Golf Roundup : Sindelar Shines in Darkness

Joey Sindelar beat the field by two strokes in the Honda tournament at Coral Springs, Fla., Sunday. He beat darkness by a smaller margin.

“It got down to the point where, technically, we could have stopped it on the last tee,” Sindelar said after a long, slow trip over the TPC course at Eagle Trace.

The wind, which helped produce some exotic scores--11 on a par-3, for example--slowed things down, even with the field playing in twosomes. And there was a major stack-up of players on the tee on the par-5 15th.

The result: 4 hours 20 minutes for the last twosome to play 18 holes. And that raised the distinct possibility that play would not be completed, that Sindelar and Scotland’s Ken Brown would have to return today to finish their rounds.

“We couldn’t see everything we wanted to see, but nobody wants to come back the next day,” Sindelar said.

As it was, Sindelar finished in the shadows of early evening--not quite in darkness but certainly not daylight.

Sindelar, one in front when the long day’s play started, was tied at times but never trailed in gaining the fourth victory of his five-season PGA Tour career.

He won this one with a 276 total, 12 strokes under and by a more comfortable margin than he thought.

The victory was worth $126,000 from the total purse of $700,000 and gave Sindelar earnings of $209,212 for the season.

Sandy Lyle, Ed Fiori and Payne Stewart--all of whom shared the lead at one point or another--tied for second at 278.

Severiano Ballesteros of Spain won the $360,000 Majorca Open at Majorca, Spain. Ballesteros posted a final-round 67.

Greg Bruckner of Manhattan Beach won the $220,000 Singapore Open by one stroke at the Tanah Merah Country Club. He carded a final-round 73 for a seven-under-par 281 to take top prize money of $36,600.

Bruckner also won the Rolex Masters championship in Singapore two weeks ago. His total earnings in Singapore are $54,000.