GOLF ROUNDUP : Colbert Hangs On for Players Crown

Jim Colbert didn’t make a bogey until the final hole Sunday. By then, it didn’t matter.

Colbert had a big enough lead and won the Senior Players Championship by one stroke over Raymond Floyd.

Colbert shot a three-under-par 69 in the final round at Dearborn, Mich., to finish at 10-under 278 and collect the $180,000 winner’s prize. It was the seventh senior victory--but the first major--for Colbert.

Floyd shot a 68 to finish at 279. Al Geiberger was another shot back at 280 after a closing 66.

Colbert and Rocky Thompson were tied for the lead at 209 after three rounds, one shot ahead of New Zealander Bob Charles.

Colbert birdied the fourth and ninth holes to turn at nine under, three shots ahead of his nearest competitor. But things tightened on the final nine holes. Floyd and Geiberger each made a run to close within one stroke, but Colbert hung tough.

Colbert birdied the par-three 15th to go 10 under, then rolled in a twisting putt on the two-tiered 16th to go 11 under. That gave him a three-shot lead again, this time with only two holes to play.

Still, he made it exciting at the par-five 17th, where his third shot ran across the green before stopping a foot short of dropping off into the water. Then, at the 18th, his approach landed in a greenside bunker. He blasted out and made a two-putt bogey, his only bogey of the day.

“I could have gone in the water at the 17th,” Colbert said. “My caddie, Willie Miller, was having a heart attack. But it finally stopped. Such things happen. On the 18th, I slammed a five-wood in there when I should have hit an easy three-iron.

“It was the only bogey I made. Yet the only time I did, it was when I was OK.”

“This is a frightening golf course,” Geiberger said. “It’s not a course you can relax on. It’s like walking through a mine field.”

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Nick Price, using a borrowed putter, found the touch that eluded him at the U.S. Open and shot a five-under-par 65 to win the Greater Hartford Open by a stroke.

Price played bogey-free golf for the final 28 holes at Cromwell, Conn., and finished the tournament at nine-under 271. Dan Forsman and Roger Maltbie birdied the final hole to finish at 272.

“I can’t tell you how much this means to me,” Price said. “I played so well last week (at the Open) and to end up losing everything on the greens was just so hard to accept especially since I was putting so well recently.

“But this week has more than made up for everything. I’m just glad I found another putter.”

Last week, Price became upset over ads being run by the manufacturer of his putter. So he borrowed a putter from Denis Watson on Friday, and he started making some putts Sunday.

Price birdied the eighth and ninth holes to move into a tie with Corey Pavin for the lead at seven under. He then parred the next three holes and took over sole possession of first when Pavin bogeyed the 11th hole.

Price extended his lead to three strokes when he birdied the 13th and 14th and parred the rest of the way in.

Pavin shot a 69 and finished fourth at 274.

Forsman shot a 65 and finished second in this tournament for the third time in five years.

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Shelley Hamlin birdied the 15th and 16th holes after losing a three-stroke lead and won the $450,000 ShopRite LPGA Classic by two strokes in a record performance at Somers Point, N.J.

The victory was the third for the 44-year-old golfer and her second since breast cancer surgery two years ago. Her nine-under-par 204 total for 54 holes broke the mark of seven-under set by Juli Inkster in 1988.

Hamlin won the $67,500 top prize by shooting a one-under 70 and withstanding a challenge that at one point featured eight players within two shots of the lead.

That came after Hamlin bogeyed the par-three 14th to fall into a tie for the lead with Danielle Ammaccapane at seven-under. Beth Daniel, Amy Benz and Martha Faulconer were all one stroke back, with defending champion Anne-Marie Palli, Judy Dickinson and Brandie Burton two off the lead.

Hamlin took control at the par-four 15th. She hit her second shot to within 12 feet and made the putt to take the lead at eight under.

Daniel, Benz and Dickinson tied for second at seven under.