Twenty nine rounds of par or better for leading money winner
SENIOR PGA Tour: CLEMMONS, N.C. (Oct. 1) -- Larry Nelson made a 5-foot birdie putt on the sixth playoff hole to beat Gil Morgan in the Vantage Championship on Sunday.
The victory was Nelson's fourth in his last five events on the Senior PGA Tour, extending one of the best runs in the history of the 50-and-over circuit.
Nelson finished second in the tournament he didn't win.
The leading money winner notched his sixth win overall this season and pocketed $225,000. He birdied the par-5, 565-yard 18th hole on four of the six extra holes in what amounted to match play with Morgan, who closed with a 3-under 67.
Nelson took a two-shot lead over Morgan into the final round, but his 29th straight round of par or better -- a 69 -- wasn't good enough to avoid a three-way playoff with Morgan and Jim Dent at 12-under 198.
Dent carded a 66 at 6,600-yard Tanglewood Park, but blew a two-shot lead over Morgan with three holes left. And he led Nelson by three before disaster struck.
Dent bogeyed No. 16 after his drive went right and hit a spectator in the back, bouncing it into some pine straw and behind a tree.
He still held the lead by one shot, but hit his shot to the par-3 17th hole short and right into a bunker and ended up with a second straight bogey.
The three parred the 18th hole to send the tournament into its first playoff in its 14-year history.
Dent's 15-foot putt from the fringe on the first extra hole for birdie lipped out and he was eliminated when Nelson sank a slick 20-foot downhill putt and Morgan made one from 6 feet.
The two players then put on a spectacular display of approach shots over the next several playoff holes before Morgan made a mistake off the tee on the sixth extra hole, hitting it into the left rough.
His second shot to the par-5 also went left and his third into a greenside bunker. Meanwhile, Nelson nailed a sand wedge within birdie range. After Morgan made an 8-foot par putt, Nelson sank his winner to close out the fourth longest playoff in senior tour history.
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