Golf Roundup : Early-Bird Weibring Wins by One Stroke

D.A. Weibring started first and finished first.

Weibring, the first player to tee off, shot bogey-free rounds of 69 and 68 Sunday to win the $800,000 Western Open golf tournament by one stroke over Larry Nelson and Greg Norman at Oak Brook, Ill.

“I hit a lot of real good putts,” Weibring said. “I was within 8 to 15 feet almost every hole and made a couple of them. Not as many as I’d like, but I played as good as I can play.”

Weibring got his second win in 10 years on the tour with a score of nine-under-par 207. He earned $144,000, his biggest purse ever.

Flooding last week and more rain this week cut the tournament to 54 holes and forced the 36-hole windup. The tournament was played on two different courses, nine holes at Butler National and nine more at Oak Brook Golf Club. The golfers finished on different courses, Weibring and Nelson winding up at Oak Brook, Norman at Butler.

Norman, who finished 70-69, birdied his final hole and thought he might have tied for the lead.

“I knew at one stage I was tied for the lead,” Norman said. “I didn’t know nine-under was leading until I got down here at 18.”

Nelson, the PGA champion, had rounds of 67 and 69. He birdied his 14th hole to go to eight-under, then missed a 15-foot birdie putt on his last hole.

Weibring’s birdie putt on his 17th hole turned out to be the difference.

Betsy King rolled in six birdie putts on the front nine to take command and went on to win her fourth tournament of the year, finishing three strokes ahead of Nancy Lopez in the $225,000 Atlantic City tournament at Galloway Township, N.J.

King, who started the final round three shots behind co-leaders Lopez and Beth Daniel, had a final-round five-under-par 66 and finished the 54-hole event at 207.

The victory and the $33,750 top prize vaulted King ahead of Jane Geddes and into to the top spot on the LPGA earnings list this year with $381,775.

Lopez, looking for her first victory in six months, had a one-over-par 72 and finished at 211, one shot ahead of Sherri Turner, who set a women’s course record with a 65.

Daniel (74), Juli Inkster (73) and Patti Rizzo (71) finished tied for fourth place at 212.

Chi Chi Rodriguez had a four-under-par 68 Sunday to hold off Butch Baird by one stroke and win the $300,000 GTE Northwest tournament at Seattle for his his seventh victory of the season.

Baird, who had a 69, missed a four-foot birdie putt on the final hole that would have forced a playoff.

Rodriguez’s 54-hole total of 206 was worth $45,000 and boosted the tour-leading money winner’s 1987 earnings to $408,431.

Tied for third at 209 were Arnold Palmer (66) and Miller Barber (72).

Kay Cockerill became only the second player in 47 years to successfully defend the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, defeating Tracy Kerdyk, 3 and 2, in the 36-hole title match at Barrington, R.I.

Cockerill joins current LPGA tour star Juli Inkster, who won the amateur title in 1980, 1981 and 1982, as the only players since World War II to defend the title. Before that, the last to win two in a row was Betty Jameson in 1939 and 1940.

Cockerill, 22, a UCLA graduate from Los Gatos, Calif., began play Sunday with a four-hole advantage after play was suspended Saturday by rain. When play resumed, Cockerill immediately sank a 35-foot birdie putt to take a five-hole lead. Kerdyk never again got closer than three holes back.

Mark O’Meara scored two eagles in a final-round 66 to win the Lawrence Batley International at Southport, England.

The 30-year-old from Escondido, Calif., holed two 7-iron shots for eagles to score a record-breaking aggregate of 271 and win the $37,328 top prize, three strokes ahead of Britain’s Carl Mason.

Mike Miles of Huntington Beach shot a seven-under-par 65 to win the $80,000 Queen Mary Open by three strokes at Lakewood Country Club.

Miles finished with a 72-hole score of 12-under-par 276 and took home $13,000. Mark Blakely (69) of Temple City, Alan Tapie (69) of Newport Beach and Ed Luethke (71) of Fresno tied for second at 279.