Klein’s Call Is News of 1st Victory

Emilee Klein called home, as usual. She said the same thing she usually does.

“I said, ‘Oh, I did OK,’ ” she said.

“My dad said, ‘You did?’ ”

It’s the same thing after every round, but on Sunday’s call, she added a little extra for the first time since joining the LPGA Tour.

“I said, ‘Yeah, I made everything. I shot 65. I won,’ ” said Klein after her seven-under-par score gave her a 15-under 273 finish, two strokes better than the field in the Ping Welch’s Championship in Canton, Mass.

There was trouble at the other end of the phone line.

“I have to call them back later,” Klein said. “They couldn’t call back because they were crying.”

Facing a two-stroke deficit to start the day, Klein was one shot off the course record with a nine-birdie, two-bogey closing round on the Blue Hills Country Club Course. Karrie Webb, 21, shot a 69 and finished second on a youthful leader board.

“I’ve been waiting for this. I’ve been dreaming about this,” said Klein, 22 and a former former NCAA champion from Arizona State said before catching a plane to meet her parents at the British Open. “I wanted it so badly, and now I got it.”

Klein, who began the day at eight-under, birdied No. 1 and watched Webb bogey it to create a first-place tie. It was Webb’s only bogey, but she never led again.

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Dave Stockton, who started the day four strokes behind the lead, carded his second consecutive three-under-par 69 for a one-shot victory over Bob Murphy at the First of America senior tournament in Ada, Mich.

Stockton recorded only one birdie on the front nine but four on the back nine and survived a bogey on the 18th hole to finish at 10-under 206. Murphy had a four-under-par 68 to fall one shot short.