GOLF ROUNDUP : Trevino’s Bogey Paves Way for Bies’ Victory

Don Bies, taking advantage of a bogey by Lee Trevino on the 17th hole, won the PaineWebber Invitational senior tournament Sunday at Charlotte, N.C.

Trevino, the second-round co-leader with J.C. Snead, fell behind when he three-putted on the 142-yard 17th. After his tee shot landed within six feet of the pin, Trevino putted over the right lip, three feet past the hole. The bogey came when he pulled the next putt left and the ball lipped out.

“It was a very easy putt,” he said of the first miss. “If I had hit it six inches shorter, it would have gone in there.”

Bies, who won with a tournament record 13-under-par 203 and earned $67,500, created an anxious moment on the final hole when his sand wedge approach flirted with water to the left of the green. However, he saved par from the fringe, moments before Trevino’s trouble at 17.

Bies moved into position for his sixth senior title and first since 1989 on the 501-yard 16th, reaching the green with a three-wood and two-putting from 80 feet.

Playing with the next threesome, Trevino, who also bogeyed the 15th, duplicated Bies’ birdie on the 16th to set the stage for the dramatic finish.

Chi Chi Rodriguez, who tied the course record with a seven-under 65, finished three shots off the pace. Bobby Nichols, who shared the first-round lead with Jim Colbert, joined Rodriguez at 10 under, along with Mike Hill and Gene Littler. All had final-round 69s.

Colbert and Rocky Thompson were another shot back. Thompson arrived at the 514-yard 18th one stroke off the lead, but yanked his tee shot into water left of the fairway and paid the penalty with a triple bogey.

Dave Stockton closed at 208. Second-round co-leader Snead bogeyed five of the last nine holes, but made an eagle putt on 16 to join Jim Dent and Bob Reith at seven under.

David Edwards, who gained a share of the lead with birdies on the last two holes of regulation, won the Memorial tournament at Dublin, Ohio, with a par on the second playoff hole.

Edwards beat Rick Fehr with a two-putt par on the 17th hole of the rain-soaked Muirfield Village Golf Club course.

Fehr, who missed the green short and right as darkness approached, chipped from deep rough to with eight feet and had that putt to extend the playoff.

Had he done so, it almost certainly would have meant a return this morning. A 2-hour 15-minute rain delay earlier in the day caused the playoff to start near dusk under gray and gloomy skies, and end at 8:55 p.m. EDT.

But he missed it and Edwards had his first title since 1984 and only his second in a 14-year career. The victory was worth $234,000 from the total purse of $1.3 million.

Fehr, whose only tour victory came in the 1988 B.C. Open, and Edwards each shot 67s. However, Edwards got his spot in the playoff in more dramatic fashion, moving into a tie with a birdie-birdie finish.

Ayako Okamoto earned $112,500 when she scored her first tour victory in two years, winning the McDonald’s Championship by three strokes with a 54-hole total of eight-under-par 205 at Wilmington, Del.

Since 1984, in six McDonald’s, Okamoto has earned $248,726--finishing fourth last year, tying with four others for second in 1990 and claiming second alone in ’87.

“Maybe it comes from my age and experience,” Okamoto said after her final-round two-under 69. “Today I was not nervous. I felt that my swing was good. I was very comfortable. My driving and putting were better today.”

Okamoto, 41, started the final round in a first-place tie with Brandie Burton. But Burton, less than half Okamoto’s age at 20, folded with two double bogeys and a bogey during a closing-round 72.

Burton, Deb Richard and Pat Bradley tied for second at 208.

Okamoto won despite some early wildness. She bogeyed the second hole after hitting a spectator on the wrist and on No. 9 she overshot the green and hit a marshal.

The tournament was cut to 54 holes after Friday’s scheduled second round was rained out.