GOLF ROUNDUP : Dent Holds Off Archer to Repeat at Syracuse

Jim Dent fought off George Archer and his own erratic driving game Sunday to repeat as champion of a $400,000 Senior PGA Tour event at Syracuse, N.Y.

Dent finished the 54-hole tournament at the Lafayette Country Club at 17-under-par 199, one stroke ahead of Archer, who came up inches short on a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole that would have forced a playoff.

Archer shot a final round 65 and finished at 200. He matched Dent birdie for birdie over the final nine holes, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the two-stroke advantage Dent began the day with or his clutch putting.

Dent overcame a double bogey on the fifth hole that resulted from an errant drive. Then, on the 17th green, Dent hit his drive off the fairway and his approach shot past the green onto an adjacent fairway.

He rescued himself with a perfect chip shot, then sank a 20-foot putt for the decisive birdie. He won last year with a putt on the 17th green to finish at 201.

Dent, who won for the second time this year and the fourth time since making the 1989 Syracuse tournament his first senior tour championship, collected $60,000.

Mike Hill, who began the day tied with Dent for the lead, finished two strokes back at 15-under-par 201. Larry Mowry was fourth at 14 under; Jack Kiefer and Bob Rawlins tied for fifth at 203.

Chris Johnson ended a three-year LPGA victory drought by shooting a par round of 70 to win a $300,000 event at Somers Point, N.J., by two strokes over Pamela Wright of Scotland.

The victory was the fifth for Johnson, and it came in a tournament in which no one was able to take command. There were only seven sub-par rounds on the final day, none from the leaders.

Johnson, who held a share of the lead in each of the final three rounds, started the day tied with Wright and Dale Eggeling.

Johnson, 32, took the lead for good with a five-foot birdie putt on the 165-yard second hole at the Sands Country Club and never surrendered it, winning with a five-under-par 275 total and earning $45,000.

Johnson, however, gave her challengers chances to win.

Wright, the LPGA rookie of the year who zoomed into contention with a season-best 64 Saturday, had the best chance. She was tied with Johnson at four under after nine holes.

However, the par-four, 370-yard 11th hole proved the turning point. Johnson hit her second shot two feet from the pin and birdied to go five under; Wright hit over the green and took a bogey to fall two shots behind.

Johnson wrapped up the tournament by rolling in a four-foot par putt on 18 after Wright missed a very tough 30-foot birdie attempt from the back fringe.

Rodger Davis of Australia sank a par putt on the seventh extra hole to beat countryman Mike Clayton in a four-man playoff in a European PGA tournament at Rickmansworth, England.

American Bill Malley and Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe also finished 72 holes at 17-under-par 271, but they were eliminated on the first playoff hole.

The playoff, which alternated between the 17th and 18th holes of the Moor Park course, finally ended the fourth time the Australians played No. 17. Clayton’s drive veered to the right behind a tree, and he had to play his second shot onto the fairway. He took a bogey five. Davis played the hole in regulation, lagging a birdie putt within three inches and then tapping in for the winning par.