U.S. Senior Open

Brad Bryant;

* Age: 52
* Hometown: Lakeland
* 2006 money list: No. 3
* ACE moment: Tied for second with R.W. Eaks behind Loren Roberts last year.
* Senior moment: Won the Toshiba Classic and Regions Charity Classic in 2006.
* Scouting report: Bryant was one of the steadiest players on the tour last year and is off to a solid start again.


Haven - The juxtaposition was poignant, almost surreal. Behind the clubhouse at Whistling Straits, as a somber Tom Watson described his final-round collapse in the U.S. Senior Open, the trophy presentation was taking place on the 18th green.

"It's a very special tournament to me and I had it in my grasp," Watson said.

His words were partially drowned out by cheering from below, as winner Brad Bryant stepped to the microphone.

"It doesn't get any better than this," Bryant said.

One man was reliving a nightmare, the other living a dream. One of the greatest players of all time had come completely unglued while a journeyman had played the round of his life.

Pressure crushes. It also makes diamonds.

"This is America, man," Bryant said later Sunday evening, still in shock, still clutching the U.S. Senior Open trophy. "I am the guy that our guys in Iraq are fighting for. You all can print that. Only in America can a guy like me get to where I am today."

He got there by firing a 4-under-par 68, the best round of the day, on a brutally difficult golf course in 95-degree heat in the final round of a United States Golf Association championship.

To be fair, he also got there because Watson fell apart, not only blowing a three-stroke lead with eight holes left but playing those holes in a hard-to-watch 8 over par.

"I just didn't have it on the back nine," Watson said. "I just put the ball in trouble way too many times to have a chance to win the golf tournament."

It wasn't the heat, it was the humility.

"I'm fine," the 57-year-old Watson said of his physical condition. "No problem there."

Bryant, 52, of Lakeland, Fla., finished at 6-under-par 282 and earned $470,000. Ben Crenshaw shot a 70 and was second at 285, his best finish on the Champions Tour. Loren Roberts shot a 74 and finished third at 286 and Watson limped home with a 78 and was fourth at 287.

Bryant was the only player in the field to shoot even par or better all four rounds (71-72-71-68). He hit 11 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens in the final round.

"He's shot a lot lower scores than that in easier conditions but as far as I'm concerned that's the best round he's ever played," said Tony Smith, Bryant's caddie of four years.

After Watson birdied the ninth and 10th holes to get to 9-under, he had a three-stroke lead over Bryant and was five shots clear of Roberts. At that point a betting man would have put everything he owned on Watson, the winner of eight majors on the PGA Tour and one of the game's great ball-strikers and champions.

He would have lost it all.

Watson's drive leaked right and into a bunker on the par-5 11th. A lay-up left him in perfect position but his 9-iron came up short, he chipped weakly and then three-putted from the fringe, fanning his 6-foot bogey putt so badly it never came close to the hole.

"He birdied nine and 10 and I thought he was off to the races," said Roberts, who played with Watson. "On 11, if he drives the ball in the fairway he probably knocks it on the green in two and makes a birdie and goes on to win the tournament. It seemed to me like 11 was such a body blow and he compounded it with a three-putt. It just kind of took the wind out of his sails."

Over the last seven holes, not only did the wheels come off for Watson, but the transmission fell out and the engine blew up. He bogeyed Nos. 12 and 13 and double-bogeyed Nos. 15 and 18 for an ugly back-nine 43.

"Well, 43 ain't very good," Watson said succinctly.

Bryant, who shot a 32 on the front nine thanks to what he called some of the best wedge play of his life, never looked at a scoreboard on the back and didn't know he had a three-shot lead as he stood in the 18th fairway.

"On 18, Tony asked me, 'Do you want to know where you stand?' " Bryant said. "I looked at him and said, 'I think we're one up.' He said, 'No, you're not.' And I said, 'Do you mean we're tied?' And he said, 'You're three up.' "

From the elevated fairway, Bryant stared across the hazard at the massive green below. The flagstick was on the left-front lobe, guarded by bunkers.

"I said, 'Let's aim right,' " Bryant said. "Tony said, 'Yeah, let's do.' "

He made his par and for all practical purposes clinched the title when Watson failed to birdie the par-5 16th.

Watson now has six top-10 finishes in the Senior Open without a victory. He was the runner-up in 2002, 2003 and 2006.

As he left the podium, a USGA official put his arm around him and said, "You'll just have to keep trying."

Watson stared straight ahead.

"Yep," he said. "That's what I'll have to do."

Bryant, meanwhile, put an exclamation mark on one of the great comebacks in recent golf history. It took him 474 starts to win his only tournament on the PGA Tour, the 1995 Walt Disney Oldsmobile Classic. By 2000, he was a part-time player and would tee it up only 19 times over the next five years.

Smith met Bryant, full of self-doubt, at a Nationwide Tour event in Greenville, S.C.

"The first thing he told me was, 'Tony, I'm a little rusty. I've been retired so let's get this out of the way: Don't expect nothing out of me,' " Smith said. "He shot a 66 the first round and we've been together ever since."

Bryant's standing line was that he was the second-best player in his family; his younger brother, Bart, is a three-time winner on the PGA Tour. Smith calls Brad a "professional self-deprecator."

But Bryant has found new life on the Champions Tour. He won twice in 2006 and won his third title, the Regions Charity Classic, earlier this year.

"I think in the last five years, I've matured a lot," he said. "And the game has changed fairly significantly as well. The equipment, the way we play the game now, fits me better than the way we played the game 25 years ago.

"I've learned an awful lot about how to play golf, too. Years ago, I thought you had to hit great golf shots to win. Now I find out - Guess what? - you can hit a couple bad shots and make a couple good putts and all of a sudden you win a golf tournament."

All of a sudden Sunday, he won the biggest golf tournament an over-50 golfer can win. His name goes on the Francis Ouimet Trophy alongside the names Palmer, Player, Trevino and Nicklaus.

"Let's face it, guys, I'm not in their league," Bryant said. "I never was and, as far as golf goes, I never will be. These are the greats of the game. I'm a journeyman who happened to have a really great week."