San Diego Open : Blackburn Survives in Four-Hole Playoff

It didn’t take the best of golf to win the Isuzu-Andy Williams San Diego Open Sunday at Torrey Pines--it took a survivor.

And Woody Blackburn, a 33-year-old from Florida in his 10th year on the PGA tour, was that as he finally earned his first individual victory by beating Ron Streck on their fourth playoff hole.

After four days of playing round after round in the 60s, the pros encountered a chilly day with ocean breezes and the birdies made a mass migration elsewhere.

After three consecutive 66s, Blackburn shot a one-under-par 71 for the regulation 18 holes and played the four playoff holes in one over par.

Streck, who shot 70 Sunday, got into the playoff when Blackburn missed a three-foot putt on the final hole.

The heroics of those first three days, however, still enabled Blackburn and Streck to tie Tom Watson’s eight-year-old San Diego open record with 19-under-par 269s.

Blackburn and Streck, starting the playoff on No. 15, played the first three holes in par-bogey-par and were once again back to the 18th hole.

On that 501-yard par-5, both players hit perfect tee shots about 190 yards from the green.

However, Streck was about to make the climactic shot of the tournament. It somehow seemed appropriate on this Sunday that a mistake would determine the outcome.

Quite a bit earlier, on that same 18th hole, Dan Pohl was 18 under and needing a birdie to get himself in position to have a shot at a playoff.

Pohl hit his second shot into the pond in front of the green. On that fourth playoff hole, so did Streck.

Blackburn, hitting moments later, went for the green as well.

“I thought for a second about laying up,” he said, “but that was all. I’d much rather hit a full 5-iron than a short wedge over the lake.”

He hit that full 5-iron about 25 feet above the hole.

After taking a penalty, Streck hit his fourth shot 40 feet past the hole and his fifth shot five feet below the hole.

Blackburn needed to get down in three putts from 25 feet to win it, and that was exactly what it took. He putted within two feet, and then missed that putt. He shrugged his shoulders and tapped it in to win.

“I think the realization that I’d finally won clouded my concentration just a bit,” he said.

And it has been a long journey to the winner’s circle for Blackburn. His only win before was the Walt Disney World National Team Play Championship with Bill Kratzert in 1976.

Indeed, he lost his tour card after earning only $29,074 in 1984 and had to go through the PGA qualifying school once again at the age of 33. And he came to Torrey Pines with earnings of only $2,080 so far in 1985.

“A lot of people have looked at what I’ve done for the last four or five years,” he said, “and I’m sure they’ve wondered why I was still playing. I joined the tour because I thought I was good enough to win, and I never lost that feeling.”

There had to be times he wondered Sunday. For a while, he was missing every green but the par-5s and was scrambling for pars.

Blackburn’s first bogey was on No. 14, when he drove under a tree and had to pitch back to the fairway.

Pohl and Streck were right with him at the time, and it appeared he just might crumble under the pressure. His drive on No. 15 strayed far to the right.

He was in trouble.

However, he hit a 9-iron over the trees and a trap that stopped one foot from the hole. He had turned disaster into a birdie.

“That shot,” he understated, “certainly helped.”

It was to give him the cushion he needed when he missed that three-footer on the 18th to slip back into a playoff.

“I putted well the whole tournament,” he said, “except on the 18th green. I just misread that last putt. I read it to go straight and it went right.”

Streck had a putt to win outright on the 72nd hole, but he missed from eight feet.

The playoff was not exactly an exercise in golfing artistry, though Blackburn almost won it on the 17th hole. He missed a 15-foot birdie putt by inches.

In the back of his mind, in fact, he admitted to having bemused thoughts about a playoff he lost to Dave Barr in the 1981 Quad Cities Open.

“That one lasted eight holes,” he said. “I didn’t want to go eight holes again today. Actually, I’d rather not go back out there at all.”

Gary Hallberg, two shots back going to the final round, shot a 75 and ended up in a tie for 12th. A high-profile star through the tournament’s first three days, he shed his hat as if he wanted to anonymously stalk the fairways as the forgotten man of the final threesome.

Indeed, only nine golfers were to break 70 on Sunday led by Rex Caldwell’s 65. Sixty-six golfers broke 70 in the opening round and the 36-hole cut was at five-under.

“The wind made the golf course a lot more difficult today,” Blackburn said. “On the seventh hole, for example, I used a driver and a 6-iron yesterday. I needed a driver and a 2-iron today. I was hitting 2-irons on par-3s I would reach with a 4- or 5-iron yesterday.”