Golf Roundup : Player Is Winner in a Playoff

Gary Player made a 30-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to beat Bruce Crampton and win the $300,000 Northville Invitational senior golf tournament Sunday at Jericho, N.Y.

Player began the final round with a three-stroke lead over Crampton, but a bogey-6 on the 17th hole gave him a one-over-par 73. Crampton shot a 70 and they finished regulation play in a tie at 10-under-par 278.

Each shot par on the first sudden-death hole, the par-5 10th. Crampton then missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-4 second extra hole after Player made his long putt.

Player, 51, won $100,000. Last week, Player won the PGA Senior TPC at Ponte Vedra, Fla. Crampton, also 51, won $40,000.

Chi Chi Rodriguez, who has won five times on the PGA Senior Tour this year and is the leading money winner, shot a 73 and tied for fourth with Dave Hill, who had a 72, at 282 for $13,250 each.

“I told you yesterday that the pressure was greater on the leader than on the trailers,” said Player, who won 21 times on the PGA Tour. “Very seldom are you able to increase the lead.”

Player called his bogey on the 17th an unforgivable mistake. “Instead of playing it safe and staying in the middle of the fairway, I drove the ball and wound up in the trap,” he said. “Fortunately, I was able to end up in the playoff.”

Japan’s Ayako Okamoto, eight strokes back at the start of the day, shot a tournament record eight-under-par 64 to win the LPGA’s $300,000 Lady Keystone Open at Hershey, Pa.

Okamoto passed 20 players on her way to picking up the $42,500 first-place check.

Okamoto finished with an eight-under-par 208 for 54 holes on the 6,438-yard West Course of the Hershey Country Club.

Laurie Rinker, who put together a 67, finished second, one shot behind Okamoto.

Ok-Hee Ku of Korea, who led after Saturday’s second round, had a final-round 75 and finished in a tie for fourth.

Two players shot holes in one, Sandra Spuzich on the 185-yard No. 8 and Anne-Marie Palli on the 165-yard 17th.

Okamoto chipped in from 30 feet for a birdie on the 405-yard starting hole and came out of the sand for a birdie at No. 4. She also birdied Nos. 3, 5 and 6 and made the turn in 31, five under par.