With a playoff looming, Bruce Fleisher shot 2-under-par 68 in the fourth round, including a finish of 12 straight pars, to post an even-par total of 280 to win the 2001 U.S. Senior Open Championship at weather-hassled Salem Country Club in Peabody, Mass.

Playing in Sundays third-to-last group with Hale Irwin and Bob Gilder and starting four shots out of the lead held by Japan's Isao Aoki at 2-under-par, Fleisher two-putted from 18 feet on the 72nd hole for par. At that time, he shared the lead with three other players who were still on the course.

"It was 18 feet but it looked like 100 feet because it was all downhill," said Fleisher of his birdie putt on the 72nd hole.

Dave Stockton joined Fleisher as the only player to hit all 14 fairways in the final round on Salem's 6,709-yard Donald Ross-designed layout.  Fleisher finished the week as the second-most accurate driver, hitting 84 percent of the fairways.

Following his steady round, Fleisher waited anxiously and watched, first by a television inside the clubhouse and then, as the leaderboard changed at a very quick pace, on a hillside adjacent to the 18th green. Joined by his wife, Wendy, he overlooked the proceedings until his posted number became unreachable.

"I ran into Gary Player before the round," said Fleisher. "He said: 'Bruce, this is your day. This is your time. You can take this thing. All you've got to do is focus, believe in yourself. You've had a wonderful year already.  There's really no reason why you can't pull this off.' "

During the final round's last nine holes, five other players, third-round leader Aoki, Jim Colbert, Gil Morgan, Larry Nelson and Jack Nicklaus, were tied for the lead at even par. Eight players were within two strokes of the lead.

But Colbert assumed the lead by himself when he holed a bunker shot for birdie on the par-3 15th to reach 1-under.

One by one, however, each of Fleisher's contenders slipped above par.

First, Jack Nicklaus, who thrilled fans with a birdie on the par-5 14th to tie for the lead with four holes to play, bogeyed the 15th and 16th holes to derail his charge.

Then, second- and third-round leader Aoki bogeyed the 17th with a three-putt. Aoki shared runner-up honors with Morgan at 1-over-par 281, who was even par on the 18th tee, but made bogey by overshooting the steeply-banked green.

 The final remaining challenger, Colbert, gave back his birdie from the 15th on the 16th with a bogey and came to the 72nd hole tied with Fleisher at even par. However, a pulled second shot led to a double bogey. Colbert finished tied for fourth at 2-over 282 with Allen Doyle and Nicklaus.

Fleisher, who needed to finish six holes from the third round on Sunday morning and bogeyed the 18th for a 2-over-par 72, made his move quickly in the final round by making birdies on holes No. 2 and 3.  He bogeyed the 5th and birdied the 6th to settle into his eventual winning position at even par.

The winner of the 1968 U.S. Amateur, he is joined by Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as the only players to win both a Senior Open and an Amateur title.

 Fleisher's 33 years between USGA championships is a record. Marlene Streit (1956 U.S. Women's Amateur and 1985 USGA Senior Women's Amateur) had held the mark at 29 years.

"I will come off this high shortly," he said of winning his second USGA title. "It's something that I will remember for a long time. I won on a very difficult golf course playing with the best the game has got to offer in years past. It's something to be very proud of."

The runner-up at the 2000 U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa., Fleisher becomes the third player to win the next year, joining Gary Player (1987) and Nicklaus (1991).

Fleisher was the only golfer to break par the first day, as he held the lead after Thursday's round with a 69. Aoki edged past him heading into the weekend, with a 1-under total of 139 for 36 holes. He slipped to even par before Saturday's rain delay, but birdied two of his remaining five holes in completing his third round on Sunday morning to regain the third-round lead with at 2-under.

Defending champion Hale Irwin birdied the tough 18th hole two of the first three days to stay in contention at 2-over-par through 54 holes.

Jim Thorpe rebounded after an opening 77 to post one of the week's best efforts, a 5-under 65 on Friday. And, Tom Kite had a strange 40-30-70 round on Friday that kept him in contention for the weekend. Five-time USGA champion Jay Sigel made a dramatic move on Saturday morning with a championship-best 6-under-par 64 to earn a top 10 spot through 54 holes.

The third round was resumed at 6:57 a.m. on Sunday because a violent thunder and lightning storm rolled through Boston's North Shore on Saturday and left 14 players with incomplete rounds. Following completion of the third round at 7:57 a.m. Sunday, the final round began at 9:15 a.m. with players starting on the No.1 and No.10 tees, in groups of three, to finish ahead of another stretch of predicted bad weather. The Sunday storm did not arrive until Fleisher was conducting his post-round news conference.