CONOVER, N.C. -- Gary Hallberg, playing the best round of his 31-year professional career, rolled home a eight-foot putt Sunday for a course-record 61 to overtake the best of the Champions Tour and win the Ensure Classic at Rock Barn.
The 11-under-par day -- which tied the best closing round in the history of the Champions Tour -- erased a five-shot deficit to Fred Couples, and four shots to Bernhard Langer, the Schwab Cup season points leader who had tied Hallberg for the lead on the back nine but fell two back at the finish.
The victory is Hallberg's first on the Champions Tour and his first win since the 2002 Northeast Pennsylvania Classic on the Nationwide Tour. The $262,500 winning prize also gives him a one-year Champions Tour exemption.
Quite a day for someone who was an alternate and placed a call to the tournament director asking for a spot in the field if it came to it.
"You never think you're going to win ... it's so far out there," Hallberg said. "You can't believe it happened to you. I knew I could win, I've won before. It's really a dream come true."
Couples, who lives just south in Charlotte, birdied Nos. 14-16 and had a chance to force a playoff at the par-5 finishing hole. But his approach went deep into the green, and his unsuccessful up-and-down attempt for birdie spoiled his 51st birthday.
Couples' lead evaporated when he drove into a fairway bunker on No. 12, and his shot out caught the lip, resulting in a bogey. His 23 birdies over three days were five more than anyone in the tournament, but he had six bogeys and a double in that span.
"It's a course I'm going to make a lot of birdies on, but I made a couple too many bogeys, obviously," Couples said.
Hallberg's lightning round tied 61s by Rocky Thompson in 1994 and Loren Roberts in 2006. The day was a payoff of his work with his part-time caddie, swing coach Mike McGetrick.
McGetrick, the 1999 National PGA Teacher of the Year, offered to work intensely with Hallberg and caddie for him to close the Champions Tour season. Along with getting his swing in sync and fine-tuning the chipping and putting, it was a matter of confidence.
"He's helped me to believe in what I'm doing is good enough," said Hallberg, who had won three times in his PGA Tour career.
More help came after Saturday's round, when Nick Price noticed him moving too much in his putting stroke. Hallberg was keeping specifics about the tip to himself, hoping the magic won't wear off.
Like an old football coach once told Hallberg, "if something works for you, don't tell anybody. Don't tell your wife because it'll lose its power. All you need is for that person to go, 'Oh, yea, I tried that. It worked for like a week and it went out the window.' "
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