Kite’s 62 Not Quite Enough : Golf: Price wins PGA Grand Slam when U.S. Open champion bogeys first playoff hole.

LA QUINTA —  Tom Kite made a remarkable comeback Wednesday in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at the Jack Nicklaus Resort Course.

Kite shot a 10-under par 62 and came within four inches of making a double eagle on the 11th hole.

However, he didn’t win.

Nick Price made a par on the first playoff hole, with Kite getting a bogey.

So Kite, the U.S. Open champion, who was five strokes behind Price at the outset of the final round of the 36-hole, $1-million tournament, can only shake his head at what might have been.

“You don’t expect to see a round like this on a Nicklaus course,” Kite said. “You have to hit a lot of just perfect shots or you’re dead, and I had a lot of just perfect ones.”

Fred Couples and Nick Faldo never seriously challenged Price and Kite in a match featuring the winners of the four major tournaments this year.

Couples was 71-71-142 for the two-day tournament, and Faldo was 72-71-143. Price was 70-67-137.

Price, the PGA champion, is on a roll. He has now won three tournaments in the last four weeks--the Texas Open, Air New Zealand and the PGA Grand Slam. Moreover, he won all of them in playoffs.

“It has been a dream year for me,” said Price, 34, who was born in South Africa and now lives in Orlando, Fla.

Price said he has been on the edge of getting into bonus events, such as the PGA Grand Slam. “They’re so much fun,” he said.

They are also rewarding financially as Price got $400,000 for winning, his largest first-place check.

As for Wednesday’s round, Price said: “I was just trying to hang in there while he (Kite) was making all those eagles and birdies.”

Kite actually had only one eagle, but he had 10 birdies along with two bogeys in regulation play. He also left birdie putts inches short on the sixth and 13th holes.

However, it was the par-four, 401-yard first hole, the first playoff hole, that was his undoing. He bogeyed the hole three times.

The last bogey in the playoff baffled him. Kite’s drive found the left rough, and he hit an eight-iron for his second shot.

“I was just drooling,” he said. “I thought the ball would stop six to seven feet from the hole and it went into the back bunker. It was ludicrous.”

Price’s drive found the fairway, and his second shot was 18 feet from the cup. He two-putted for his par, and Kite made bogey from the bunker.

Kite surged to a two-shot lead over Price after 15 holes. Kite got a par on the par-four 16th hole--and Price made his move. He made a birdie putt estimated at 45 feet to close to within one shot of the lead.

Kite got a bogey at the par-three 17th hole and Price made his par. So they went to the par-four, 458-yard 18th hole tied for the lead.

Price’s drive was in the fairway, but Kite’s tee shot landed in a bunker bordering a lake.

Kite hit a five-iron that carried over the lake and onto the green about 12 feet from the cup. Price’s second shot was also on the green, a few feet farther from the hole.

“My heart was beating so hard,” Price said. “I knew I had to make that putt. There is nothing more exciting when putting knowing that you have to make it.”

And make it he did. Kite then drained his putt for a matching birdie to force a playoff.

Price was asked if he had any notion that anyone would shoot as low a round as Kite did.

“I knew someone was going to shoot a 63 or 64,” he said. “Every green out there looks like a billiard table. There are no spike marks on it. We were just watching an exhibition out there with Kite.”