POTOMAC, Md.
Kyle Stanley got up-and-down for par from just over the 18th green to win the Quicken Loans National on the first hole of a playoff with Charles Howell III.
On a chaotic final day at TPC Potomac that included a 5-minute delay for a pop-up storm, Stanley and Howell finished at 7-under 273 after matching final-round 4-under 66s. Howell had a 21-foot putt to win on the final hole of regulation that rolled over the left edge of the cup.
In the playoff, both missed the fairway and the green. Howell’s chip came up short and he missed the 11-foot par putt. Stanley chipped to 5 feet and pumped his fist as the putt dropped.
Stanley’s previous win came in 2012 at the Phoenix Open. Later that year, he was ranked a career-best 47th in the world. He declined steadily after that, bottoming out at No. 683 in May 2015.
For three days, the event had been a staid affair, with a lackluster field, small galleries and steady, sometimes dull golf from David Lingmerth, who led after each of the first three rounds. Tournament host Tiger Woods did not attend while he seeks treatment for his use of prescription drugs.
On Sunday, the crowds were bigger, the course was softer and chaos broke out. Then it started pouring. A pop-up storm temporarily soaked TPC Potomac and doomed the chances of Sung Kang, who didn’t pack any rain gear in his bag and missed a 4-foot birdie putt in the heart of the downpour just before play was stopped for five minutes. When play resumed, he hit his tee shot into the water on the par-3 17th.
His consolation prize was qualifying for his first British Open. The top four players who weren’t already exempt earned spots, and Kang, who finished in an eight-way tie for fifth, got the final berth because of his world ranking.
The other British Open qualifiers were Stanley, Howell and Martin Laird of Scotland, who closed with a 67. He tied for third at 5 under with Rickie Fowler, who shot a 65.
Fowler embraced his role as the tournament’s star attraction, making a career-best nine birdies, but he lamented the one hole that got away — the easy 14th, where his drive found the water and he made double bogey.
Howell, who hadn’t played in more than two months because of a rib injury, notched his 16th career runner-up finish. He hasn’t won in 10 years and never imagined he’d come so close this week.
U.S. Senior Open
PEABODY, Mass. (AP) — Kenny Perry claimed his second U.S. Senior Open title, pulling away from Kirk Triplett at Salem Country Club to finish at 16 under and win by two strokes.
The 56-year-old Perry closed with a 2-under 68 for a record score of 264. Perry also won the event in 2013 in Omaha, Nebraska. It is his fourth major victory on the senior tour.
Perry started the day a stroke behind Triplett but five ahead of the next-closest contender, Brandt Jobe. Triplett, who tied the tournament record with a 62 in the first round, had five bogeys and shot 71.
Perry’s 264 total was three strokes better than the U.S. Senior Open record set by Hale Irwin at Saucon Valley in 2000 and matched by Perry in 2013.
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