Golf Roundup : Neumann Has Four-Putt Hole, but Still Wins

Swedish rookie Liselotte Neumann battled back from a four-putt double bogey and scored a record-setting victory Sunday in the U.S. Women’s Open in the Baltimore suburb of Lutherville, Md.

Neumann, 22, rallied from that disaster on the sixth hole with three straight birdies on the back nine and won the most important of all ladies’ golf tournaments by three shots.

Neumann, called “Lotta” by her fellow competitors on the LPGA Tour, had a closing round of 69 in the muggy heat on the Five Farms course at the Baltimore Country Club and won with a 277 total, 7-under par.

Neumann, who led or shared the lead all the way, set a Women’s Open first-round scoring record, tied the tournament marks for 36 and 54 holes and capped it by breaking the 72-hole record of 279, set by Pat Bradley in 1981.

Her first American victory was worth $70,000 from the total purse of $400,000 and pushed her earnings for the season to $97,712.

Neumann is listed as a rookie on the American LPGA Tour, but she is an experienced international player. She won the German Women’s Open earlier this year, has four other European victories and was second in the 1986 European women’s order of merit.

Neumann, who lives with her parents in Finspang, Sweden, when she isn’t traveling, had not finished higher than 11th in the United States this year, and had every opportunity to fade from contention early in the final round.

On the sixth hole, Neumann had a putt of about 30 feet and ran it about 2 feet past the cup. She missed that one, and had about a 4-footer for her third putt. And she missed that one, too.

That lapse, a confidence-destroying, four-putt double bogey, dropped her into a three-way tie for the lead with Colleen Walker and Patty Sheehan.

Neumann, however, came back with a decisive burst of three consecutive birdies beginning on the 10th hole, took a two-shot lead and led the rest of the way.

Sheehan, with a closing 70, was second at 280. Walker, who dropped out of the race with a double bogey on the 12th, matched par 71 and tied for third at 283 with Dottie Pepper Mochrie, another 22-year-old rookie. Mochrie had a final-round 68.

Jan Stephenson was next at 284 after a 69.

Texan Mark Brooks knocked a 7-iron shot to within 5 feet of the flag and made the birdie to beat Dave Barr on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff and win the $700,000 Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open at Cromwell, Conn.

The playoff was set up when Brooks, who made an eagle on the 12th hole and a birdie on No. 15 to go to 16-under, bogeyed the 16th to fall into a three-way tie with Barr and Joey Sindelar.

Sindelar hit into the water and double-bogeyed the first playoff hole, No. 16, to fall out.

After his second shot fell short on the par-4, 399-yard hole, Barr--using a club upside down from a left-handed stance--made a miraculous chip from the edge of a water hazard to get close to the pin on No. 17.

But the Canadian’s shot went for naught when Brooks, who shot a 69 in regulation play, made his putt to earn the $126,000 winner’s check.

Brooks, a 27-year-old from Ft. Worth, became the fourth straight first-time winner on the PGA Tour and sixth this year. His best previous finish was a tie for eighth in the 1986 Hardee’s tournament.

Barr, 36, didn’t miss a green on the way to shooting a 63, the best round of the tournament and one stroke short of the course-record 62, to earn his way into the playoff. The seventh-leading money-winner on the tour, Sindelar, 30, of Horseheads, N.Y., shot a final-round 65.

Gary Player added yet another title to his magnificent record when he held on in a close finish to win the $270,000 British Seniors Open at Turnberry, Scotland.

The 52-year-old from South Africa picked up the first place check of $45,000 after firing a last-round 69 on the par-70, 6,384-yard course, giving him an overall score of 8-under-par 272.

Billy Casper finished one stroke back after shooting a 68.

Windy weather blew away the chances of defending champion Neil Coles of Britain. He slumped to a 79 for a share of sixth place with Arnold Palmer, who shot 71.

Walter Zembriski was declared the winner of the $250,000 Newport Cup Senior tournament after heavy rain forced cancellation of the final round at the Newport Country Club in Newport, R.I.

The victory, worth $37,500, was the first in four seasons on the PGA senior tour for Zembriski, a former steelworker from Mahwah, N.J.

Britain’s Mark Mouland, who broke both legs in a head-on car crash two years ago, overcame a seven-shot deficit and hobbled to a one-shot victory in the $250,000 Dutch Open at Hilversum, Holland.