Golf Roundup : Maltbie Earns Victory as Denis Watson Falls to a Double Bogey

Roger Maltbie took advantage of the double-bogey disaster that stopped Denis Watson’s challenge and went on to a four-stroke victory Sunday in the NEC World Series of Golf at Akron, Ohio.

Maltbie, 34, who broke a nine-year victory drought earlier this season, shot a front-running, four-under-par 66 and acquired the the most important title of his 11-year career with a 269 total, 11 strokes under par on the Firestone Country Club course.

After making birdies on two of the first three holes, Maltbie was alone in front the rest of the way.

Maltbie’s second victory of the season was worth $126,000 from the total purse of $700,000 and lifted his earnings for the year to $351,724, almost three times his best previous year.

Watson, the defending champion from South Africa, dropped long birdie putts on the 11th and 13th holes to close to within one stroke of the lead, then fell victim to the critical double-bogey on the 14th.

Watson drove into a fairway bunker, hit the sand shot a little heavy coming out and was well short of the green in two. His third missed the green down a steep bank. He failed to get it all the way up the slope in four, chipped to about four or five feet in five and made the putt for the double-bogey.

That dropped him three behind with four to play and he could not recover.

Watson, who entered the final round in a tie with Maltbie for the lead, finished with a round of par 70 in the hot, humid weather and was second at 272.

Tom Kite and Calvin Peete made late moves and came on to share third at 273. Neither was in the title chase. Peete had a closing 67, Kite 68.

Although he was not a factor in the tournament, Curtis Strange set a PGA Tour single-season money-winning record after shooting a 73 for a 286 total that tied him for 32nd in the 41-man international field. Strange won $6,750 and pushed his season’s earnings to $534,331, breaking the old money-winning record of $530,808 set by Tom Watson in 1980.

Pat Bradley, six strokes off the lead when play began, birdied her first three holes, tied Amy Alcott after 18 and then made a birdie putt on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the $300,000 LPGA National Pro-Am at Denver.

Bradley fired a four-under-par 68 for a total of four-under 284. Her 6-foot birdie putt at the par-5 15th hole--the second hole of the playoff--gave her the victory as Alcott needed six strokes just to reach the green.

“When I started the round, I thought I might get into the top five or maybe the top three,” Bradley said. “Little did I know that four under would get me into a playoff. I didn’t expect Amy to back up.”

The victory was worth $45,000 to Bradley.

“I started off like gangbusters,” Bradley said. “On the 10th tee, I told myself to just be patient, if I can make five birdies on the front nine I can make some on the back. But they didn’t happen.”

Alcott, the third-round leader, recovered from a triple bogey on the first hole but then faded with bogeys at the 13th and 16th holes before forcing the playoff with a birdie at 18. Alcott had a final-round 74.

Bradley, who moved past Alice Miller into second place on this season’s LPGA money list with $337,653, was four under for the day through seven holes.

Ernie Gonzalez of Chula Vista birdied the first playoff hole Sunday to beat Mike Miles and Ted Lehmann and win his second successive Queen Mary Open golf tournament.

Gonzalez, who sank a 15-foot putt for the victory at Lakewood Country Club, collected $9,000, his biggest pro payday.

He had to fire a 7-under-par 65 to make it into a playoff with Miles of Cypress and Lehmann of Thousand Oaks.

Miles birdied the final two holes after trailing most of the final round. He and Lehmann each collected $5,100 as they shared second-prize money.