Morgan’s Steady Play Leads To Tradition Victory

Golf

If Gil Morgan’s nerves were ragged in the final round of the Tradition, his game was smooth.

Morgan set out determined to protect a five-shot lead with conservative play. Seventeen holes later, he still had four shots on Isao Aoki, and finished in style by scoring an eagle on the final hole to beat Aoki by six and claim his first major championship.

“I’ve always felt like demons could come out, you know,” he said. “Even though I had a five- or six-shot lead throughout the day, all you had to do was make double bogey and have someone make birdie. Do that a couple of times, and you’re back to Square One.”

It never happened. In his first appearance in the senior tour’s version of the Masters, Morgan played the narrow, angular Cochise Course at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz., like a second home.

His final-round, 5-under-par 67 helped set a tournament record at 22-under 266. He had the best score or tied for it each day. Morgan played the last 33 rounds without a bogey and had only three in 72 holes.

Aoki, who lost to Jack Nicklaus in a playoff in the 1995 Tradition, shot 68 for 272 to finish two strokes ahead of John Jacobs.

Below them was a gap, evidence of the problems others had in three days of rain, cold and, when the sun came out, strong breezes.

PGA

Brad Faxon believes in the old saying - a person who can putt can play with anyone.

On Sunday he proved that the person who can putt can beat everyone, winning the $1.5 million Freeport-McDermott Classic at New Orleans with a 16-under-par 272 after a closing 3-under 69.

Faxon, the top putter on the tour last year, used just 101 putts in four rounds to pick up his first victory since the 1992 International.

Faxon, who last season set a PGA Tour record for most money won without a victory - $1,055,050 - bogeyed the final hole, missing a putt by inches. But it didn’t matter. Just prior to Faxon’s putt, a shirtless spectator ran across the green and jumped into the lake beside it.

Bill Glasson and Jesper Parnevik tied for second at 275.

Defending champion Scott McCarron, who had a share of the lead for the first two rounds, tied for fourth at 276 with former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett. Russ Cochran was next at 277.

LPGA

Reigning U.S. Women’s Open titlist Annika Sorenstam parred the second playoff hole and continued her mastery of the LPGA Tour this season with a one-stroke victory over unheralded Pamela Kometani at the Longs Drugs Classic at Lincoln, Calif.

Sorenstam claimed her third tournament of the season and the ninth of her career after shooting a final-round 1-over-par 73.

Kometani, who had never finished higher than a 27th-place tie in her three-year career, shot a final-round 70. She moved into a tie for the lead with Sorenstam after sinking a 5-foot birdie on the 17th hole.