GOLF ROUNDUP : Henke Even Surprises Himself, Wins by Two

Winning the Atlanta Classic never entered Nolan Henke’s mind.

“I just wanted to go four days without shooting a big number,” he said Sunday after putting together a five-under-par 67, good enough to give him his third victory in five years on the PGA Tour.

Henke broke out of a tie with third-round leader Nick Price on the 15th hole when Price took the first of two consecutive bogeys.

Henke finished with a 72-hole total of 17-under-par 271 on the hilly Atlanta Country Club course at Marietta, Ga., for a two-shot victory over Price, Mark Calcavecchia and Tom Sieckmann.

Price, who began the day with a one-shot lead over Calcavecchia, missed three consecutive greens, beginning at No. 15, and managed to salvage par only on the 17th when he made an eight-foot putt.

Price’s downfall started when he three-putted for bogey on No. 9.

After dropping into a tie for third place, he moved back into a share of second place when he birdied the final hole.

Calcavecchia, who has missed eight cuts this year, closed with a 72 and Sieckmann had a 69.

Henke last won in the 1991 Phoenix Open. His only other victory was at the 1990 B.C. Open.

*

Harold Henning, who started the day seven strokes behind George Archer, shot a seven-under-par 65 and won a playoff with Tom Weiskopf and Don January in the Legends of Golf tournament at Austin, Tex.

With his first victory of the year, Henning earned $250,000, the richest prize in senior golf.

Henning salvaged a par after hitting his tee shot into a bunker on the 191-yard, par-three 17th hole, the second hole of the playoff, and beat January, who bogeyed.

January and Henning had par fours on the first playoff hole, and Weiskopf, angry because January was delayed in getting to the tee, took four shots to get to the green. He declined to putt out.

Weiskopf said before he left: “We had to wait 15 minutes on the tee for January. That’s bull.”

Henning, January and Weiskopf all birdied the last hole, a 546-yard par five, to tie at 12-under and force the storm-plagued tournament into sudden death.

*

Meg Mallon made a 20-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to beat Tina Tombs and win the $525,000 Sara Lee Classic at Nashville, Tenn.

Tombs, who had a personal-best round of 64, missed a 20-foot putt inches to the left on No. 9 that would have sent the playoff to a fourth hole.