Golf Roundup : Snead Wins Playoff as Ballesteros Falters

The playoff for the $108,000 first prize and the title in the $600,000 Westchester golf tournament began on the 10th tee Sunday. For all intents and purposes, it ended there, too.

“I was kind of lucky that I drew second (to hit second off the tee)” J.C. Snead said. “I figured if Seve got a good drive, I’d hit my driver as hard as I could.”

But he didn’t have to.

Seve Ballesteros of Spain, hitting first, attempted to crunch a drive on the 304-yard, par-4 10th hole at the Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y.

He got it left, deep in the rough and behind a tree. That one shot decided the playoff.

It gave Snead the luxury of hitting a 4-iron to the fairway, then playing a 9-iron second shot to the back fringe.

After Ballesteros had thrashed around in the rough for a while, he played three shots without reaching the green and 5 without holing out, Snead won the hole and the playoff with a two-putt par 4.

“I’d rather have won it with a birdie, but I’ll take it any way I can get it,” the 45-year-old nephew of Sam Snead said.

Ballesteros departed without comment.

It was Snead’s eighth victory in 20 years on the PGA Tour but his first in the last six years.

Snead and Ballesteros each completed the regulation 72 holes in eight-under-par 276. They were one stroke ahead of Roger Maltbie, who shot a 71.

CBS-TV had to leave the tournament at the end of regulation in order to cover the start of the sixth game of the NBA finals, but the network supplied viewers with periodic reports on the playoff.

Snead had a closing 70, one under par, while Ballesteros, twice a Masters winner and holder of two British Open titles, struggled to a 72.

Snead took the lead for the first time in the tournament with a birdie on the final hole of regulation and was forced into the playoff when a struggling Ballesteros also birdied.

“I was hoping like hell he’d miss it,” Snead said of Ballesteros’ seven-foot birdie putt on No. 18. “I’d be lying if I said I wanted him to make it.”

Snead and Ballesteros benefited from the back-nine collapse of Mike Reid, who has earned more than $1 million in an 11-year career but still is seeking his first victory.

Reid, three shots in front at the turn, backed away with bogeys on the 12th and 15th, where he could not reach the greens, and with a decisive double bogey on the 16th, where he failed to get a little chip out of deep rough near the green. He ended up with a 75 and finished in a tie for fourth place at 278.

Colleen Walker birdied the last two holes to win the $350,000 Mayflower tournament at Indianapolis by one stroke.

Walker had a three-under-par 69 to finish at 278 and record her first LPGA victory, which was worth $52,500. Walker joined the tour in 1982.

Betsy King, who started the final round trailing leader Patti Rizzo by one stroke, lost her bid for a fourth 1987 title when she was assessed a two-stroke penalty on the fourth hole. An LPGA official said she was penalized when the ball moved slightly as she placed her putter behind it. She lost another stroke when she didn’t return the ball to its original position before making her shot.

“I did let it affect me,” said King, who had bogeys on the 13th and 14th holes on her way to a 75.

Rizzo, Bonnie Lauer, Patty Sheehan and Sally Quinlan tied for second place.

Gary Player sank a seven-foot birdie putt on the final hole to break a three-way tie with Chi Chi Rodriguez and Bruce Crampton and win the $400,000 Senior Tournament Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Player, 51, shot a three-under-par 69 to finish at 280, giving the South African his first victory in a year. The $60,000 prize, his largest on the PGA Seniors Tour, boosted his 1987 earnings to $133,657.