NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Richard Bland shot a 4-under 66 in the final round of the U.S. Senior Open, catching leader Hiroyuki Fujita after rain postponed the finish to Monday morning and then banging a chip shot off the pin to beat him on the fourth playoff hole and win his second straight senior major.
The Senior PGA champion gained five shots on Fujita in the final round, which was delayed by thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon with eight holes remaining. When the golfers returned to the par-70, 7,024-yard Newport Country Club on Monday, Fujita’s consistency — he hit 38 straight fairways in regulation before the rain delay — had abandoned him.
After both posted 13 under in regulation and matched scores in a two-hole, aggregate playoff and the first hole of sudden death, the golfers returned to the par-4, 466-yard 18th hole for the fourth time of the day. Bland's shot from a greenside bunker caught the pin and settled two inches from the cup; Fujita missed a 25-footer to prolong the tournament, and Bland tapped in to claim his second senior major in as many tries.
“To get this one as well, to go two for two, is beyond my wildest dreams," said Bland, who won the Senior PGA at Harbor Shores last month. "I was just hoping going into the PGA that I was good enough to contend; I hadn’t played against these guys. But to be here with two majors — I’m at a loss for words at the moment."
Richard Green shot 71 and finished third, one stroke ahead of Steve Stricker. The 2019 champion and the runner-up in each of the last two years, Stricker shot 66 in each of the first three rounds but turned in a 73 in the fourth, making a bogey on the 72nd hole that dropped him into sole possession of fourth place.
Fujita had at least a share of the lead since shooting 63 in the opening round and he protected it with an unprecedented consistency: He hit 54 of 56 fairways in regulation — the most ever in a U.S. Senior Open. He returned to the course wearing the same-style shirt he had on Thursday, but everything else had changed.
The 5-foot-6 two-time MVP on the Japanese tour hit his very first shot on Monday morning into the rough, making bogeys on three of the first four holes after play resumed. Bland, who started the final round five strokes behind and still trailed by three when they returned after the delay, took the lead with birdies on Nos. 14 and 15 and went to the 72nd hole with a chance to win in regulation.
But he drove his tee shot into a fairway bunker that wouldn’t even be in play if not for the stiff wind coming in from the sailing hotbed of Narragansett Bay. He made bogey, and when Fujita finished with a 71 they were were both at 13 under through 72 holes.
“We were chasing him all week. He had the lead pretty much wire-to-wire,” Bland said. “I made a great birdie on 15 to go one in front but kind of tripped over myself on the last.”
Bland would have more chances at the par-4, 466-yard 18th hole.
Three more, to be precise.
After both men went par-bogey on Nos. 10 and 18 in the two-hole playoff, they went back to the 18th tee; they would keep returning until it was settled. On their fourth hole, Bland put his approach into a greenside bunker but then saved par. Fujita rolled his last chance just inside the coin Bland had placed as a marker.
“I started the day with a three-shot lead. I didn’t play my best and got into a playoff,” Fujita said. “I definitely still played well, and I put together a good performance. It would have been better if I won. It’s a little disappointing I lost. However, I’m proud of myself.”
A member of the Saudi-funded LIV tour, Bland didn’t win on the European tour until his 478th start, at the age of 48. He only earned a spot in the U.S. Senior Open by winning the Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores last month. He only got his spot in that one by winning the 2021 British Masters.
Now he is the third golfer to win his first two starts in senior majors, along with Arnold Palmer and Alex Cejka. He also joins 1995 U.S. Amateur champion Tiger Woods and 2006 U.S. Women’s Open winner Annika Sorenstam with a victory at Newport, one of the five founding members of the USGA.
“To be in that bracket, I’m probably doing a little disservice, to be honest with you,” Bland said. “To be in that kind of bracket is very, very special and something you can only dream of.”
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Frank Bensel, center, plays on the 18th green in front of the Newport Country Club clubhouse during the second round of the U.S. Senior Open golf tournament in Newport, R.I., Friday, June 28, 2024. Bensel turned up a pair of aces back-to-back holes. (AP Photo/Chris Lehourites)
Rain falls on the clubhouse at Newport Country Club, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Newport, R.I., during the U.S. Senior Open golf tournament. The final round was suspended due to the rain. (AP Photo/Chris Lehourites)
The clubhouse at the Newport Country Club is visible Friday, June 28, 2024, behind a sign for the U.S. Senior Open which is being played June 27-30 in Newport, R.I. (AP Photo/Jimmy Golen)
PHOENIX (AP) — Organizers of competing abortion measures in Nebraska said Wednesday that they collected enough signatures to get on the November ballot.
Officials with Protect Our Rights, which seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, said they turned in 207,000 signatures to the Nebraska secretary of state’s office.
SBA Pro-Life America says 205,000 signatures have been submitted to enshrine Nebraska's current 12-week ban into the state constitution.
The secretary of state's office will go through the process of validating that each signature belongs to a registered voter in Nebraska over the next several weeks.
