LAKE ORION -- Starting off the day, all eyes were on Bernhard Langer, but they quickly shifted to the Englishman Roger Chapman. All the golfers saying the 2012 Senior Open was a horse race down the stretch.
"I didn't expect Bernhard to come backwards," Fred Funk said. "I saw he was 2-over pretty early and I thought, ok game on."
Funk, the 2009 Senior Open Champion made a charge Sunday, but came up just two shots short, tied for second with four others including Tom Lehman.
"I played well, I played the course well," Tom Lehman said Sunday. "There were some shots I didn't quite hit the green."
As for Chapman, he was consistent, shooting under 70 all four rounds. His only mistake Sunday was a bogey on 16, but he followed it up with a birdie on 17.
"To do what you're supposed to do during crunch time is what we strive for and practice for," Chapman said after the awards ceremony on the 18th green.
At 10-under par, the Englishman took the 2012 Senior Open by two strokes, the same margin of victory for him at the Senior PGA Championship two months ago at Benton Harbor.
"The air is great out here," Chapman said. "It's Pure Michigan!"
Chapman, clearly comfortable here in this state, winning his second major this year. He joins elite company with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Hale Irwin as the only players to also win the Senior PGA and Senior Open in the same season.
