Golf Roundup : Nelson Cools Off on a Hot Day but Still Wins

Larry Nelson, 21 under par after three rounds, cooled off Sunday and shot a 73 but still managed to win the Atlanta golf tournament at Marietta, Ga.

Nelson, the PGA champion, blew a four-stroke lead before coming back with two birdies on the final five holes to beat Chip Beck by one shot in muggy, 96-degree weather.

Nelson had a 20-under-par 268 total for the four rounds on the hilly, 7,008-yard Atlanta Country Club course.

Beck, a two-time winner this year, had a final-round 66.

Paul Azinger grabbed the lead from Nelson when he sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole but then went bogey-double bogey to fall out of contention. Azinger sank a 12-foot eagle putt on the par-5 finishing hole to finish with a 71 for third place at 270.

Nelson, who owns a home adjacent to the course, never got his game going the way he had while leading each of the first three rounds and failed to better the PGA Tour record of 27 under par for 72 holes.

The two-time PGA and 1983 U.S. Open winner got into trouble with a double-bogey 6 on the fourth hole when his second shot caught water. He missed a three-foot bogey putt.

Nelson failed to make a 7-foot par putt for another bogey on No. 6 and then had seven pars in a row before regaining the lead with a 3-foot birdie putt on No. 14.

Beck also birdied the 14th, from 15 feet, then forced Nelson to birdie the final hole when he birdied from 10 feet to finish 19 under par.

Nelson got his second shot on the 18th green and lagged his putt close enough for a tournament-winning tap-in birdie.

The victory was worth $126,000 to Nelson.

Gary Player sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff to defeat fellow South African Harold Henning and win the $250,000 Southwestern Bell Silver Pages Senior tournament at Oklahoma City.

With approaching thunderstorms blackening the sky, Player missed a chance to end the tournament in regulation when an 8-foot putt for a birdie skirted the cup at the par-5 18th hole.

Player started the playoff with an 8-iron shot at the par-3 16th that almost went in for an ace, rolling 10 feet past the pin. He then dropped the birdie putt that brought him a first-place check of $37,500.

Henning’s tee shot at No. 16 landed in a bunker behind the green. He blasted within 6 feet before Player made his putt.

Player, who started the day two strokes behind Henning, shot a 6-under-par 66 to finish regulation at 203 for 54 holes on the Quail Creek Golf and Country Club course. Henning shot a 68.

In Paris, Nick Faldo, beaten in a U.S. Open playoff by Curtis Strange a week ago, sank a 25-foot eagle putt on the final hole to win the $540,000 French Open by two strokes.

Faldo finished with a 2-under-par 68 for a 274 total on the Chantilly course and won $90,000.

Strange birdied the last two holes for a 70 and 13th place at 283.

Denis Durnian, playing in a group behind Faldo, was leading before taking a double-bogey 6 at No. 17. He was in a bush by the side of the green and needed four to get down.

Kathy Postlewait took the lead with a birdie on the 11th hole and won the $500,000 LPGA McDonald’s Championship at Wilmington, Del., by one stroke when Patty Sheehan missed a 5-foot putt on the final hole.

Postlewait, 39, sidelined for the last four tournaments because of a back injury, finished with a 1-under-par 70 and a 276 total. She earned $75,000 in winning for the third time in her 14-year career.

Pearl Sinn of Bellflower birdied three of the final five holes to defeat Tami Jo Henningsen of Colorado Springs, Colo., 2 and 1, for the 12th U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship at Page Belcher Golf Course in Tulsa, Okla.

Earlier in the day, Sinn beat Stacey Arnold of Glen Ellyn, Ill., 6 and 5, to advance to the final. Henningsen reached the final by downing Michelle Estill of Scottsdale, Ariz., 4 and 3.

It was the second consecutive year that Sinn, who will be a senior at Arizona State, had reached the final match. Last year, she lost to Tracy Kerdyk.