GOLF ROUNDUP : Victory Is Grand to Funk, Surprise to Ammaccapane

After walking away from a secure college coaching job in 1989 and facing the rigors of five qualifying schools, Fred Funk decided Sunday it was worth the risk.

Funk, winless in four years on the PGA Tour, shot a two-under- par 70 to win the Houston Open and become the event’s third consecutive first-time winner.

“I was about ready to get my resumes together and try to get a job as a club pro,” Funk said. “Then I come out here this week and this happens. I don’t have to do that now.”

Funk shot a course-record 62 in Saturday’s third round and took a one-shot lead into Sunday’s finale. He had a 16-under 272 for 72 holes, two shots better than Kirk Triplett.

Leaving his job at the University of Maryland in 1989 was scary, Funk said.

But he got a bigger scare on the final hole Sunday when his three-iron from 175 yards narrowly missed going into a lake.

“I don’t need the shot back but if I did, that would be the one,” Funk said. “I pulled the trigger on it and told my caddie it was going in the water. It was 40 yards from where I aimed it.”

Funk made the break pay off when he two-putted for par and collected $216,000.

Triplett shot a final-round 67 for 274, closing with a birdie at 18 to hold off fast-closing Billy Ray Brown, whose 64 moved him up to third at 275.

Defending champion Fulton Allem, who dueled with Funk through most of the final round, faded with four bogeys in the final nine holes for a 73 and 276 total.

Previous first-time winners here were Tony Sills in 1990 and Allem last year.

Gallery favorites Fred Couples and Davis Love III finally put on a good show. Couples closed with a 67 for 281 and Love a 66 for a 283.

Danielle Ammaccapane won $180,000, the largest purse in women’s golf history, and for a moment, didn’t even know it.

“Coming down 18, I thought Colleen (Walker) and I were tied,” Ammaccapane said after her one-stroke victory over Walker and two others in the $1.2 million Centel Classic at Tallahassee, Fla.

Veteran caddie Dan Wilson knew his golfer had a one-shot lead, but he didn’t say anything until Ammaccapane tapped in a short putt for par on 18.

Ammaccapane parlayed four sub-70 rounds into her first LPGA victory outside her hometown of Phoenix.

“Winning here will quiet the critics a little bit,” she said.

Ammaccapane shot a three-under-par 69 in the final round to finish at 275, 13 under par and one better than Walker, third-round leader Liselotte Neumann and Michelle Estill.

Ammaccapane bounced back from her lone bogey Sunday when she dropped a 35-foot chip shot for a birdie at No. 15 to break a tie with Neumann for the last time.

Lee Trevino became the first senior golfer in five years to win three consecutive tournaments when he shot a 67 to beat Orville Moody by a stroke in the Las Vegas Senior Classic.

Trevino, who came into this event off victories in The Tradition and the PGA Senior Championship, averted a playoff when he rolled in a birdie putt on the 18th hole to negate Moody’s birdie on the final hole.

Trevino finished at 206, 10 under par at the Desert Inn Country Club.

Moody, who shared the 36-hole lead with Trevino, closed a final-round 68 with birdies on the last two holes.

He was the only player in position to trouble Trevino over the last nine holes, but a bogey at 16 made the task more difficult. A birdie at 17 trimmed the lead back to one shot, and a nine-iron approach to within four inches assured another birdie at 18.

But Trevino put his own approach within four feet and, after Moody tapped in, ran in the putt to win the tournament, his fifth victory in six senior starts.

Dale Douglass shot a 68 to finish in third place at 209 and Larry Laoretti and Butch Baird were at 210. Laoretti finished with a 69 and Baird had a 67.

Scotland’s Sandy Lyle shot a four-under 68 to win the Italian Open by one stroke over countryman Colin Montgomerie at Monticello.

Lyle finished at 18-under-par 270 for his second Italian Open victory in eight years and his 17th career victory on the PGA European tour.

Mark O’Meara was tied for third place at 272 with England’s Paul Way.

Christian Cevaer won medalist honors and led Stanford to a 19-stroke victory in the Pacific 10 Conference golf championship at Corvallis, Ore.

Cevaer closed with a three-under-par 69 at Trysting Tree Golf Club and finished the 72 holes at 12-under 276.

Notay Begay of Stanford shot a 68, Sunday’s best round, to finish second individually at 284. Arizona State’s Phil Mickelson was third at 285 after a 69.