His fifth-place finish Sunday in the Military Tribute at The Greenbrier tournament in White Sulphur Springs. W.Va., was his best showing in a PGA Tour event since also tying for fifth in the Puerto Rico Open in March 2017. The last time he placed better than fifth was a runner-up at the 2015 Puerto Rico Open.

Saunders — who was using a putter once used by his grandfather, Arnold Palmer — shot rounds of 68-63-67-70 for a 12-under-par 268 total at The Greenbrier. That left him seven strokes behind champion Kevin Na.

The performance was a welcome change for Saunders, who had missed cuts in six of his previous eight official PGA Tour events. It also put him in good position to regain his PGA Tour card for next season by finishing this one in the top 125 in the FedExCup standings (he’s currently 113th).

As for the not-so-good news:

A less-than-stellar stretch run on Sunday not only cost Saunders (pictured) a higher finisher at The Greenbriar, but also a spot in the British Open July 19-22 in Scotland.

Saunders bogeyed the 16th and 17th holes on Sunday to drop spots on the leaderboard. He three-putted for bogey on No. 16, missing a 4-foot par putt. Then on the par-5 17th, Saunders was just in front of the green with his second shot. But he thinned his third over the green and failed to get up and down from there, posting a disappointing bogey.

As it turned out, that last bogey made the difference in not getting into the British Open. The top four finishers at The Greenbrier who didn’t already have a spot at the British Open earned ones on Sunday via the Open qualifying series. Those Open berths went to Kelly Kraft (266), Brandt Snedeker (267), Jason Kokrak (267) and Austin Cook (268). Cook shared fifth place with Saunders — and others — but had the highest world ranking among those who tied for fifth, so he had the tiebreaker to land the final berth.
 

Brandt Jobe has won so much in Colorado over the years, but on the biggest of stages, he’s had to settle for being heart-wrenchingly close.

It happened at the PGA Tour’s International at Castle Pines in 2005, when he led by nine points early in the final round in the modified Stableford format, only to finish second for one of the four times he did on golf’s top tour. And as it turned out, Jobe never did win on the PGA Tour.

Then on Sunday, Jobe, who was back in the state where he lived from 1970 to ’99, was tied for the lead at the U.S. Senior Open with three holes left at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Alas, a bogey on the 15th hole — his only one in the final dozen holes — foiled his chances. The 52-year-old Colorado Golf Hall of Famer shot an even-par 70 on Sunday and tied for fifth place at 1-under 279, two strokes behind champion David Toms.

“It would have been cool” to win in his old home state, Jobe said. “That was my goal. That would have been so cool. Two unbelievable chances (this and the 2005 International). It was out there for me. As well as I was putting — which was crazy because I putted so bad the first two days — but I putted so good the last two days. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. It wasn’t my day.”

Jobe (pictured) has won a Colorado Open, three CGA Match Plays and a CGA Amateur in Colorado, in addition to some state junior titles. And, coincidentally, his first two CGA Match Play victories came at The Broadmoor, on what was then known as the South Course.

And it looked like he might notch another victory at the resort on Sunday, albeit of a much bigger variety. After making numerous par saves and sinking a 35-foot downhill breaker for birdie on No. 8 and a 5-footer at No. 1, Jobe shared the lead on the 15th tee.

There, though, he pulled his 2-iron tee shot into a fairway bunker that was 290 yards out. His next shot finished in the rough short of the green, and after a nice pitch, he missed a 6-foot par putt, taking a bogey. With playing partner Paul Goydos making a birdie on the same hole, Jobe was quickly two behind. And he couldn’t catch up.

“It feels like a lost opportunity,” said Jobe, who has one PGA Tour Champions win, but was looking for his biggest title.

“The 15th hole was my undoing,” he said. “It kind of took me out of it. I hit my 2-iron this week unbelievable. But there I pulled it. I didn’t think it got to the bunker, which would have been alright because I only had a wedge in. It was the worst 2-iron I hit all week, which was surprising.

“They fluffed (the sand in) the bunkers and I had no chance. I was in the middle of the bunker and it should have been at least a decent lie to have a chance. I’ve got nothing. It was either blade it into the grandstands or chunk it down front (so he did the latter). I hit a great chip and hit a good putt but misread it.”

Jobe was trying to become the third player to win the U.S. Senior Open after growing up in Colorado, following Dale Douglass (1986) and Hale Irwin (1998 and 2000).

“There are going to be guys losing sleep over this championship,” FS1 analyst Paul Azinger said, speaking of several contenders.

On the positive side, Jobe notched his seventh top-10 finish in senior majors. He’s been third and fifth in the U.S. Senior Open, second and fourth in the Senior Players, third and eighth in the Senior PGA, and fifth in the Senior British Open.

“At the end of the day, I guess I was maybe fortunate to have a chance because I didn’t play as well as I would have liked to,” said Jobe, who was competing in Colorado for the first time in a dozen years. “Whenever you’re that close, you’ve got to kind of take it. And I didn’t.”

But it was “a great week. I enjoyed it. They did a great job. That was how it should be. It was so hard it drove us crazy. But at the end of the day, good players are going to win.”

Low Am Wilson Matches Giles’ Feat: Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, Calif., became just the second player ever to claim low-amateur honors at both the U.S. Open and the U.S. Senior Open by hitting the mark in the latter on Sunday. He joined Vinny Giles in that elite club after having been the top amateur in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

“He was a great amateur player and to be mentioned in the same light as that, that’s terrific,” Wilson said of Giles. “I haven’t really thought about it. I was really trying to kind of just finish. You can’t get ahead of yourself or bad things could happen real quick. But that’s awesome.”

Wilson finished 31st overall at 10-over-par 290 after a final-round 73. Mike Finster was second among amateurs at 293.

Notable: Among those watching the action again Sunday at The Broadmoor was Broncos general manager John Elway (left, in striped shirt), the honorary chairman of the U.S. Senior Open. … Jerry Kelly, who led after the first three rounds and finished second on Sunday, said his son is attending school in Boulder, at the University of Colorado, and that the family is considering buying a home in the Centennial State. … On a blustery day, only three players shot under par on Sunday — Duffy Waldorf (68), Miguel Angel Jimenez (69) and Paul Broadhurst (69). That’s the fewest in the final round of a U.S. Senior Open since 1991 at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Township, Mich., where there were two.
 

A week after serving as unofficial host of the Arnold Palmer Invitational after his seven-time-major-winning grandfather pass away in September, Saunders tied for fifth Sunday in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open.

He has now posted two top-five finishes in his PGA Tour career, and both of them have come at the Puerto Rico Open. He placed second in a playoff on the island in 2015.

In just three appearances at the Puerto Rico Open, Saunders has earned $318,900, which accounts for more than one-fifth of his career earnings on the PGA Tour.

Saunders went bogey-free for his final 26 holes and shot a 7-under-par 65 on Sunday. That gave him a 17-under-par 271 total, which left him three strokes behind champion D.A. Points.

Sunday marked Saunders’ first top-40 finish on the PGA Tour in the 2016-17 wraparound season.