GOLF ROUNDUP : Purtzer Recovers to Take Akron Playoff

Tom Purtzer let victory escape him in regulation but secured it in a playoff Sunday in the World Series of Golf at Akron, Ohio.

Purtzer’s two-putt par on the second hole of a playoff defeated Davis Love III and Jim Gallagher and made Purtzer only the fourth double-winner of the year on the PGA Tour.

The victory, the fifth of his 17-year career, was worth $216,000 and, more important, provided him a 10-year exemption from qualifying.

“That’s big,” Purtzer, 39, said. “It takes me right up to the senior tour.”

Purtzer, Gallagher and Love finished regulation play with scores of 279, one under par on the difficult Firestone course and the highest winning score in the history of the tournament.

Gallagher and Love had to make back-nine rallies to catch a suddenly faltering Purtzer and force the playoff. Each made up three shots over the last four holes and finished with a 69. Love had to make a 10-foot putt on the 72nd hole to make the playoff.

All parred the first extra hole, the 17th.

On the 464-yard 18th, Gallagher and Love drove into trouble, and Purtzer was down the middle with his tee shot.

From the rough near the adjacent 10th fairway, Gallagher played back over spruce trees to the rough, left and short of the 18th green. “I had no chance,” he said.

From the left rough, Love hooked his approach around a tree and through the green into more rough.

With both opponents off the green in two, Purtzer lofted a nine-iron shot about 10 feet behind the hole.

Both Love and Gallagher were outside Purtzer with their third shots and when they missed putts of about 15 and 12 feet, Purtzer had only to two-putt for the victory.

Martha Nause capped a six-shot comeback by holing out a 107-yard wedge shot for eagle on the 18th hole to win the LPGA Shootout at Oak Brook, Ill.

She played the final four holes in five-under for a course record-tying seven-under 65 to beat Kris Monaghan by a stroke after starting the day five shots behind Monaghan.

Nause, who grew up in Sheboygan, Wis., had been so relaxed she drove to Milwaukee after Saturday’s round to watch the Green Bay Packers in an exhibition game.

“I didn’t get back here until midnight,” Nause said.

Apparently she didn’t need the rest. It was Nause’s second victory in 14 years on tour. Her 13-under-par 275 was worth $63,750.

Lee Trevino’s putter and patience combined for a three-under-par 69 and a four-shot victory over defending champion Chi Chi Rodriguez and Jim O’Hern in the Sunwest Bank Senior Classic at Albuquerque, N.M.

Trevino, coming off a two-week rest, scored his first victory since March by shooting a tournament-record 16-under-par 200 for 54 holes on the par-72, 6,722-yard Four Hills Country Club course.

Rodriguez, with a final-round 67, and O’Hern, with a 65, were at 204.

Trevino, who began the day two shots ahead of Don January, allowed one challenger after another to make a run by parring the first 10 holes. Trevino birdied three of the next four holes to maintain control.

“I tried to be patient on the front side and not panic,” said Trevino, who hit a four-iron off the tee more often than the driver throughout the tournament. “I knew I’d have to make birdies sooner or later.”