Langer Wins 3M Championship in Blaine

Bernhard Langer rallied to win the 3M Championship for the second time in four years, shooting a 10-under 62 on Sunday to overcome a six-stroke deficit.

The 54-year-old German finished at 18-under 198 at the TPC Twin Cities for his 15th Champions Tour title. He ended a 24-event victory drought, his longest on the 50-and-over tour.

David Peoples, three strokes ahead entering the final round, had it on cruise control much of the day and shot a 70 to finish second - two shots behind. The runner-up finish is his best in 51 starts on the tour.

Kenny Perry and Olin Browne tied for third at 15 under. Perry had a 64, and Browne shot 66.

Langer, also the 2009 event champion, was 5 under on the front nine, added birdies on Nos. 11 and 12 to get within two shots of the lead, and birdied Nos. 14 and 15 to tie Peoples at 17 under.

Moments after Peoples bogeyed No. 16, Langer put his 218-yard approach within 7 feet on the par-5 18th to set up a clinching birdie. It was the largest final-round comeback in the history of the tournament.

Langer joined Hale Irwin as the only multiple winners in the event. Irwin won in 1997, 1999 and 2002.

Peoples, who last won on the PGA Tour at the 1992 Anheuser-Busch Classic, said his goal entering the day with a three-shot lead was to be aggressive and not worry about what other players were doing. To that extent, he rarely looked at the leaderboard.

The 52-year-old Peoples birdied three of the first five holes to open a five-stroke lead, but while he made par on 11 straight holes before the bogey on No. 16, others were closing the gap. Peoples also had a bogey on the par-3 17th before a birdie at 18.

The 67-year-old Irwin shot a 65, the first time he's beaten his age in tournament play. His round included a 171-yard hole-out for eagle on the par-4 ninth hole, something never done in the 12 years the event has been at the TPC Twin Cities. He birdied six straight holes on the back nine, but bogeyed No. 18 after his second shot landed in the water while he tried to lay up. He tied for 50th at 3 under.

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