish up a 6-under 66. But while he plays golf nearly every day, sometimes as many as 72 holes a day, the 26 he played Sunday proved to be three too many.
Quigley has won nine Champions Tour events after winning less than $100,000 during a 1978-82 stay on the PGA Tour, but has yet to win a major. He once was so intimidated by the PGA Tour's stars, including Pate, he wouldn't even warm up beside them because he felt inferior.
Pate, by contrast, seemed primed to succeed Jack Nicklaus as the tour's top star in the late 1970s, but gave up playing tournament golf in 1982, during his prime just after winning The Players Championship, because of a left shoulder injury. He need a fourth shoulder operation before joining the senior tour.
Reid won twice on the PGA Tour, including the 1988 World Series of Golf, and his best finish previously on the Champions Tour was a fourth-place tie in the ACE Group Classic.