When Rodriguez Gets Mad, Ojai Gets Even : Golf: Bogey on the ninth hole angers him en route to par 70, and Crampton is a winner by three shots in the senior tournament.

The Ojai Valley Inn & Country Club dried out Sunday and Chi Chi Rodriguez lost his control of the course.

Bruce Crampton shot a steady 66 to overtake Rodriguez and win the $450,000 GTE West Classic with a 54-hole total of 195. Rodriguez, showing little of his usual flamboyance, struggled to an even-par 70 and 198 after going into the final round with a one-stroke lead.

Al Geiberger, with a final-round 66, finished third at 201. Dick Hendrickson was next at 202. Although he finished in a tie for seventh, Jim Colbert reached $1 million in earnings in his 27th event, the fastest ever for a senior. He needed just over $1,000 to do so.

Last year, and for the first two rounds this year, the course was extremely wet. And Rodriguez was the master of Ojai.

In 1991, rain was so heavy the tournament was cut to 36 holes and Rodriguez won. Once again rain was a factor this year, but pick-and-clean rules were used the first two days. Rodriguez broke the course record Friday with an eight-under-par 62, but Crampton, with 10 birdies, moved close Saturday.

Crampton caught Rodriguez Sunday with a birdie on the par-four, 312-yard sixth hole and took the lead on the eighth with another birdie. The tournament slipped away from Rodriguez on the ninth.

The hole is a 517-yard par five, uphill to a two-tiered green. The pin was on the lower portion, on the left behind a sand trap.

Rodriguez tried to reach the green in two shots but was 40 yards short, in position for a birdie. However, the ball had picked up a clump of mud. Rodriguez hit his wedge 10 feet short of the green and wound up with a bogey.

“Bruce played well and deserved to win, but I blew it on the ninth,” Rodriguez said. “It was a horror shot. It’s a shot you should put within three feet for an easy birdie. Even though there was mud on it, I would have made that shot any other time. I just wasn’t meant to win.”

Crampton had a chance to increase his lead to three shots right there. Instead, he missed a seven-foot birdie putt, and when Rodriguez birdied No. 10 the lead was cut to a stroke again.

Crampton sank birdie putts of 30 feet and 16 feet on the 12th and 13th holes to nail down his first victory in 14 months and his 19th on the Senior PGA Tour.

“I feel pretty good about the way my game held up under pressure,” the 56-year-old Australian said. “I’ve been revamping my swing for two years to make it more round, and I finally feel confident.”

Rodriguez is known for his attacking style, patterned after that of his idol, Arnold Palmer. But from his first shot of the day, he seemed to be protecting his lead instead of playing boldly.

He pushed his drive on No. 1 far right on top of a hill. Although he made a fine recovery and earned a par, until he became angry after his bogey six on the ninth hole, he was hardly ever on the attack.

Rodriguez and Geiberger agreed that pick-and-clean rules should have been used for the final round.

“Of course, I think you should be able to do that any time you hit the ball in the fairway,” Rodriguez said. “I think there should be a reward for hitting the ball in the fairway. If it lands in mud or in a hole, you shouldn’t be penalized.”

Geiberger said he was leery of the change in rules. However, he matched Crampton’s 66.

“Each day after a heavy rain like we had here, it gets muddier,” he said. “We should have been allowed to clean the ball. The ball did some strange things out there. I feel I was fortunate to score as well as I did.”