Pernice wins Champions Tour finale in playoff
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Tom Pernice Jr. won the Champions Tour's season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship on Sunday, beating Jay Haas with a birdie on the fourth hole of a playoff.
The 55-year-old Pernice got up-and-down from the left bunker on the par-5 18th, holing a 6-foot putt after Haas made a 12-footer for par.
Pernice closed with a 3-under 67 -- also making a 6-foot birdie putt on 18 -- to match Haas at 11-under 269 on Desert Mountain's Cochise Course. The 60-year-old Haas had a 66.
Pernice earned $440,000 in the event limited to the top 30 on the money list. He also won a playoff in Iowa in June and has four career victories on the 50-and-over tour after winning twice on the PGA Tour.
Haas missed chances to win on the second and third playoff holes.
On the third on the par-3 17th, Haas' 15-foot birdie putt went to the right. Pernice then made a 6-footer after missing the green to the left and hitting a flop shot.
On 18 on the second extra hole, Haas' 8-foot birdie try also slid right, and Pernice made a 4-footer for a scrambling par. He drove right into a narrow rain-wash cut in the desert, slashed sideways to the fairway, hit his 246-yard approach to the right of the green and set up the par putt with a long pitch.
Haas made a 6-foot birdie putt on 18 on the first extra hole after Pernice finished off a two-putt birdie with a 1-footer.
In regulation on 18, Haas holed a 35-foot birdie putt from the fringe to take the lead at 11 under. Pernice -- playing a group behind -- forced the playoff with his 6-foot birdie putt.
Haas opened with rounds of 66 and 62 to take a four-stroke lead and break the tour record for consecutive rounds of par or better at 38, then shot 75 on Saturday to fall a stroke behind Pernice and Kenny Perry.
Haas won two weeks ago in North Carolina to become the 18th player to win a Champions Tour event at 60 or older. He has 17 Champions Tour victories after winning nine PGA Tour titles.
Perry eagled the final hole for a 68 to finish a stroke back.
Bernhard Langer closed with a 65 to tie for fourth with Colin Montgomerie at 9 under.
Langer wrapped up his second Charles Schwab Cup points title last week and earned $158,000 on Sunday to break Hale Irwin's tour record with $3,074,189. Irwin made $3,082,304 in 2002.
The 57-year-old Langer led the tour with five victories, two of them majors, and had 12 top-three finishes in 20 starts. He also won the season points title in 2010.
Montgomerie finished with a 67.