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 TV: Thursday and Friday, 3-6 p.m. EDT on the Golf Channel;
Saturday and Sunday, 1-2:30 p.m. EDT on the Golf Channel and 3-6
p.m. EDT on CBS.
LAST YEAR: Rookie Jordan Spieth holed a bunker shot for a birdie on
the 72nd hole to get into a playoff, then beat defending champion
Zach Johnson and David Hearn of Canada with a par on the fifth extra
hole, claiming his first PGA Tour victory. The 19-year-old Texan
became the first teenager to win on the circuit since Ralph Guldahl
captured the 1931 Santa Monica Open. Spieth came from six strokes
behind in the final round by posting his third straight 6-under-par
65, which included five birdies in the last six holes. By winning,
he earned a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour and a spot in the
Open Championship at Muirfield the following week, plus berths in
the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the PGA Championship, the Hyundai
Tournament of Champions and the Masters. Johnson took a one-stroke
lead with a birdie on the 17th hole, but he needed a 3-foot bogey
putt on the final hole to finish at 68 and get into a playoff. Hearn
holed a 5-foot par putt on No. 18 to close with a 68 and make the
playoff.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: 35th U.S. Senior Open Championship at Oak Tree Golf
Club in Edmond, Okla., Thursday through Sunday.
TV: Thursday and Friday, 4-8 p.m. EDT on ESPN2; Saturday and Sunday,
2:30-6 p.m. EDT, on NBC.
LAST YEAR: Kenny Perry came from 10 shots down after 36 holes,
playing the weekend in 63-64, to claim the second of his three
straight victories in Champions Tour majors by five strokes over
Fred Funk at Omaha Country Club. Perry captured the Constellation
Energy Senior Players Championship two weeks earlier, and after
skipping the Senior British Open last July, he won the Regions
Tradition, the first senior major of 2014. Perry, who started the
final round of the U.S. Senior Open two shots behind leader Michael
Allen, went in front for good with birdies on the second and third
holes, while Allen bogeyed the third en route to a 72 and finished
fifth. Perry's 63 matched Allen's Friday score for best round of the
tournament and was the best ever in the final round of the U.S.
Senior Open.
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LPGA TOUR: Ricoh Women's British Open at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in
Southport, England, Thursday through Sunday.
TV: Thursday through Sunday, 9 a.m.-noon EDT, on ESPN each day.
LAST YEAR: Stacy Lewis made birdies on the last two holes to post an
even-par 72 in the final round on the Old Course at St. Andrews and
beat South Koreans Na Yeon Choi and Hee Young Park by two strokes.
Lewis claimed her second major title, the other coming in the 2011
Kraft Nabisco Championship, after Asians captured the 10 previous
LPGA Tour major titles. Choi had a one-stroke lead before
three-putting the 14th hole from about 80 feet to fall back into a
tie with the American en route to a closing 73. Lewis took advantage
with a brilliant shot to within 3 feet on the famed Road Hole, No.
17, to set up a birdie, and then sank a 25-footer for another birdie
on the final hole. Park also closed with a 73, while Inbee Park of
South Korea, trying to win a record fourth straight LPGA Tour major,
finished with a 78 and tied for 42nd.
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