GOLF ROUNDUP : Mallon Controls Emotions, Wins LPGA

Meg Mallon was putting on the 72nd hole with the LPGA Championship on the line while the rest of her threesome, Pat Bradley and Ayako Okamoto, could only watch.

If she had stopped to think about it, the pressure might have gotten to her. It was only when her 10-foot birdie putt dropped in the hole Sunday that she began celebrating her first major title.

“What a way to finish a golf tournament,” she said. “It’s a dream being in that situation, and I felt like I was in a dream. It’s the type of thing you think about as a kid. . . . I was concentrating so hard, I guess, that I didn’t really realize the magnitude of what was going on.”

The three leaders were tied at nine under par going to the final hole, a 379-yard par four, at Bethesda, Md.

Each drove the fairway in good shape, though Mallon’s tee shot was a bit right after she was distracted by a car horn honking in the parking lot.

For all her seeming ease on the final putt, she felt pressure on the approach. She was 167 yards from the pin, and decided to use a five-iron because she expected to crush the ball. “That was an adrenalin shot,” she said. “I knew I had to go a club down.”

Mallon made the putt after Bradley and Okamoto both missed birdie putts.

It was only the second tournament victory for Mallon, who had never finished higher than third in an event or better than 27th on the money list in four previous years on the tour.

“I felt like I wasn’t getting much respect this week,” said Mallon, who shot a final-round 67 for a 10-under-par 274 total in winning $150,000. “I shot a 68 the first day and maybe two people talked to me. The same thing the next day. But that was good, because it kept things low-key.”

Okamoto and Bradley tied for second with final-round 68s. Defending champion Beth Daniel was fourth at 278 after a 69, with Barb Bunkowsky and Deb Richard at 279 after 70 and 71 on Sunday, respectively.

Okamoto, who has won 16 tournaments, was foiled in her bid to win her first major when her birdie attempt on 18 was an inch to the side of the cup.

“When I hit that putt I thought it was in, and I was on my way to pick it out of the cup,” Okamoto said. “But still, I was very proud of this round, not to have a bogey.”

When Peter Persons hit into the water on the 11th and 12th holes, Fred Couples got the break he needed and went on to a three-stroke victory in the $1-million St. Jude Classic at Memphis, Tenn.

Couples won for the first time since the 1990 Los Angeles Open by following Persons’ adversity with birdies at Nos. 12 and 14 to pull away from the field and tie the Tournament Players Club at Southwind 72-hole course record set last year by Tom Kite with a 15-under-par 269 total worth $180,000.

“I feel like I played a good round of golf. I kept the ball in play and made a few putts when I had to,” Couples said. “I went out and played like it was the first round, and it feels great.”

Rick Fehr, the first-round leader, closed with a 67 to take second place, and Jay Haas and David Canipe each shot 65 for 11-under 273 totals in a tie for third.

Persons, who held the lead for five holes on the front nine, faded to a three-over 74.

Jim Colbert shot a two-under-par 68, outdueled co-leader Al Geiberger and won the Southwestern Bell Classic seniors tournament at Kansas City by three strokes with a 54-hole total of nine-under-par 201.

It was Colbert’s first victory on the senior tour.

Colbert, who had finished second three times and third twice in his first year on the senior tour, reeled off birdies on Nos. 8, 9 and 10 to pass Geiberger, who had started the day tied for the lead with Colbert at seven under par.

Geiberger was tied for second with Larry Laoretti, who shot a 68.

Chi Chi Rodriguez started the final round three strokes off the lead and pulled within one stroke after playing the first six holes in two under par.

But the senior tour’s leading money-winner faded early on the back nine and picked up bogeys on Nos. 9, 10 and 11 and fell to a 72.