Golf Roundup : Little and Geddes Tied in Women’s U.S. Open

Pat Bradley’s hopes for a sweep of the 1986 Grand Slam women’s golf events ended Sunday, but the 41st Women’s U.S. Open did not.

The national championship goes to an 18-hole playoff today at Kettering, Ohio, between Sally Little, a South African native now living in the United States, and Jane Geddes, not yet a winner during her three years on the LPGA Tour.

(ABC-TV will televise the playoff at 1 p.m. PDT, although that doesn’t necessarily mean Channel 7 will carry it. A decision will be made today.)

Geddes, 26, said she was too nervous Sunday to look at a leaderboard down the stretch. She therefore did not know that Betsy King had made a double bogey to fall out of the lead, and that her par on the final hole was good enough for a spot in the playoff.

Geddes had a no-bogey, three-under-par 69 over the final 18 holes at the rain-soaked NCR Country Club. That was good enough to tie her with Little for the top spot at 287.

Little, hampered by illness and injury since scoring her 14th tour victory four years ago, played the last round in a solid 70 that put her in sight of a career-long target.

“Winning a U.S. Open always has been my goal. It would be a dream come true,” she said.

King, a one-shot leader at the start of the day, surrendered the lead with bogeys on the first three holes. But she regained the lead with consecutive birdies--on putts of about 20 and 15 feet--on the seventh and eighth holes, and led by two strokes going to the 14th.

There, King pushed her approach into a wet bunker on the right, just got it out and then three-putted from about 30 feet, missing an eight-foot second putt. It was a double-bogey that dropped her back to even par for the day.

Almost simultaneously, Little birdied the 16th from about 10 feet and Geddes dropped about a seven-foot birdie putt on the 17th. Those two shots put Little and Geddes one under par and in a tie for the lead.

Bradley, winner of the LPGA and the Dinah Shore earlier this season, was unable to keep alive her hopes of a one-year sweep of all the Grand Slam events. She finished three strokes back at 290 after shooting a 69 Sunday.

Just when it seemed Fuzzy Zoeller’s bid to win the Anheuser-Busch tournament at Williamsburg, Va., was in trouble, he reached into his bag and worked some winning magic with a 4-iron.

“I had a shot,” Zoeller said, after his drive on the 427-yard 16th hole went into the woods. “It was not a great shot by any means, but it was one of those shots that, if you want to win a golf tournament, you’ve got to hit it.”

Zoeller decided against pitching onto the fairway for an unobstructed approach in favor of trying to blast the ball straight through the trees to the green 225 yards away.

“It went right through a gap between some little trees and right over the big trees,” Zoeller said.

The ball landed on the green, Zoeller two-putted from 35 feet and parred the final two holes for a two-shot victory over Jodie Mudd.

Zoeller, who began the day five shots off the pace, shot a seven-under-par 64 in the $500,000 tournament’s final round.

Jim Ferree did everything he could to win his first Senior PGA Tour championship, but not even a six-under-par 66, pink knickers and a hole-in-one were enough to subdue Don January.