{"id":226099,"date":"2025-10-19T22:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T22:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/226099\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T22:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T22:42:07","slug":"justin-leonard-edges-ernie-els-wins-pga-tour-champions-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/226099\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Leonard edges Ernie Els, wins PGA Tour Champions stop"},"content":{"rendered":"

RICHMOND, Va. — Justin Leonard<\/a> stayed patient with his putting on a windy Sunday and watched it pay big dividends with a birdie-par-eagle finished for a 4-under 68 and a one-shot victory over Ernie Els<\/a> in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.<\/p>\n

Leonard won for the second time this year on the PGA Tour Champions and moved into top 10 after the first playoff event for the Charles Schwab Cup.<\/p>\n

The top 54 advance to the second postseason event next week in Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Els was in control on the back nine of the James River course at the Country Club of Virginia and appeared to steady himself with birdies on reachable par-4 15th and the par-5 16th.<\/p>\n

But he bogeyed the 17th as Leonard made his move. After a birdie on the 16th, Leonard hit a hybrid 4-iron to about 20 feet and holed the downhill eagle putt to post at 12-under 204.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Els failed to make a 10-foot birdie putt on the closing hole that would have forced a playoff. He closed with a 72 and shared second place with Thomas Bjorn (68).<\/p>\n

Bernhard Langer<\/a>, the 68-year-old German who has won every year on the PGA Tour Champions since turning 50, was within two shots of the lead until a long three-putt bogey ended his hopes. He shot 72 and finished three back in his bid for a first Champions win this year.<\/p>\n

Scott Parel<\/a> shot 71 and tied for 21st, moving up three spots to No. 53 to advance to the Simmons Bank Championship next week. David Bransdon<\/a> fell out.<\/p>\n

The top 36 after next week reach the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RICHMOND, Va. — Justin Leonard stayed patient with his putting on a windy Sunday and watched it pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-226099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}