ENDICOTT, N.Y. -- It has been 33 years since the Champions Tour was born, and its newest champion is somebody special: 50-year-old rookie Bart Bryant is the tours 1,000th winner. Bryant, who shot a tournament record-tying 10-under 62 in the second round to build a four-shot lead, closed with a 72 on Sunday and finished at 16-under 200 to beat Russ Cochran (67) and Corey Pavin (69) by one shot. "It was a difficult day for me. I just never really felt settled," Bryant said, his family standing by his side. "I really didnt play great. Somehow, I managed to get it in. I think we all feel very blessed at the moment to pull this one out." It was a memorable moment for Bryant and the senior tour, which began in 1980 at the Atlantic City Country Club in Atlantic City, N.J. Don January, who won that first tournament, was on hand to congratulate Bryant and hand him the trophy. "We thought there might be a market for us old guys," the 83-year-old January said. "We was just interested in getting enough to make a living. There were a bunch of us guys in our late 40s and early 50s still trying to play the (PGA) tour and wasnt being very successful at it. Yet we felt like we could still play a little bit." The inaugural year consisted of four events. The purse at the Atlantic City Senior International was $125,000 and the total prize money for the season was $475,000. January took home $20,000. Bryant, whose best previous finish this season was a tie for fourth at the 3M Championship in his last start two weeks ago, pocketed $270,000 of the $1.8 million purse. "Truthfully, when we first started we had no idea how long it was going to last, or whether it would even be successful," January said. "We thought we had a pretty good product, but we werent sure of anything. I never thought in that realm of 1,000 tournaments. My god, thats forever. Its come a long way. Hopefully, it will get better." For, Bryant, who won in just his 14th start on the circuit, it was his first victory since winning the 2005 Tour Championship, ending a drought of 7 years, 9 months, 11 days. He also won the 2005 Memorial and the 2004 Valero Texas Open on the PGA Tour. That was before two surgeries on his left wrist relegated him to spectator status for nearly three years and left him wondering if hed ever play again, let alone win. "I dreamed about it. I envisioned it. I dont know if I believed it would happen, especially after I did the first surgery and it failed," Bryant said. "I dont know if I really bought into the belief that it could actually happen this quick." Bryant, who held the largest lead entering the final round of this tournament since its inception in 2007, vowed not to play conservatively because the narrow, tree-lined En-Joie Golf Club course was yielding lots of birdies under near-ideal conditions. Luckily for him, nobody made a winning surge on a day where pin placements made going real low somewhat more difficult. "I just made a lot of pars out there," Bryant said. "For some reason, I just wasnt going today with the putter. I dont know if I got a little nervous. I really struggled. Just lucky that nobody got real hot." The key to going low at En-Joie is to keep the ball in the fairway, and nobody did it better than Bryant over the first two rounds. He was a model of consistency, hitting 10 of 14 fairways each day and reaching all but two greens in regulation. Small wonder he was the only player in the field to avoid making a bogey the first two days. That consistency vanished with Bryants first shot Sunday as he hooked his drive at No. 1 into the left rough. He hit just 4 of 7 fairways and reached only five greens in regulation on the front nine. His errant shots finally caught up to him at the par-3 fourth hole when he overshot the green, pitched back past the hole and over a ridge well past the pin and made bogey. Pavin, alone in second at the start of the day, was unable to make putts that were there for the taking on the front and parred every hole. Four birdies and one bogey on the back side werent enough, his putt for birdie at the closing hole missing by inches. "I just couldnt get anything going," Pavin said. "Hats off to Bart. He made a lot of short putts that he needed to make, which are very hard to make under pressure." Cochran, six shots behind after two rounds, reached 13 under with three birdies in his first seven holes to move into second. He reached 16 under with three more birdies on the back, but bogeyed the closing hole and was left wondering what might have been after Bryant did the same. Bryant finally broke through with birdies at Nos. 8 and 9. He spun his third shot at the par-5 eighth hole to within 2 feet, eliciting a nice cheer from the gallery, and calmly sank a 10-foot putt at No. 9 to go 17 under. "That calmed me down a little bit and gave me a tad of breathing room," Bryant said. "All I really could do was stay patient. I just didnt have much of a game. I dont know if it was the nerves or what. I felt like that was my only chance, to stay patient and not force the issue and hopefully do something at the end to separate myself." He parred the next eight holes before bogeying 18, missing a terrific opportunity after driving to 7 feet at No. 17. "I probably have to get a lot stronger mentally," Bryant said. "Hopefully, this will propel me." Air Max 97 Canada Outlet .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Air Max 97 Canada . Its sharpness matched my mind. This was no night to go to sleep. http://www.airmax97canada.com/ .ca! Kerry, Two nights after the Scott-Eriksson incident in Buffalo, the Bruins returned home to play San Jose. In that game, Zdeno Chara put a check on Tommy Wingels that clearly targeted his head. Buy Air Max 97 Cheap . On Tuesday, Ottawa placed forward Cory Conacher and defenceman Joe Corvo on waivers as trade rumours swirl around the Senators. Air Max 97 Clearance . John Tavares, Thomas Vanek and Kyle Okposo were also being counted on to slow down sizzling Rangers forward Rick Nash. That plan didnt go so well early. SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium - Christian Horner has defended Max Verstappen from criticism after the Belgian Grand Prix, saying the Dutchmans driving was on the edge but within the rules.Verstappen;s driving is the subject of much debate after the race of Spa-Francorchamps, having been involved in a first-corner collision with both Ferraris before a spate of incidents during the race. After the race Kimi Raikkonen suggested Verstappen is only going to reign in his aggression when he has an accident, with the pair again coming to blows at the Les Combes chicane.?Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also weighed into the issue, labelling Verstappens approach?refreshing but dangerous. Red Bull team boss Horner admitted Verstappens driving was on the edge of what was acceptable but pointed out the stewards found no reason to investigate his driving during the race.Speaking about the criticism, Horner said: Im surprised that Totos commenting on something thats got nothing to do with him, but I think it was firm, it was on the edge, he got away with it today, the Stewards were happy with it. So if there were to be an issue or a conflict of any rules Im sure [FIA steward] Danny Sullivans an experienced guy, he would have called them up or [race director] Charlie Whiting would have reported it to the Stewards.There was no action from the Stewards, when he looked back at it, it was on the edge, and obviously he got away with it today. Im sure hell have a look at it and learn for future races.After qualifying second, Verstappen looked best placed to challenge Nicoo Rosberg for the race victory.dddddddddddd. His incident with Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel immediately dropped him out of contention.Horner does not think any one driver was to blame for the collision.When you have three cars going for one place I think Sebastian on the outside squeezed the two too much, he probably didnt realise Max was up the inside and that gave Kimi nowhere to go. I think that one was a racing incident but probably triggered by the fact that Sebastian on the outside came across perhaps a little too aggressively, Max had everything under control he wasnt going to undershoot.You can see that Kimi was aware that he was up the inside into the corner, for Kimi there was nothing he could do, obviously it was a racing incident triggered maybe by the outside car taking quite an aggressive cut into the corner.Asked if Verstappens aggression was a sign of him playing up to the massive Dutch crowd in attendance, Horner said: No not at all, yesterday the strategy point, the preferred strategy from the strategist was to go with the tyre that he took. I opened it up as a choice because the more risk was to try to get through qualifying on the other tyre, he did a great performance in qualifying and an unbelievable lap yesterday. The start wasnt great, he recovered into the first turn, he got chalked... Obviously theres a lot of focus on the move with Kimi, but bar that hes driven very well all weekend. ' ' '
