SNOQUALMIE, Wash. -- The thoughts started sneaking into Tom Kite's head. Maybe after nine Champions Tour titles, two years without a victory and the constant fight with his streaky putter, Kite's winning ways were finished.
Never mind.
Playing flawlessly over the final seven holes Sunday, Kite rallied from a two-shot deficit with three birdies in four holes, surging past Scott Simpson to win his second Boeing Classic championship and 10th career Champions Tour title.
Kite finished two strokes better than Simpson at 14-under after shooting a 6-under 66, capped by a birdie on the 18th hole that clinched his first title since winning at the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge on this weekend two years ago.
"At some point in time in all our careers, we're going to win our last golf tournament and when you win it you obviously don't think that's going to be your last one," Kite said. "When I won this tournament in '06 I thought I was just going to light it up. After two years you start to wonder, 'Am I going to win one?"'
Two years ago Kite needed a playoff to dispatch of Keith Fergus. He avoided the playoff this time by sinking three birdies inside 10 feet on the back nine while Simpson scrambled just to make pars.
Yep, Texas got the best of USC yet again.
"I tackled Tom about as well as (USC) tackled Vince Young," cracked Simpson, a USC grad.
There was little Simpson could do in stopping Kite's charge, which actually began with a clutch bogey putt on 11. Instead of finding himself three back of Simpson, Kite stayed two behind by dropping an 8 1/2-footer that became the catalyst for his run.
Kite birdied No. 12, then avoided the temptation to go for the green on the canyon-crossing 14th, instead playing about 50 yards short of the green and making a 9-footer to draw even with Simpson.
Kite took the lead on 15, playing the long par-5 perfectly and dropping a 7-foot putt to reach 13-under. Two pars preceded his winning birdie on 18.
Even though he wasn't winning, Kite found himself in contention a few times this year. He lost in a playoff at The ACE Group Classic in Florida and fell short playing in the final group on Sunday at the Bank of America Championship in June.
"You try to eliminate those thought, because those thoughts are counterproductive to winning a golf tournament," Kite said. "So you battle through those and keep pushing through those."
