TOLEDO, OHIO ? The first major championship of Bruce Lietzke’s career came on a day when he couldn’t find the fairway.

Lietzke struggled with his swing throughout the final round of the U.S. Senior Open, but made the four-shot lead he started the day with stand up.

Lietzke’s 2-over-par 73 Sunday was a far cry from his round of 64 Saturday, but it was enough to give him his first major championship in 53 tries. He finished with a 7-under 277, two shots better than Tom Watson, who had an even-par final round.

“It’s not the person who finished second or third, or the strength of the field, it’s did you survive a week on a golf course that tests every part of your game?” Lietzke said. “I’m not sure I feel like a champion as much as a survivor.”

He finished 58th in driving accuracy out of the 60 players who made the cut. However, his short game and iron play turned out to be the difference.

After putting out for a bogey on the closing hole, Lietzke was hugged by his wife, Rose, who had flown up Sunday morning from the family’s home in Dallas to see her husband win on the Champions Tour for the first time. Lietzke collected $470,000 for the win.

Argentina’s Vicente Fernandez, who shot a 64 in the second round and was troubled by back spasms early Sunday, was one shot behind Watson in third at 280.

They were the only golfers in the 156-player tournament to finish below par.

“This is a tough golf course,” Watson said. “I thought 5 under would be a lock-cinch win.”

Bruce Lietzke hits from the sand to the 18th green. Lietzke took a bogey on the final hole, but won the U.S. Senior Open by two shots over Tom Watson Sunday in Toledo, Ohio.

Watson, the first-round leader after a 65, never made a serious charge against his playing partner. Lietzke all but ended any chance for Watson when he rolled in a 7-foot eagle putt on the par-5 eighth hole to expand his lead to six shots.

“Bruce’s nickname was perfect today: Leaky,” Watson said. “He was leaking oil and smoke, blowing that blue smoke out of the pipes, but that engine just kept running. I think he finishing on just two pistons.”

Lietzke, 51, won for the seventh time since joining the senior circuit in 2001. He had 13 wins on the PGA Tour. He tied for third behind John Jacobs earlier this year at the Senior PGA Championship, the tour’s first major of the year.

In 52 previous starts in major championships — five as a senior and the rest while on the PGA Tour — Lietzke’s best finish was a second to John Daly at the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick. His best previous finish in an Open was a tie for 17th at Merion in 1981.

“The happiness comes from winning on a golf course as grueling and punishing as this,” Lietzke said.

Almost everyone in the field said that the only way to win at Inverness Club was to keep the ball in the fairway to have a shot at hitting the tiny Donald Ross-designed greens.

Almost everyone was wrong. Lietzke, known as one of the longest drivers on tour, hit just seven of a possible 15 fairways when he took the lead Saturday and managed to find the short grass on only five fairways Sunday.

After Watson had drawn within three shots with three holes remaining, Lietzke picked up a birdie at No. 16 — again after hitting his approach out of the thick steel-wool rough short of the green.

That made Lietzke’s bogeys on the final two holes meaningless.

Tom Watson reacts after missing a birdie attempt on the 18th hole in his runner-up finish at the U.S. Senior Open. Bruce Lietzke clipped Watson by two strokes at the event, which concluded Sunday at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

Watson was the gallery’s favorite, in large part because of caddie Bruce Edwards’ struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease. As Watson and Edwards trudged the course in the same grouping with Lietzke, there were shouts of “Go Bruce!” It was difficult to tell which Bruce was being encouraged.

Lietzke is known for his high fade, but hit a draw on two big shots to clinch the win. One was his 5 iron on the eighth hole and the other was a low hook he had to hit to reach the green from deep rough and behind trees at No. 14.

“Two hooks won the 2003 U.S. Senior Open for me,” Lietzke said. “Those are words I didn’t think I’d ever say.”

It was at the 554-yard eighth that Lietzke took control. Both players hit driver on the longest hole on the course. Lietzke’s high fade ended up a few feet in front of Watson’s ball, and both players were more than 360 yards off the tee.

Watson hit first and found the bunker short and left of the green, but Lietzke’s 5-iron approach landed on the green and rolled just past the pin, ending up about 7 feet away. Lietzke pulled out his long putter and drained the eagle putt. Watson then missed a 6 1/2-foot birdie putt as the lead jumped to six strokes.

The rest was academic, with no one challenging from back in the pack and Watson unable to make putts as he had in the opening round at the U.S. Open at Olympia Fields two weeks ago, and again in Thursday’s first round.

“The opportunity was there today,” Watson said. “I didn’t do my job and Bruce did his job. I’m not going to cry about that.”