Singh wins final event, giving Langer another Charles Schwab Cup

PHOENIX — Vijay Singh rallied from six shots behind Sunday with his career-best round on the PGA TOUR Champions, a 10-under 61 that gave him a four-shot victory in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship and gave Bernhard Langer the season title and $1 million annuity.

Langer won the Charles Schwab Cup for the fifth time, and fourth time in the last five years.

"At age 61 to do it is quite an achievement," Langer said, holding a glass of red wine on the balcony at Phoenix Country Club. "Maybe there's another in me."

Scott McCarron was in position to capture the Charles Schwab Cup for the first time, needing only to win the final tournament of the season provided Langer didn't make a big run and finish among the top three. Langer tied for 13th.

McCarron, however, faded badly. He hit a tee shot out-of-bounds on No. 3 to make double bogey and was never under par at any point in the final round. Needing a big finish, McCarron hit over the green into a corporate grandstand behind the 17th hole and made another double bogey.

He closed with a 72 and tied for third.

The charge came from Singh, who was holing putts from everywhere and lost track of his score until it was time to sign his card. His 61 was his lowest score by two shots on the 50-and-older circuit.

"I really didn't think I had any chance," Singh said.

Singh said he saw a leaderboard around the 13th hole that showed him tied for the lead, and he poured it on. He punched a wedge under the trees to 30 feet and holed the birdie putt on the 16th, rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th and was on his way.

Singh finished at 22-under 262 to win by four shots over Tim Petrovic, who started the final round one shot behind McCarron and closed with a 70.

The 55-year-old Fijian won for the third time this year and finished at No. 4 in the Schwab Cup.

"The way they were scoring all week, I thought if I got to 20 (under), I might finish top 5," Singh said. "I birdied the first two, hit it close at 4. I just kept going. I didn't think about much. I didn't even know what we were shooting."

Singh missed only one green in regulation.

Langer capped off another remarkable year for a 61-year-old German with an ageless game. He only won twice, his fewest since 2015, but was runner-up six times.

"It doesn't get old," he said.

Langer was among only six players who had a mathematical chance to win the Charles Schwab Cup. McCarron was the only one who had a chance to win Sunday, and he wound up second in the Charles Schwab Cup, worth a $500,000 bonus.

Wes Short had a 69 and tied for third with McCarron.

Vijay Singh, 67-67-67-61 – 262 (-22)

• Playing in the fourth-to-last group, Singh earned his first share of the lead after making birdie on No. 7. A birdie on No. 14 was his third straight, and it gave him his first solo lead at 20-under. His 10th birdie of the day came on No. 17, and it gave him his winning total of 22-under.
• The six-shot, come-from-behind victory was the largest of the season and it ties the largest in tournament history (Raymond Floyd/1994, Tom Watson/2005). The four-shot margin of victory was tied for the second-largest of the season.
• Singh tied the course record with a 10-under 61, and it is his lowest round on PGA TOUR Champions. His previous low was 63, the most recent being in the final round of last year’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
• The 61 is the lowest final round in tournament history and it is the lowest final round in Singh’s PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions career. It is tied for the lowest final-round score by a winner in PGA TOUR Champions history. Most recently, Fred Couples closed with a 9-under 61 to win the 2014 Shaw Charity Classic.
• The 72-hole total of 262 is the second-lowest in tournament history. Tom Lehman won with a 22-under 258 total at Desert Mountain in 2012.
• Singh needed just 26.5 putts per round this week, second-fewest in the field. He had 19 one-putts in his last two rounds, including 11 one-putts on Sunday.
• Singh becomes the third player to win both the TOUR Championship and Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
  • Vijay Singh: 2002 TOUR Championship; 2018 Charles Schwab Cup Championship
  • Tom Lehman: 1996 TOUR Championship; 2012 Charles Schwab Cup Championship
  • Tom Watson: 1987 TOUR Championship; 2000, 2002, 2005 Charles Schwab Cup Championship
• He is the first player to win a major and the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in the same season since Tom Lehman in 2012.
• He won three times this season, including his first senior major title at the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship. He finished with eight top-10s, and he was one of two players to post top-10s in all three Playoffs events.
• He finished the season seventh on the money list with $1,698,952 and fourth in the Charles Schwab Cup.

Bernhard Langer, 70-70-66-67 – 273 (-11)

• Langer carded a final-round 67 and finished T13 at 11-under. Because Scott McCarron did not win the tournament, Langer won his Tour-record fifth Charles Schwab Cup.
• He has finished first (2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018) or second (2012, 2013, 2017) in the Charles Schwab Cup eight of the last nine years.
• Langer finished the season with $2,222,154 and won his seventh consecutive money title. In all, he has led the money list 10 of his 11 full seasons on PGA TOUR Champions.
• He finished with the Tour’s best scoring average (69.01) for the fifth year in a row.
• Since 2008 (his first full season on PGA TOUR Champions), Langer has led the Charles Schwab Cup 128 of 283 weeks (45.23%). He led the standings seven weeks this year, including each of the last four.
• Since the Playoffs started in 2016, Langer has led after eight of the nine Playoffs events; the only exception was after last year’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship when he finished second behind champion Kevin Sutherland.
• He finished the season with two wins, six runner-up finishes and 14 top-10s. He has 163 career top-10s, which ranks fourth on the Tour’s all-time list. He has 38 career victories, and the 61-year-old will start the 2019 season seven wins shy of Hale Irwin’s record total of 45.

Other Notes

• This is the third time the Charles Schwab Cup Championship and the Charles Schwab Cup were both won by members of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
• Scott McCarron led by one at the start of the final round. He shared the lead at 18-under through seven holes, but he played his last 11 holes in 1-over en route to a 72 and a T3 finish. With Langer finishing T13, McCarron would have won the Charles Schwab Cup had he won the tournament.
• McCarron finished No. 2 in the Charles Schwab Cup, his third-straight top-five finish (3rd/2017, 4th /2016).
• Tim Petrovic closed with a 2-under 70 and finished second at 18-under, his fifth runner-up finish of the season. Three of his second-place finishes came at 72-hole events (2nd/KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, T2/U.S. Senior Open).
• Wes Short, Jr. closed with a 2-under 69 and finished T3 at 17-under. It’s his second straight top-10 at the season finale, as he finished T9 last year.
• Stephen Ames played in Sunday’s final group in all three Playoffs events. He carded a 1-over 72 on Sunday and finished T5, his fourth top-10 of the year.
• Woody Austin, winner of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic, finished T5, his third consecutive top-10. He and Singh are the only two players that ended the season with top-10s in all three Playoffs events.