Steve Stricker’s chase of U.S. Senior Open title had him 2 back after 54 holes, but putting woes in a closing 73 left him 4 back in fourth

Steve Stricker spent the weekend at the U.S. Senior Open Championship chasing Hiroyuki Fujita, a 55-year-old former MVP on the Japan Golf Tour who has taken to Newport Country Club in Rhode Island like someone raised on clam chowder and the Boston Red Sox. With 18 holes remaining and still a two-stroke deficit to erase, however, the Madison golfer knew he would be chasing time Sunday as the 71 golfers left in the field will also be trying to out-run Mother Nature during the final round.

As it turned out, both races were a source of great frustration Sunday and into Monday for Stricker. The 2019 champion didn’t make a birdie after the one he made on the fourth hole Sunday during the start of the final round and made seven pars and a closing bogey Monday when Stricker finished out a 3-over-par 73 and settled for a fourth-place finish at 9-under 271 — four strokes behind Fujita and reigning KitchenAid Senior PGA champion Richard Bland, who battled through a two-hole aggregate playoff with matching pars on Nos. 10 and 18 before Bland nearly holed a bunker shot for birdie on the second hole of sudden death and the fourth hole of a playoff, winning with a par.

Madison’s Jerry Kelly shot a closing 72 to finish T-16 at 3-under 277. Madison’s Mario Tiziani had his best finish in a PGA Tour Champions major, shooting a 4-under 66 in the final round to finish T-22 at 1-under 279.

“A bit disappointing, really, to be quite honest with you,” Stricker said Monday after his third top-four finish in as many U.S. Senior Open starts since winning in 2019 at Notre Dame, Ind. — this close call the result of putting woes in the final round when he ranked T-68 out of 71 golfers in putts per greens hit in regulation (2.0). “Just not doing the things that I need to do to try to win a tournament, or enough to do to win a tournament. I do enough good things, but I’m doing some bad things still on the greens. Just not cleaning the putts up very good at times, silly mistakes. Just, yeah, not very good at times, and that’s what’s costing me.”

And so it went again Monday.

Fujita, unflappable for the first 64 holes before play was suspended Sunday due to bad weather, bogeyed three of the first four holes he played Monday during the resumption of the final round with only a handful of onlookers — mostly “credentialed tournament personnel and guests” due to course conditions — on the grounds at Newport CC. Bland, after bogeyed No. 13, moved into the lead with birdies at Nos. 14 and 15 only to fall into a share of the lead again at No. 18, resulting in a playoff after no one else threatened.

“I never really played all that well all day,” said Stricker, who is winless in 2024 after winning six times in 2023. “(I) had some opportunities when I came back out (Monday). I thought, if I could make four birdies, we could get right in there, and that would have won the tournament.

It was hard out there. The wind came out of a different direction. Finishing holes were pretty good. Yeah, the greens were a bit slower from the rain. You had to adjust again.

That’s kind of what it felt like all week long. You’re just constantly adjusting to conditions out there.”

Stricker, who shot 66-66-66 in the first three rounds, had done his best Saturday to try to turn up the heat on Fujita, who until this weekend had never broken 70 in four PGA Tour Champions start, including a T-52 finish at this year’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship

Stricker matched the leader’s two birdies on Nos. 1 and 6 with two of his own at Nos. 1 and 7, but Fujita moved four strokes in front of Stricker with a birdie at No. 9 to make the turn in 3-under 32. That would prove to be the final birdie of the day for Fujita, who watched Stricker cancel out the birdie he made at No. 12 with a bogey at No. 13 before finishing birdie-birdie-par to stay ahead of Australian Richard Green (69), alone in third at 199, and get within two of Fujita.

“From where Richard and I were (on the green on No. 16 with eagle putts), we had big breaking putts, and the best we could do was mine at about 4 or 5 feet (and) then made that,” said Stricker, the 2019 champion who put a new putter into play this week and used it to send a message at the par-3 17th hole. “(I) hit a nice little punch 6-iron at 17 into the green. Yeah, I’ve been scaring the hole a lot today. I feel good over some long putts. I feel like I’m starting them on my line, and that one happened to find the hole.

“That was an important putt to get another shot closer. Like I said, he’s in control, so we’re going to have to try to catch him, I think.”

The weather could throw another wrinkle in Fujita’s efforts to protect his two-shot advantage. The forecast calls for a 60% chance of rain and scattered thunderstorms with southwest winds between 10 and 20 mph.

“The conditions are supposed to be pretty bad from what I hear,” Fujita said through an interpreter. “I don’t have a lot of distance on my club, so I’m definitely going to be in some tough spots. I’m just going to focus on the fact that I’m playing on the last day in the last group and focus on the fact that I’m lucky to be here.”

Fujita (pronounced HE-ro-you-key fu-JEE-tuh) posted 18 of his 21 victories as a professional on the Japan Golf Tour, where he was the most valuable player in 2010 and 2012 and topped the money list in 2012. His only top-10 finish in 29 career starts in PGA Tour co-sanctioned events came at the 2011 Honda Classic where he finished T-10.

“He’s very consistent, hits it in the fairway, in play, gets it on the green,” Stricker said of the guy he’s chasing. “He’s very consistent, putted the ball really nicely. So we’re going to have to go out and have a good round to try to catch him. It looks like he’s in control of what’s going on with his game and emotion.”

Madison’s Jerry Kelly shot his best round of the week, a 3-under 67, and moved into a tie for eighth place at 5-under 205, nine shots off the pace. Madison’s Mario Tiziani, the only other golfer with Wisconsin ties to make the cut, shot 1-over 71 and moved up nine spots into a tie for 51st at 3-over 213.