Japanese Unknown Idoki Wins Senior PGA; Berry Ties for 35th

ST. LOUIS -- It is axiomatic that first-time entrants do not fare well in major championships on the PGA Tour. The most notable example is the Masters. Horton Smith won the inaugural event in 1934 on his first try, obviously. A year later, Gene Sarazen, who was playing mainly as a favor to tournament founder Bobby Jones, hit one of the most famous shots in golf history, the 235-yard, 4-wood shot that went into the hole for a double eagle 2 at No. 15. That single swing -- "The Shot Heard Round the World " -- wiped out the three-stroke lead that Craig Wood had held, and Sarazen went on to win the title the next day in a 36-hole playoff against Wood.

In nearly 80 years since then, however, only one first-timer has won the Masters. That was Fuzzy Zoeller, who also won a playoff, although that one was sudden death and went only two holes. His birdie at No. 11 gave him the victory over Tom Watson and Ed Sneed.

Things are different on the Champions Tour. Out there, the window of opportunity is much more limited, and first-timers, who are usually 50 or 51 years old and in their prime, win all the time. The Senior PGA Championship is a perfect example. Between 1980 and 2012, exactly one-third of the Senior PGA winners (11 out of 33) were playing in the tournament for the first time.

That group included Zoeller (2002), plus Arnold Palmer (1980), Gary Player (1986) and Hale Irwin (1996).

Nevertheless, even on the Champions Tour it can be a surprise when a first-timer wins, and no first-time winner of the Senior PGA has ever been more of a surprise than Khoki Idoki. The 51-year-old from Japan had never even been in the United States before he came to Bellerive Country Club early last week, and he was pretty much an unknown to every one on the grounds, other than fellow countrymen Joe Ozaki, Kiyoshi Murota and Kazuhiro Takami.

He was still just a tournament footnote on Sunday when he started the final round, five strokes behind Kenny Perry, who was leading. But then Idoki, who led the regular Japanese Tour in driving accuracy during the 1990's, put together a flawless, 6-under-par 65, erased a three-stroke deficit over the last six holes and won the by two strokes over Perry and Jay Haas. 

Not only did the 65 on a really difficult Bellerive course showcase Idoki's ability to hit fairways, but he also demonstrated that he could make clutch putts. He drained several critical par-savers, and then grabbed the lead for good with a 15-footer for birdie at the 531-yard, par-5 17th. 

(Three of the four Japanese players in the field -- Idoki, Ozaki and Takami -- tied for first in the statistical category of fewest putts. Each ended up with 108 putts for the 72 holes, or exactly 1.5 putts per hole.) 

Idoki's winning 72-hole total was 273, 11 under.

The victory was worth $378,000 and a one-year exemption on the Champions Tour. Idoki isn't planning to use the exemption, though, and as of Sunday night he wasn't even sure he'd come back to defend his Senior PGA title next year at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores, in Benton Harbor, Mich.

"I prefer to stay in Japan," he explained.

Before last week, Idoki, who won four times on the regular Japanese Tour and once last year on Japan's Senior Tour, had played in only one major championship, last year at the British Senior Open. He had a final-round 81 there and tied for 65th.  

One of the myriad ironies of Sunday's final round was that the 5-foot-5, 135-pound Idoki, who was one of the shortest hitters in the field, basically secured his victory over the long-hitting Perry (6-2, 210 pounds) on a par-5.

Perry, who played the two front-nine par-5's -- No. 4 (522 yards) and No. 8 (555) -- in 8 under par for the week, needed a birdie at No. 17 on Sunday to stay within range of Idoki. But he hit his tee shot into the trees on the right, was forced to chip out and still had more than 200 yards left for his third shot. He wound up making a bogey, and that ended his chances. (He played No. 17 in even par for the week.)  

Having started with three birdies in the first five holes, Perry went 4 over on the five holes from the 13th to the 17th and needed a long birdie putt at the 18th for a closing 72, which got him him back into a tie with Haas at 275. They made $185,000 each.

The 59-year-old Haas, who has won this tournament twice (2006 and '08), shot a final-round 70. 

Perry, 52, a two-time Champions Tour winner who led or shared the Senior PGA lead from the end of the second round until Idoki pulled ahead with his birdie at the 17th, said of his disastrous stetch on the back nine: "I was in jail the whole time."

His demise began with a pulled 6-iron that bounded over the green at the 182-yard, par-3 13th. He hit a decent pitch from an unenviable position but couldn't keep it on the green and went on to make a double bogey, at about the same time that Idoki, up ahead, was making a birdie at the 381-yard, par-4 14th hole. 

It was effectively a three-shot swing, and suddenly, Perry and Idoki were tied. A little more than a half-hour later, there was an additional two-shot swing, Perry bogeyeing the 232-yard, par-3 16th at roughly the same time that Idoki was getting up and down from a bunker 60 yards short of the 17th green for his clinching birdie. 

This was Perry's first real crack at a senior major. But it brought back painful memories of the two majors he should have won on the PGA Tour and didn't -- the 1996 PGA, which he lost in a playoff to Mark Brooks, and the 2009 Masters, which he led by two with two holes to go, only to lose in another playoff, this time to Angel Cabrerra.  

Mark O'Meara eagled the 17th to jump into fourth place. He matched Idoki's 65 and finished one behind Perry and Haas, with a 276.  

Another stroke back was Murota, at 277 after a valedictory 67.

Also in the Senior PGA field was Don Berry, the Edinburgh USA head professional and 14-time Minnesota PGA Player of the Year. He was one of 40 club pros who started the tournament -- but one of only five who made the cut.

Despite a stretch of four consecutive missed birdie putts from inside 6 feet on the front nine Sunday, he closed with a 71 and finished at 285, thereby tying for 35th place. For that, he made $9,600.  

Berry, who won the Minnesota State Senior Open in his first try last year at age 50 (and will defend that crown next week at Hillcrest Country Club), just missed being the low club pro at Bellerive. That honor was shared by Jeff Coston and Mark Mielke.

Mielke (East Norwich, N.Y.) made a 2-foot birdie putt on the last hole for a 72, and his 284. Coston (Blaine, Wash.) came at it from the other direction, playing the final six holes in much the same way as Perry. He was 3 under through 12, but then bogeyed the 13th, 15th, the 17th and the 18th for his share of 28th place overall. 


CHAMPIONS TOUR

Senior PGA Championship

At Bellerive Country Club

Par 71, 6,959 yards

St. Louis

Final results

1. Kohki Idoki                $378,000       71-69-68-65--273

T2. Kenny Perry           $185,000        69-66-68-72--275

T2. Jay Haas                $185,000        66-72-67-70--275

4. Mark O'Meara          $100,000        73-70-68-65--276

5. Kiyoshi Murota           $80,000        67-70-73-67--277

T35. Don Berry                $9,600       72-69-73-71--285