GOLF ROUNDUP : Price Proves He’s a Player With Big Win

Nick Price, with those around him faltering, shot a five-under-par 67 Sunday to cruise to a victory in the Players Championship at Ponte Vedra, Fla.

Price won by five strokes in a wire-to-wire triumph.

Of the 11 men closest to his 54-hole lead, only two could break par in the final round. Price won with a 270 total on the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, three strokes better than the course record set by Mark McCumber in 1988. Price earned $450,000.

Bernhard Langer of Germany shot a 71 and took second at 275. “I was always trying to win the tournament, but (Price) just kept making birdies and Greg (Norman) and I just kept struggling to make the putts,” Langer said.

Norman posed the last threat to Price. But Norman’s bid failed when his tee shot slipped off the island green and into the pond on the 17th. A bogey-bogey finish left Norman with a par 72, dropping behind Langer and into a tie for third with Gil Morgan at 276.

Bob Charles had an eagle and birdie on two of the last three holes to finish with a 69 and a one-shot victory over Jim Ferree in the Senior PGA Doug Sanders Celebrity Classic at Kingwood, Tex.

Charles earned $75,000 for a victory that came exactly 30 years after he won for the first time on the regular PGA Tour at the 1963 Houston Open.

Charles had a three-day total of eight-under-par 208 on the par-72 Deerwood Club course in suburban Houston. Bob Murphy shot a 70 to finish two shots behind, along with Harold Henning and Mike Hill.

Lee Trevino sank four consecutive birdie putts on the back nine and rallied for a two-shot victory over Canada’s Gary Cowan in the Fuji Electric Grandslam senior championship at Kurimotomachi, Japan.

Trevino’s five-under-par 67 gave him a nine-under 207 total over the 6,657-yard, par-72 Oak Hills Country Club course.