Gay wins place in Open

Brian Gay thought so little of his chance to play his way into the U.S. Open in his last possible chance that he had plans for a week off. Not even a tentative plan sketched out just in case.

Well, he better figure something out pretty quick. His wire-to-wire victory Sunday at the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn., punched his ticket to Bethpage Black.

“Right now I don’t know if we’re going home first or what we’re going to do, whether we spend tomorrow traveling, going home and repacking,” Gay said. “Get to work on Tuesday, I guess.”

Gay came to Memphis as one of seven players with a chance to grab the Open exemption as a multiple winner in the last calendar year. He responded with his second win in his last five events and the third victory of his career, beating David Toms and Bryce Molder by five strokes.

“I felt I had to go out and play golf. If I won, I’d get the chance to play,” Gay said.

He grabbed the $1,008,000 winner’s check at TPC Southwind in runaway style, too.

Gay led by only a stroke after each of the first three rounds, then shot his third straight four-under-par 66 to pull away. He birdied three of the first six holes to take all the suspense out of the final round, and birdied the 18th to finish at 18-under 262.

Toms finished with a 65, and Molder had a 70. John Senden (64), Paul Goydos (68) and Robert Allenby (69) tied for fourth at 12 under.

“It was a pretty good golf tournament except for one guy stealing the show,” said Toms, the tournament winner in 2003 and 2004.

Phil Mickelson, in his first event since announcing wife Amy has breast cancer, and John Daly, returning from a six-month PGA Tour suspension, tied for 59th at one over. Mickelson closed with a 75, and Daly shot a 70.

It wasn’t as large a victory as in April when Gay won by 10 at Hilton Head. It just felt like that on a day where no one could get close enough on wet fairways that stopped balls with almost no roll. Rain in the morning delayed the start of the final round by four hours. It didn’t rain again.

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Green’s lower leg to be amputated

Champions Tour golfer Ken Green, who was injured in a recreational vehicle crash in Mississippi that killed his brother and girlfriend, will have his lower right leg amputated, his agent said.

Kevin Richardson said doctors will remove his leg below the knee after determining it would take two years of surgery to repair a limb that wouldn’t function well before Green could walk again. He also will need surgery to repair damage to a suborbital bone in his face.