Hale Irwin had the honors at the first, the second, the 14th and the 15th holes.
That's it. On every other tee, Irwin hit second or third as the result of having a poorer score than his two playing partners on the previous hole.
Ordinarily, that's telltale. And what it usually indicates is a man struggling with his game and losing considerable ground to the players around him.
Not so Sunday, however.
"Let's just say 'no,'" a stumped Irwin responded when asked if he had ever won a golf tournament without having the honors more than four times in the final round.
Quirk? Anomaly? Whatever it was, Irwin wasn't unduly affected by surrendering the honors to Jose Maria Canizares or Dale Douglass, although his one-birdie finale in the $1.4 million Las Vegas Senior Classic brought some of the field back within striking distance of the eventual champ.
Nonetheless he never relinquished his lead, which was six at the start of the day before slipping and closing at one.
"Going out with a big lead is not as easy as it seems," a contented Irwin said after pocketing the $210,000 first prize. That check pushed him back atop the PGA Senior Tour 1998 money list (with $950,650) and brought his career earnings to $11.6 million -- making him the second most financially successful golfer of all time, behind only Greg Norman.
Hail, Hale.
"I really played pretty well," he said of his 75 at the TPC at Summerlin, a score that ordinarily doesn't get the job done in the final round yet one that was 1.6 strokes better than the average on this wind-swept day. The temperature (72 degrees) wasn't bad and the breeze (20 mph) was tolerable in comparison to the previous afternoon, but Summerlin still took its toll.
Only four players broke par for the day and only four were under par for the tournament. Vicente Fernandez, who finished second and earned $123,200, was the only man on each of those lists.
"I think it was tough for Hale to have such a big lead," he said. "Sometimes it's difficult to commit yourself to what you want to do. Do you want to play conservative or do you want to play your own game and maybe be aggressive?"
Irwin himself didn't seem sure. He backed away from so many shots it appeared as if he established a record for false starts.
"I didn't feel I was as sharp today," he said, although he quickly added this qualifier: "No one is going to play every round perfectly. I struck the ball well but just couldn't get the putts to fall."
And it obviously bothered him. Aside from bemusedly discussing the home-construction boon around the golf course as he walked down the first fairway with Douglass, Irwin barely said a word all day.
He was a silent knight.
"I've been on such a roll the last couple of years that there has to be a bit of slippage now and then," he said. "It's hard to stay at that pitch."
Coming off the front side with an uncharacteristic 40, he decided to have a good conversation -- with himself.
"I really needed to start playing," he said of his thoughts at 10, which were almost audible as he surveyed the horizon. Rejuvenated, he played the back nine in one-under par and sank a slick two-foot par putt on the 18th to not only short-circuit the drama but keep Fernandez -- lurking behind the green -- from a playoff.
"I went out and tried to play for second," Fernandez said of his pre-round outlook. "It wasn't until the 13th that I started playing to win."
A birdie at No. 17 pulled him within one of the lead and that's where he finished, four shots better than Douglas and Canizares.
"I wish I could sneak in one or two wins here or there," Fernandez said of his productive yet victory-less season. Nonetheless, he has two victories on the Senior Tour since turning 50 in 1996 and was only a lucky break away from catching the seemingly uncatchable Irwin.
"At the second hole I had a 2-iron that was right at the flag but it rolled off the green and then I three-putted," Fernandez said when asked if there was one shot he wished he could play over. "But to be honest, I also made a 35-foot putt at the first hole that I didn't expect to go in."
Conversely, Irwin wouldn't second-guess himself on any of his shots in spite of their sometimes mediocre results.
"I'm delighted I won," he said. "I let the round slip to a 75 but I wouldn't replay any of the shots even if I could. I was actually hitting the ball real well."
The 52-year-old native of Missouri and former University of Colorado football player finished the tournament at six-under par and has been hitting the ball real well since coming on to the tour. Sunday's win was not only his third this year but his 16th since 1995, and he has not finished out of the top 10 in any event since last September.
It was also his second straight victory in Las Vegas and his second in as many weeks, having won the Seniors' Championship the previous week in Florida.
Next stop: Birmingham and this week's Bruno's Memorial Classic.
"I'm going to really let down the next two days," he promised himself, winded in the desert after the hectic pace, the pressure and the euphoria of still another victory.
Classic notes
Irwin's only birdie came at No. 13 when he chipped to five feet and made the putt. He had bogeys at Nos. 2, 5, 6 and 8. ... Going into the day, he had only three bogeys in the previous three rounds. ... His final-round scoring average this year is an amazing 67.50. ... He has finished in the top three in 33 of his 65 Senior Tour events. ... Douglass was within two shots of Irwin through seven holes and then again after nine but he played the back in three over to finish with a 74. ... Canizares was also within two strokes after nine but fell out of contention with bogeys at Nos. 11 and 14 and settled for a 74. ... Aside from Fernandez, the only players to break par in the final round were Walt Morgan with a 70 and Dave Hill and Isao Aoki, each with 71s. ... Toughest hole at Summerlin for the four days of the tournament was the par-4 18th (4.5) and the easiest was No. 3, a par-5 that played to a 4.8 average. ... Don January, 67 years old and the tour's leading money winner in its initial season (1980), had the first hole in one on the Senior Tour this year when he aced the par-3 14th Sunday. With the wind behind him, January used a 9-iron to cover the 158 yards. He needed 77 strokes on the other 17 holes. ... January's ace was the fifth in the 13-year history of the tournament in Las Vegas and the first since Tom Wargo in 1995. ... The three local players in the tournament finished with mixed results. Jim Colbert, who had conceded the championship to Irwin the previous day, had a closing 75 and finished in a respectable tie for seventh. Bud Allin, whose comments had a distraught tone all week, closed with an 82 and afterward not only refused a reporter's request for a comment but brusquely walked past some youngsters who were seeking his autograph. And Las Vegan Tom Storey concluded play with an 82 that left him 32 strokes behind Irwin. ... The 234 amateurs in the tournament concluded their play Saturday and Robert Courson, a 17-handicapper from the Estancia Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., finished first at 12 under par. Entry fee for each of the amateurs was $4,250. ... No official word on the crowd count but it was obviously down from previous years.
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