TOLEDO, Ohio — Back when he was just another kid with big dreams and not so much game, Olin Browne and his then-girlfriend used to go to a hardscrabble par-3 course nearby and imagine what it would be like to win a national championship.

Now Browne and his wife, Pam, know.

Browne, 52, captured the biggest victory of his life Sunday, holding off Mark O’Meara down the stretch to win the U.S. Senior Open by three strokes.

“This goes back a long way for us,” Browne said of the aspirations he and Pam had first considered some 30 years ago.

Avoiding major mistakes, Browne had pars on the first seven holes.

“I guess from the middle of the back nine on it became a match-play situation, and I’ve got zero experience in match play,” Browne said, chuckling about his 0-1 record in head-to-head competition. “The bottom line is minimize your mistakes, maximize your effort, and that’s all you can do.”

After Browne rolled in an anticlimactic 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole to touch off a loud roar from the large gallery ringing the green, the usually stoic Browne raised his arms in triumph.