Once Again, a Playoff Pays Off for Hill : Senior golf: He birdies first extra hole to defeat Colbert and Aaron at the Vintage.

INDIAN WELLS —  Maybe they should call him Iron Mike Hill--not for his durability but for his nerves under pressure.

When there’s a playoff and Hill’s involved, he wins it.

Hill made a four-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday at the Vintage Club to defeat Jim Colbert and Tommy Aaron for his 11th Senior PGA Tour victory. He’s 4-0 in playoffs.

Hill, Colbert and Aaron all finished 13 under par. The 203 total for 54 holes over the 6,900-yard Mountain Course was a record.

The finish was the most exciting of the 12 tournaments held at the Vintage Club and a fitting end to one of the original tournaments for the 50-and-older group.

Aaron entered the final round with a three-shot lead over Hill after shooting successive rounds of seven-under-par 65. Lee Trevino and Colbert were six strokes behind at 136.

Aaron faltered as early as the first hole, lost three shots to par and let a host of golfers back into the running.

Colbert eagled No. 9 to get into the race and Trevino was even tied for the lead briefly. But when Aaron sank a 20-footer on the 18th for a birdie and Hill and Colbert missed shorter, curving putts, the three went to No. 15, a 526-yard par-five that had been the easiest hole on the course until Sunday, when the wind shifted.

Colbert and Aaron hit drives into the right rough and had to lay up. Hill drove into the left rough and went for the green, but wound up in the hillside rough 30 yards from the hole.

Colbert approached to 18 feet right, and Aaron was 40 feet away. Hill hit a ball that appeared short, but it kept rolling to within four feet. Colbert and Aaron missed, and Hill finished it off.

“I was lucky,” he said. “If the ball goes a bit farther in the air, it rolls to the back of the green. I sure didn’t want to play 16. That (hole) beat me two years in a row.”

Hill was runner-up the two previous years at the Vintage.

Hill’s victory was no fluke. He was the money champion last year and runner-up in 1990.

“It’s no surprise Mike won it,” Colbert said. “He’s been the best player out here for the last two years. If there is anyone tougher to beat, I don’t ever want to meet him.”

The top contenders seemed to be feeling the pressure at the start, hitting their approaches over the green.

Aaron flubbed his, didn’t make the green and had his first bogey. On the third hole, Hill made a 10-foot putt to save par and Aaron missed his birdie try.

Trevino, made a 17-footer for an eagle on No. 9 for a four-under 32 on the front nine. Playing one hole ahead of the Aaron group, he led, 12 under to 11 under, when Aaron bogeyed 10 and 11.

Aaron then made his best move of the day with back-to-back birdies. But another bogey at 16 put him behind again.

“I thought I had won it with my putt on 18,” Hill said. “Three feet from the hole I felt sure if it got there it was in. I don’t know how it missed.

“But for the playoff, I told myself to go after it.”

Hill finished with a 70 for the day and won $75,000. Aaron (73) and Colbert (67) each won $41,000.