Were you not entertained?

David Toms walks away from The Broadmoor with his name engraved on the U.S. Senior Open trophy. Everyone leaves with memories of an absolute spectacle – sports drama at its finest.

Five players shared the lead on a Sunday back nine at this senior major. Four players sat atop the leaderboard at various times. Paul Goydos went from first to fifth, and that was just after he arrived at the No. 17 green.

This tournament could have gone so many ways. And it did.

It wasn’t until Toms birdied on No. 16 – this coming at 6:06 p.m. with shadows lengthening on a postcard evening at the base of Cheyenne Mountain – that the rapt crowd of 31,000 on the East Course had any inkling as to how this would finish.

“You try to stay in the moment,” Toms said. “But you’ve got to figure even if you’re tired, what’s the worst thing that’s going to happen? You’re going to get in a playoff with a bunch of guys.”

No, the worst thing that could happen eventually and inevitably did – this thing ended.

It wasn’t just the spectacular shots at gut-check times, though those were numerous. Toms needed a 20-footer on No. 17 to register the sand save of the tournament. Miguel Angel Jimenez buried an 11-foot putt on No. 18 to enter the clubhouse in a tie for the lead. Tim Petrovic stuck his second shot within 8 feet on the same hole to make birdie and post a score he thought might be enough for a playoff.

Ultimately, Jimenez, Petrovic and Jerry Kelly tied at 2-under after Toms nervously finished this with a 2-footer on 18 that moved so much he will be eternally grateful it wasn’t from 2 1/2 feet.

No the shots simply provided the action. It was the setting – and the unknown – that magnified it into full-fledged drama.

Petrovic walked off the 18th green in the second-to-last pairing entirely unaware of where he stood. And the throng of fans around the green also had no idea, particularly those whose view of the manual leaderboard was obstructed by the 100-year-old trees on this masterpiece of sod and sand. Cell phones churned their wheels as this bursting Sunday congregation ate all available data, making updates impossible to find. Strangers desperately sought information from each other, but nobody could relay anything with certainty.

Then a roar came from No. 17. Most assumed it was Kelly making a charge again to take the lead he held after the first, second and third rounds.

Everybody wanted to know. Everybody was engaged. It was interactive, and it was beautiful even to those in contention who ultimately missed out on the $720,000 paycheck that Toms will deposit.

The three tied for second instead take home $297,439 apiece.

“It’s fun to go through it all. It really is,” Kelly said. “Painful. But fun.”

Kelly didn’t go down without a fight. Because of course he didn’t. Even after pushing his drive into the rough on No. 18 he was able to give himself an uphill look at birdie from the fringe. It stopped about 6 inches short.

Aren’t these tournaments supposed to end like this, on the final five holes? Toms played that stretch at 1-under. His biggest adversaries through most of the week – Kelly and Petrovic – played it at even-par. One stroke was all it took.

“You’ve got to make the big putt at the right time,” Petrovic said, recalling the Toms putt on No. 17 that turned the tournament. “And he did.”

Sitting with a medal around his neck, the 51-year-old Toms reflected on his performance. Even with a career portfolio that includes 13 PGA Tour victories, the 2001 PGA Championship and a win in Colorado at The International in 1999 at Castle Pines, this one clearly packed some competitive, entertaining punch.

“I’m shaking,” he said. “It was just so hard.

“I’m just glad I got it done.”

So long, Senior Open. The bar for 2025 has been set.