Tom Kite sank a 15-foot birdie at the 18th hole, bent his knees, punched the air with a fist and waved to the crowd.
"Heck if this was the Champions Tour, they'd be giving me the trophy right now," the 55-year-old Kite said Saturday in Bethesda, Md. "Can we change this and do that right now? It's supposed to end after three rounds, isn't it?"
The tournament would indeed be over — and Kite would be the winner — if this were the 50-and-over crowd, but they play four rounds in the Booz Allen Classic. If he can hang on for one more day against a congested leaderboard packed with great players in their prime, Kite would become the oldest player to win a PGA Tour event.
The birdie at No. 18 broke a six-way tie and gave Kite a 5-under 66 and a 10-under 203 total, one stroke ahead of Ernie Els (68), Stuart Appleby (65), Adam Scott (69), Luke Donald (67), Lee Westwood (69) and Steve Elkington (69). Sixteen players were within two shots of the lead.
"I'm just happy to be here, believe me," said Kite, who opened with rounds of 68 and 69. "I'm ecstatic with the position that I'm in. Obviously, yes, it's going to be hard. Yes, the scores are jammed . . . It's going to take somebody, hopefully me, but somebody will come and shoot a good score tomorrow and they will be crowned the winner here. Needless to say, I'm pleased with where I am."
Only five players 50 or older have won a PGA Tour event. The oldest was Sam Snead, who was 52 when he won the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open.
Kite is playing the PGA Tour this year on a special one-time exemption available for players on the career top 50 money list. With the purses going up, Kite's ranking on the list had sunk into the 40s as of last year, so he knew this would be his last shot.
"This is why I came back. This is the only reason that I took this little challenge to come back and play the tour, was to challenge myself, to see if I had what it takes to contend, to see if I have what it takes to possibly win a golf tournament," Kite said. "Needless to say, I'm enjoying the heck out of it, and I'll be having a blast out there tomorrow."
Earlier this week, Kite went to nearby Rockville and tried and failed to qualify for next week's U.S. Open, a tournament he won in 1992 and hasn't missed since 1973. He hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 1993. His return this year looked like folly when he was making the cut in just two of nine events before the Booz Allen.
"January, February, March, April — I was not a good player," Kite said. "I wouldn't have been in the top 10 in the Firecracker Fourth of July golf tournament in Austin, Texas. I was not a factor on the Champions Tour. I was not a factor on the PGA Tour, and that was disappointing.
"Obviously, it gave a lot of the people that thought what I was doing was foolish a lot of ammunition and gave them a right to blast me for doing something they perceived as foolish. Fortunately, I wasn't doing it for them. I was doing it for me . . . I'm pretty darned good when I played well. I just haven't played well."
Kite was better than good down the stretch, making birdies on three of his last four holes on the Blue Course at Congressional Country Club, which has been surprisingly tame after a storm softened the greens early in the week. Even so, the back nine can still be brutal, but that's where Kite made his move.
A 3-foot putt at the par-5 15th was followed by what Kite called a "highly improbable" 35-footer over a ridge in the green at No. 16. He was under a tree in the left rough with his tee shot at No. 17, but he able to get his approach to the front edge of the green to save par.
BAYER ADVANTAGE CLASSIC: At Overland Park, Kan., rain washed out play in the Champion Tour's Bayer Advantage Classic, reducing the tournament to 36 holes for the second straight year. R.W. Eaks and Gil Morgan shot 5-under 67s on Friday to share the first-round lead.