Doug Barron's major mantel is barren no more after win at Regions Tradition

Sunday at the Regions Tradition, everywhere that Doug Barron looked he was surrounded by firepower. For starters, playing in the final group on Sunday for the first time in a PGA TOUR Champions event – a major championship, no less – he was alongside Hall of Famers Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington. Legends. As they will tell you in Alabama, that’s tall cotton.

Steve Stricker, who won three senior majors a year ago and was runner-up in a fourth on his way to 2023 Player of the Year honors, and a three-time champion at Regions, was in the group up ahead of Barron, very capable of going low. Steven Alker, leader in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup, was, in fact, going low, shooting the best round of the week (9-under 63).

And even Bernhard Langer, the all-time leader in victories (46) among the over-50 set, was making some noise for the first time since tearing his Achilles tendon. He would tie for eighth.

If you think any of this phased Doug Barron, it did not. Never a winner on the PGA TOUR (238 career starts) and last a winner among the seniors in 2021 (Rogers Charity Classic in Canada), the 54-year-old Barron never once blinked, never broke stride, smiling and chatting away as he played, showing he was more than comfortable among the company that he was keeping.

His final-round 4-under 68 was relatively stress-free, with few mistakes in it, and as a result, this morning, at last, he can call himself a major champion. His winning total was 17-under 271, two shots clear of Alker.

Barron played bogey-free golf over his final 33 holes at Greystone Golf and Country Club’s Founders Course, and even his final-round score did not do full justice to capture just how solidly he played among giants. His putting was steady, and he holed out well from 3 and 4 feet, not making a single bogey one day after his stellar third-round 66 was three shots clear of the day’s next-lowest score. Nobody handed this one to Barron.

“Got my putter going,” Barron said. “I felt like I can make an 8-footer again, and it was huge. Today was just a dream come true. To beat all these great players ... they’re world-class players, but they are even better people.”

Alker, 52, has been a winner in eight of his first 60 starts on PGA TOUR Champions, and Sunday in Hoover, the New Zealander was the one who would step forward and at least post a number that got Barron’s attention. Alker eagled the par-5 second hole and would add eight birdies to his card, offset by a lone bogey at the par-5 15th. Alker’s 63 tied the best round since the tourney moved to Greystone, and jumped him all the way into second for the week.

Stricker, 57, was attempting to become the ninth player in history to win the same PGA TOUR Champions major for a third consecutive time. He has an incredible record at Regions, where he won in 2019, 2022 and 2023 – each time winning by six shots. But Stricker never got much going with the putter on the weekend to make a quality run. He did not make a single birdie on Saturday, though on Sunday he bounced back with a few, shooting 69.

Els, a winner of four majors (two U.S. Opens, two Open Championships) in his PGA Tour days, appeared poised to collect his first senior major on Sunday. He started the day sharing the lead with Barron, had been swinging the club beautifully, and through hard work, has his putting in good order. But after a nice start (birdie at the second), he followed with poor bogeys at No. 3 and No. 4, the latter a short par-3 that was a good scoring opportunity.

Els did make birdies at the eighth and ninth to get back to within two, and with three par-5 awaiting the long hitter on the back nine, he had a chance. But he could not get much else going. A bogey at 10 halted his momentum, and he shot 71 and tied for third with Stricker and Stewart Cink. The finish was Els’ ninth top-five without a victory in a senior major.

Cink is a newcomer to the big senior stops, and has yet to win on PGA TOUR Champions, but Sunday he broke out to a sizzling start, shooting 5-under 31 on his opening nine. He finished with a final-round 66, but it included only one birdie in his last 10 holes as he could not close the gap on Barron.

For Barron, Sunday was an emotional day, for several reasons. He had friends and family there, including his sister, it was Mother’s Day, and he said he hung in there over his last 18 holes without his best stuff. When he needed to, though, he hit the shots. He had three putts to win on the final green, but lagged his first putt to a foot to seal his major.

“I hit a lot of good shots coming down the stretch, I thought,” Barron said. “I thought my putter ... if I just hit it to 30 or 40 feet, I could win it. I did look at the scoreboard at 16. I was excited about my play, and I’m just excited to keep it going.

“When I came out here (on PGA TOUR Champions), I dreamed of winning majors. I was never a factor in a major on the PGA TOUR, so it really is a dream come true.”

Barron moved from 20th to fifth in the Charles Schwab Cup standings, with Alker maintaining his lead in the season-long points race.

The Regions Tradition, played for the eighth consecutive year at Greystone, marked the first major championship of the season on PGA TOUR Champions, with four more to come. After a week off, major season resumes with the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Stricker is the defending PGA Senior champion, having outlasted Harrington in a playoff a year ago at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco in Texas.