Britton Wins Third Straight Senior Open Championship
Cover photo: Low amateur Dan Levinson, left, and Senior Open champion Bill Britton
Bill Britton of Trump National-Colts Neck fired a 3-under-par 69, the lowest score of the event, for a 72-69-141 total, and annexed his third consecutive and fourth overall NJPGA/NJSGA Senior Open Championship on Tuesday, May 14, at the par-72, 6,742-yard Navesink Country Club in Middletown.
Chris Dacihsen of North Jersey, 56, the first-round leader, finished second at 70-76-146. Dan Levinson of Bayonne, 55, was the low amateur after shooting 79-71-150, tying him for third place with Mike Lanzetta of Mansfield Golf Center (75-75-150) and Baker Maddera of Rock Spring (73-77-150).
Britton has won the championship in 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2013 and is the biggest winner in the 25-year history of the event. No other player has won the event more than twice.
Britton, 57, started the day two shots behind first day leader Dachisen, who had shot a 2-under-par 70 on Monday.
Britton quickly forged ahead when Dachisen went 5-over for the first four holes. Britton was 1-under for the first nine holes, with two birdies and a bogey. He played flawlessly on the back nine with two birdies to go 3-under-par for the day and the tournament. His bogey on the front nine was his only bogey over the final 29 holes.
VIEW PHOTO GALLERY FINAL SCORING HERE
“It’s nice to be able to win and play well, considering I haven’t played a lot of golf,” said Britton, who spent 15 years on the PGA Tour, winning the Centel Classic in Tallahassee in 1989, and finishing second in four other events.
“On Monday, I started a little slow, but I made some adjustments. Today, it wasn’t quite as windy, and the pins were tougher. There was still some wind and similar conditions. It feels good to win,” he added.
Britton will join Dachisen next week at the Senior PGA Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis. Last week, he exited after the first round of the NJPGA Match-Play Championship at Liberty National.
“At the Senior PGA, the players are very good. It will be a different level of competition,” Britton said. “The golf course will be longer , too. I’m looking forward to it.”
Dachisen blamed his early undoing on his putter.
“I only had one bad tee shot on the first four holes. It was all my putter. I missed short ones on the first, second and fourth holes,” said Dachisen, who has won 10 state majors. He won this event in 2008. “That put me in a pretty deep hole.
“I made birdies on the ninth and 10th holes and felt I could get back in it, but I three-putted 11 for a triple-bogey.”
Levinson, 55, a film producer who lives in Manhattan and is a two-time club champion at Bayonne, has played in a number of NJSGA events. This was his biggest prize.
“I didn’t start playing golf until I was 28,” said the Duke University graduate who lives in Manhattan. “This is very exciting for me.”
Besides producing commercials that aired during the Super Bowl, his new show, “Ice Cold Gold,” about mining for gold in Greenland, debuts this Sunday at 10 p.m. on Animal Planet.
