Stewart Lets Eastwood Get Away With a Win

Payne Stewart wandered away, wondering how it got away.

Bob Eastwood, given an unexpected chance at victory, bogeyed the first hole of a sudden-death playoff Sunday but it was enough to win the $500,00 Byron Nelson tournament when Stewart shot his second-straight double bogey.

“It all happened so fast that I don’t know what’s going on,” Eastwood said after the third victory in his 13-year career. “I didn’t expect to be here, but here I am.

“I do know that I won. I hate to win it with a bogey, but I’ll take it every time. It’s unfortunate that Payne did what he did, but I’m glad at the way it finished.”

Stewart, wearing his collegiate colors and cheered on by a huge crowd of friends and supporters, owned a three-stroke lead when he stepped to the 18th tee of the Las Colinas Sports Club course.

Moments after Stewart put his tee-shot into a fairway bunker on the closing hole, Eastwood made a 45-foot birdie putt.

That meant Stewart had to make a bogey to win. His second shot on the par-4 hole sailed into a bunker in front of the green and from there he flew the ball over the green into yet another bunker. Stewart blasted within 15 feet and his putt for bogey slid past the hole.

On the first playoff hole, the par-4 16th, Stewart drove into a bunker and could blast the ball only 20 yards down the fairway. He hit his third shot over the green, chipped 12 feet past the pin and missed the putt.

Eastwood put his second shot in a bunker, hit his third shot within 10 feet and two-putted.

“I guess you know what I did,” Stewart said when he finally met with reporters. “The question is, how did I do it?

“It just wasn’t my day, my time to win. I had a chance, and I just wasn’t up to it. It’s disappointing, more than a little disappointing. But, hey, I was there. And I’ll be there again.”

Eastwood won $90,000 and Stewart $54,000.

Stewart shot a three-under 68 Sunday and Eastwood had a 67 to leave them deadlocked at 12-under 272.

Three shots back in second place were Tom Watson, who rushed out of the pack with a 66, and third-round leader Mac O’Grady, who lost his advantage early in the day and eventually shot a 74.

Craig Stadler, Lee Trevino and Chi Chi Rodriguez tied for fifth at 277. The $18,250 won by Rodriguez made him golf’s 51st millionaire.

Kathy Whitworth withstood the challenge of several younger players to win her 88th career title in the $200,000 United Virginia Bank LPGA tournament at Suffolk, Va.

She took the $30,000 first prize by shooting a final-round par 72 for a total of 207 and a one-stroke victory over defending champion Amy Alcott, who shot a four-under-par 68 to finish at 208.

Beth Daniel, Alice Miller and Janet Coles tied for third at 210.

The win was the first in 1985 for the 45-year-old Whitworth. It came 23 years after her first LPGA victory in Baltimore in 1962.

“I still find all wins great and exciting,” she said. “I still have that competitive desire to win. It keeps me going.”

Whitworth, who started the final round with a two-stroke lead, never trailed, although Alcott and Marta Figueras-Dotti pulled even with six holes to play.