Petition initiatives seeking a constitutional amendment must collect enough signatures to equal 10% of registered voters in the state, or about 123,000. Additionally, 5% of the signatures must come from 38 of the state’s 93 counties — a requirement adopted years ago to ensure rural voters have some say in the petition process.
Organizers of the competing efforts have accused each other of misleading voters about the scope of their petitions in an effort to gather as many signatures as possible.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona abortion-rights supporters on Wednesday turned in more than double the signatures needed to put the issue on November’s ballot in the key swing state.
Organizers say they submitted 823,685 signatures, far above the 383,923 required from registered voters. The measure would add an amendment to the state constitution providing a fundamental right to an abortion.
County election officials have until Aug. 22 to verify whether enough of the petition signatures are valid and provide results to the Arizona secretary of state’s office.
Democrats have made abortion rights a central message since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and it is a key part of their efforts in this year’s elections. Activists in Nebraska and Arkansas also are planning to submit signatures this week for abortion ballot measures. In five other states, the issue already is set to go before voters this year: Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota.
Arizona currently has a 15-week abortion ban. The proposed amendment would allow abortions until a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions to save the mother’s life or to protect her physical or mental health. It would restrict the state from adopting or enforcing any law that would prohibit access to the procedure.
Opponents say it goes too far and could lead to unlimited and unregulated abortions in Arizona. Supporters say a change in the state’s constitution is necessary to ensure that abortion rights cannot be easily erased by a court decision or legislative vote.
Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition that includes the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and Planned Parenthood of Arizona, turned in hundreds of boxes of signed petitions to the secretary of state's office.
Arizona for Abortion Access spokesperson Dawn Penich said it was the most signatures ever submitted for a citizens initiative in state history.
“That was our goal from the get-go,” Penich said. “We started collecting signatures in September and October 2023 and saw how passionate people are about this issue.”
In April, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a 1864 abortion ban that permitted abortions only to save the mother’s life and provided no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest, but the Republican-controlled Legislature voted for a repeal of the Civil War-era ban, and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs quickly signed. The 19th century law had been blocked since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that eliminated constitutional protections for abortion.
The current 15-week ban was signed into law in 2022 and includes exceptions in cases of medical emergencies and has restrictions on medication abortion. It also requires an ultrasound before an abortion is done, as well as parental consent for minors.
In Nebraska, organizers of a petition to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution have expressed confidence that they’ve gathered enough signatures to get it on the November ballot.
Allie Berry, campaign manager for Protect Our Rights, and organizers of a competing petition effort to codify Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban in the state constitution would not say how many signatures they had gathered ahead of Wednesday’s deadline.
Both efforts, as well as a third that would ban abortion at all stages by deeming embryos as people, must turn in around 123,000 valid signatures — or 10% of registered voters in the state — to qualify for the ballot.
The total abortion ban effort in Nebraska started only eight weeks ago and is unlikely to gather the signatures it needs. The 12-week ban proposal — which kicked off in March thanks to a $500,000 donation from Nebraska Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts — has made a furious 11th-hour push to gather signatures but has telegraphed that it might not meet the threshold.
Supporters of an Arkansas proposal to scale back the state’s abortion ban face a Friday deadline to submit petitions to qualify for the November ballot. The group behind the measure, Arkansans for Limited Government, said on Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday that it still needed 8,200 signatures out of the 90,704 required.
The proposed constitutional amendment would prohibit the state from banning abortion within the first 18 weeks of pregnancy. It includes exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies and to protect the mother's life. It would also exempt abortions performed to protect the mother from a physical disorder, physical illness or physical injury.
Arkansas' current ban exempts abortions only to protect the mother’s life in a medical emergency.
Associated Press reporters Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected to reflect that the Arizona Supreme Court decision upholding the 1864 abortion ban was in April, not two months ago.
FILE - Hundreds of people gather at the Nebraska Capitol to protest against a proposed abortion ban, in Lincoln, on May 16, 2023. Organizers of competing petition efforts seeking to squelch or expand abortion access are looking to gather enough signatures before the early July 2024, deadline to make the November ballot. (AP Photo/Margery Beck, File)
FILE - Protesters chant, "one vote to save our lives," as they are heard in the legislative chamber during a final reading on LB574, the Let Them Grow Act, on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. Organizers of competing petition efforts seeking to squelch or expand abortion access are looking to gather enough signatures before the early July 2024, deadline to make the November ballot. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
FILE - Protesters join thousands marching around the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix, protesting the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, June 24, 2022. Abortion rights advocates are set to deliver about 800,000 petition signatures Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in hopes of getting abortion rights on the November general election ballot. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - Volunteer signature gatherers Judy Robbins, left, and Lara Cerri, center, collect Grace Harders' signature on a petition to enshrine the right to abortion in Arizona's consitution, April 10, 2024, in Phoenix. Abortion rights advocates are set to deliver about 800,000 petition signatures Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in hopes of getting abortion rights on the November general election ballot. (AP Photo/Anita Snow, File)
