GOLF ROUNDUP : Walters’ 74 Good Enough for Victory

Lisa Walters took advantage of Nancy Lopez’s bogey problems on the front nine and survived a double-bogey of her own Saturday to successfully defend her title in the $450,000 Hawaiian Ladies Open at Honolulu.

Walters, who started the final round of the 54-hole tournament one stroke behind Lopez, struggled to a final round two-over-par 74 in swirling winds gusting to 18 m.p.h. and finished at six-under 210. The victory was worth $67,500.

“I don’t think either of us played well,” Walters said. “I was fortunate. I saved pars all day. They were all testers.”

Lopez was at nine-under after the first two rounds, but played the final 18 over the 6,216-yard Ko Olina course in an uncharacteristic 76 to finish at 211, one stroke ahead of the LPGA’s 1992 Player of the Year, Dottie Mochrie, who had a closing 70.

Said Lopez: “I didn’t have any rhythm. I had a lot of long putts. I thought if I made a birdie or two it would get me going, but I never did.”

Gibby Gilbert shot a five-under-par 66 to take a one-stroke lead over Jim Albus into the final round of the Senior Suncoast Classic at the Tournament Players Club of Tampa Bay.

Gilbert has a two-round total of seven-under-par 135. Two strokes out of the lead are Bob Charles (71-66) and Miller Barber (69-68).

Gilbert missed only two greens on his way to a five-birdie, no-bogey second round. Only 14 players in the 78-man field are under par.

“I kept the ball in play and hit greens in regulation,” Gilbert said. “I was putting for 16 birdies.”

Albus, the 1991 Senior Players Championship winner, had five birdies and one bogey for a 68.