Blackmar Wins on the 37th Hole

Phil Blackmar sank a 10-foot putt on the first hole of sudden death Sunday--the 37th hole of the day--to break a tie with Jodie Mudd and Dan Pohl and win the $600,000 Greater Hartford Open at Cromwell, Conn.

Mudd, putting first on the par-3, 172-yard 16th hole, slid his 13-foot putt past the cup on the left side.

Blackmar, 27, then rolled his putt straight into the cup.

Putting last, Pohl left his eight-foot putt short and Blackmar was the winner of the tournament’s $108,000 first prize. Mudd and Pohl each earned $52,800.

The 36-hole final was necessitated by a rain delay on Friday. Because a PGA regulation forbids playing more than 27 holes on the day of a 36-hole cut, the final two rounds had to be played Sunday.

“I rolled the putt well and knew when I hit it that it was on the line I wanted,” said Blackmar of Corpus Cristi, Tex.

“Phil made a great putt,” Pohl said. “The greens were getting really spiked up and he deserved to win.”

Pohl, Mudd and Blackmar, at 6-foot-7, 260 pounds the largest player on the professional tour, each finished regulation play at 13-under-par 271 after four rounds over the par-71, 6,800-yard course.

Pohl was 14-under on the 18th hole, but lost a chance to win when he missed the green, chipped short and pulled the 3 1/2-foot putt to the left.

“When you haven’t been in the lead too often, a putt like that looks a lot longer than it is,” Pohl said. “It’s too bad when you have to do that on the 72nd hole.”

Ray Floyd and Wayne Grady, co-leaders after the third round, each shot 72s in the final round and finished a stroke back at 272.

Defending champion Peter Jacobsen, with rounds of 67-66 Sunday, finished tied for sixth at 273.

It was the first PGA tournament victory for Blackmar, a 1979 graduate of the University of Texas and a rookie on the professional tour.

Neither Pohl nor Mudd have won on the tour.

Blackmar was in the clubhouse when Pohl bogeyed the 18th to drop back into a tie and Mudd missed a three-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole.

Blackmar’s approach to the par-5, 585-yard 9th hole, where he finished his final round, flew over the green, but struck a photographer and stayed on the fringe of the green. From there, he was able to save par.

“It probably would have gone out of bounds,” Blackmar said. “I’m glad he stopped it.”

Pat Bradley sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to beat Jane Geddes by one stroke in the $390,000 du Maurier Tournament at Montreal, the second victory this year for the veteran of the women’s tour.

Bradley and Geddes, who led by two strokes heading into the final 18 holes, were tied at nine under par when they walked to the 18th green at the par-72, 6,033-yard Beaconsfield Golf Club.

After Bradley sank her putt, finishing at 10 under, Geddes came up short with hers and finished with a nine-under total of 279.

Lee Elder scored an eagle-3 on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to edge Peter Thomson and win a $175,000 Senior tournament at Newport Country Club in Newport, R. I.

Elder, 51, of Washington, shot a Senior tour-record 11-under 61 in the first round Saturday for a five-shot lead over Thomson, 55, of Australia, but Thomson finished with a 67 to force a playoff after Elder bogeyed the 18th hole.

Elder, who won $27,000, hit a 4-wood 15 feet past the pin on his second shot of the par-5 first hole of sudden-death. He rolled in a downhill putt for an eagle after Thomson missed a birdie putt from 15 feet.