Golf Roundup : Clark Gets First Win On Tour

The women’s golf spotlight last week was focused on U.S. Open champion Kathy Baker, who won the tournament at Springfield, N.J., in her first victory on the LPGA tour. But, few seemed to notice the runner-up.

This week, the second-place finisher in the U.S. Open, Judy Clark, got some recognition by winning the Boston Five tournament at Danvers, Mass. Clark shot a one-under-par 71 and finished with an eight-under-par 280 to gain her first-ever win on the LPGA tour by three strokes.

“Just the thought of finally coming in and winning made me want to sit down and bawl on the golf course,” Clark said. “I wanted to shoot 70 or 71 today and make them beat me. That would require a 66 or so, which is pretty difficult.”

Clark picked up $33,750 for the win that seemed in doubt after her first-round score of 75 left her in 61st place.

Scores of 66 and 68 Friday and Saturday on the par-72, 6,008-yard Tara Ferncroft course left Clark with a four-stroke lead over Roise Jones and Jane Geddes heading into Sunday.

Donna Caponi, the 1981 Boston Five champion, shot a final-round 69 and finished tied for second. She has won 24 tournaments but none since her 1981 victory at Danvers. She shot a final-round 69 and ended at 283.

Geddes, who had two double-bogeys on the first 11 holes, finished strongly with birdies at the 15th and 18th holes to shoot a 70 and tie Caponi for second place.

Clark, a 35-year-old Akron, Ohio, native, has improved her winnings each year on the tour. She began the Boston Five in ninth place on this year’s list and boosted her earnings to a career-high $143,756.

In the S&H; tournament at St. Petersburg, Fla., in late April, she led by seven strokes after two rounds but shot consecutive 75s to finish in a fourth-place tie.

“After St. Pete, I was destroyed,” Clark said. “I had a three-hour car ride home and just cried. I said, ‘Why am I doing this?’ The last hour I pumped myself up. . . . I’ve just had so many times when I’ve been close, you can’t give up.”

Dan Forsman used to be alarmed when his breathing grew heavier as pressure mounted during a golf tournament. He thought it meant he was too nervous and should relax.

Then Forsman said he learned deep breathing was a natural response to stress--his body’s way of telling him to step back mentally from the strain and concentrate only on his golf.

Forsman, 27, concentrated just on his golf and won the $300,000 Quad Cities Open golf tournament at Coal Valley, Ill., by a stroke over the early leader, Bob Tway.

Forsman shot a 13-under 267 for the tournament over the 70,514-yard Oakwood Country Club.

“If not for a couple of putts that could’ve gone in for Bob (Tway), he would be the winner,” said Forsman, who earned $54,000 to boost his 1985 winnings to $114,000.

Forsman’s highest previous finishes had been a fourth-place tie at the Phoenix Open in January and an eighth-place tie a month later at the Honda tournament in Coral Springs, Fla.

Tway, of Edmond, Okla., was the sole leader after Friday’s second round, but finished as runner-up. He had begun the final round in a three-way tie for second place, one stroke behind Forsman.

PGA novice Brad Fabel double-bogeyed the 18th to miss a chance at winning--or tying Forsman and forcing a sudden-death playoff.

Fabel, 29, finished with an 11-under 269, tied for third with Brett Upper.

Ron Streck, who holds the PGA record for the lowest two consecutive rounds of golf, tied a course record Sunday with an eight-under 62, but his 72-hole finish at four-under-par 276 left him tied with three others in 36th place.

Peter Thomson shot a one-under-par 70 to win the $202,000 Greater Syracuse Seniors tournament Sunday at the Lafayette Country Club.

The Australian finished the 54-hole tournament with a nine-under total of 204, two strokes better than defending champion Miller Barber and first-round leader Gene Littler, who finished Sunday with a three-under 68.

Thomson, the senior tour’s leading money winner in 1985, was one of 54 pros who played the 6,530-yard course at Lafayette, N.Y. It was Thomson’s sixth senior win of the year and the eighth of his career.