GOLF ROUNDUP : Azinger on Target in Victory

Paul Azinger, hitting his shots with precision, fired a three-under-par 68 Sunday to win the New England Classic by four strokes.

His total of 16-under 268 for the four rounds at Sutton, Mass., was one shot off the tournament record set in 1985 by George Burns.

Azinger birdied the three par-fives over the 7,110-yard Pleasant Valley Country Club course and parred everything else. He missed only the first green and hit every fairway but one off the tee. He played 18 holes without a five on his card.

“I hit it great. I just stayed aggressive,” Azinger said. “I hit it pin-high to a good majority of the back pin placements.”

Azinger won $180,000 to pass $1 million in winnings for the year, second overall on the PGA Tour to Nick Price. It was his second victory of the year, the other coming in June at the Memorial Tournament.

Sharing second place at 12 under were Jay Delsing and 1991 tournament champion Bruce Fleisher.

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George Archer shot a record-tying eight-under-par 63 to force a playoff, then parred the third extra hole to beat Jim Colbert and win the Senior PGA Tour’s First of America Classic at Grand Rapids, Mich.

Archer, 53, also won last week’s rain-shortened Ameritech Senior Open.

Archer and Chi Chi Rodriguez matched Billy Casper’s course record to finish at 14-under 199.

Colbert also finished at 199 after a closing 67 on the 6,419-yard The Highlands course.

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Thirty years after winning the British Open on the same course, New Zealander Bob Charles claimed the seniors’ version with a birdie at the final hole.

Charles shot a 74, three-over-par at the Lytham and St. Annes course in England, in rainy and windy conditions to finish four rounds at seven-over 291, one ahead of Gary Player and Englishman Tommy Horton.