Rock-steady Paul Broadhurst a champion again outside Dallas at Invited Celebrity Classic

Englishman Paul Broadhurst had gone more than five years without a victory on PGA TOUR Champions, but returned to the winner’s circle Sunday when he edged David Toms by a shot to capture the Invited Celebrity Classic presented by Choctaw Casinos & Resorts at Las Colinas Country Club.

Broadhurst, 58, a former European Tour Ryder Cup player, had won five times previously on PGA TOUR Champions, including majors in 2016 and 2018, but had not tasted victory on the Tour since capturing the Ally Classic in September 2018. (He did win a European Legends Tour start in 2021.) With heavy rains in the Dallas-Fort Worth area having wiped out all play on Saturday, the tournament – which included 40 celebrities in a separate division – was shortened to 36 holes. Sunday turned into a mad dash to the finish.

In the end, it was left to two players to decide a winner, with Broadhurst shooting 5-under 66 to reach 11-under 131 and defeat Toms, who closed with 65. Sparked by an eagle on the par-5 third hole that got him off and running early Sunday afternoon, Broadhurst went out in 4-under 32 and played steadily on his way in, closing with three pars following his birdie at the tough par-4 15th to close out the victory.

“I just kept plugging away, really,” Broadhurst said. “Just did some work back home with my mind man, and it seemed to work. Just stayed in the moment. Didn't get ahead of myself, which I have done a little bit the last few weeks. I've started tournaments really well on the Friday and then fell to bits at the weekend.”

More than 40 workers and volunteers from the maintenance staff at Las Colinas began moving accumulated water from tunnels at 2 a.m. Sunday to begin getting the course ready for play, and golfers teed off in two waves on Sunday, with some contenders playing early and others late. Y.E. Yang (69) and Thomas Bjørn (70) were among those in the early wave and posted 8-under 136, giving a handful of players with afternoon times (including Broadhurst and Toms) a target at which to shoot.

Toms, 57, the 2001 PGA champion and a two-time winner a year ago, teed off three groups ahead of Broadhurst and spent most of his day chasing the Englishman’s hot start.

Broadhurst birdied the first, eagled the third and made back-to-back birdies at the seventh (4 feet) and eighth (25 feet) to take control. Putting can sometimes hold Broadhurst back, but on Sunday he rolled the ball beautifully, managing to keep his round relatively stress-free. Broadhurst putts with his eyes looking at the hole (think Jordan Spieth) and displayed wonderful pace in a round that included one lone bogey at the par-4 second hole. After that, he only moved forward.

Toms pulled even with Broadhurst at the 17th, rolling in a 9-foot birdie putt to reach 10-under. But he failed to birdie the par-5 closing hole to keep pressure on Broadhurst, who was about to make birdie from 12 feet at No. 15 to regain his slim advantage. Toms missed the fairway with his tee shot on 18, and with mud on the right side of his ball, his layup attempt failed to find the fairway, finishing in rough 118 yards from the flagstick.

Toms, trying to land his fifth career PGA TOUR Champions victorty, struck his approach to 25 feet, but could not convert the putt for birdie from the collar. The finish was Toms’ third top-five of the season.

With so much rain pelting the golf course all day Saturday, players were allowed to place their hand on the ball when in the fairways on Sunday, so catching a mud ball proved unfortunate timing for Toms, who was seeking his fifth PGA TOUR Champions victory.

“If I’d have hit it in the fairway,” Toms said, “I wouldn’t have had to worry about it.”

Broadhurst’s previous best finish this season also was in a rain-shortened event, the Chubb Classic in Florida in February. Discouraged by what he had considered a poor showing in his opening tournament in Hawaii, Broadhurst had returned home to England in January hoping to see his teacher, who happened to be on holiday. So Sam Broadhurst, Paul’s son and a mini-tour player, took a look at his dad and gave him a swing thought to keep the club more in front of him, and not so inside on the takeaway. It worked nicely, leading to a tie for third on a week he held few expectations.

On Sunday, he was performing well again. Though he had not won in years, he did not forget what he needed to do when he got himself in position.

“When everything clicks for him,” said Golf Channel analyst Lanny Wadkins, “he knows how to get it done.”

Yang and Bjørn tied for third, with PGA TOUR Champions rookie Steve Allen alone in fifth.

Former tennis standout Mardy Fish captured the tournament’s Celebrity Division for the second time in three years, making 31 points in the Modified Stableford format on Sunday to edge MLB Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz by a point (68 points to 67). Smoltz rolled in a clutch birdie putt (three points) on the 17th hole, but Fish held on for the victory. Former MLB players Josh Donaldson and Bud Norris tied for third. World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sorenstam was fifth.

The Invited Celebrity Classic kicked off a four-week run of tournaments on PGA TOUR Champions, a stretch that concludes with the season’s first major championship (Regions Tradition, May 9-12), where Steve Stricker is defending champion. This week, the Tour heads to Georgia for the Mitsubishi Electric Classic in Duluth, just outside Atlanta, at TPC Sugarloaf.