Hoch’s Final Round Is a Real Blockbuster : Bob Hope golf: He relaxes after watching movies and wins by three when no one makes a move.

A lot of things were going through Scott Hoch’s mind Saturday night.

He had a four-stroke lead going into the final round of the $1.1-million Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and he was thinking about how he was going to play the final round at Indian Wells.

He was also thinking of the last time he had a four-stroke lead going into the final round. It was the 1987 Memorial. He played poorly in that final round and finished third.

Then there was Augusta. With Hoch, 38, there will always be Augusta. He can’t forget that two-foot putt he missed to lose the Masters in 1989 because everybody keeps reminding him about it.

“I just had to take my mind off of everything and go watch a movie,” Hoch said.

He watched three. His mind was at ease. And so was his swing Sunday at Indian Wells, where he shot a two-under-par 70 for a 90-hole tournament total of 26-under 334 and a three-stroke victory over Fuzzy Zoeller (66), Jim Gallagher (67) and Lennie Clements (67).

Payne Stewart had the day’s best round, a 63, and finished alone in fifth at 338.

Hoch’s fifth career victory in a 15-year career, and his first since the 1989 Las Vegas Invitational, was worth $198,000 to move his career earnings to $4,109,524.

“This really feels great,” Hoch said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve won. I was getting nervous thinking so much about it last night. That’s why I had to go out and watch some movies.”

The first movie he watched, “On Deadly Ground” starring Steven Seagal, provided the inspiration he needed.

“It was an action movie,” he said. “It was just the kind of movie I needed to get me in a frame of mind to kick butt.”

Hoch was determined to play aggressively, but he didn’t want to overdo it and make some foolish mistakes, either.

“There’s a fine line between aggressive play and being too bold,” he said. “My caddie kept telling me all day that all I had to do was make pars and make the field catch me.”

Hoch’s thinking was that he wanted to be aggressive on the par-fives and the short par-fours.

“I knew there were going to be some birdies made,” he said. “I wanted to make mine on the holes I knew I could reach with a short iron and play for pars on the others.”

As the final round unfolded, Hoch didn’t have much to worry about. Nobody made a serious run at him, and the few players who got close either ran out of holes or stopped making birdies.

Bill Glasson, who started the day tied for second, took himself out of contention at the ninth hole when he hit two drives out of bounds.

John Huston played at par and fell back gradually.

Clements came the closest to applying pressure. He birdied three of the first five holes, then birdied the ninth to make the turn in 32 to move to within two strokes of Hoch.

“That was the start I needed, but I couldn’t make anything happen on the back nine,” Clements said. “I was trying to do something, but the putts weren’t falling.”

Hoch birdied the 11th and 14th holes to stretch his lead to four strokes. After that, the only suspense was in the race for second place.

“I was still trying to catch him with four holes to play,” Clements said. “But when he birdied 14, it was over. I’m happy with where I finished. If it had been a little closer, I might have been disappointed, but this is the most I have ever been under par. It puts me in a good frame of mind for San Diego.”

Gallagher also made his brief move with three birdies on the front side.

“What hurt me was not making birdie on eight and 13 (the par fives). I knew I was getting close on the front, but Scott played well and did the things he needed to do to win.”

Hoch had a couple of anxious moments on the front side. A palm tree stopped his drive from going out of bounds on the 517-yard fifth hole.

“It was the only tree out there, and I was lucky the tree knocked the ball down,” he said.

Hoch laid up with his second shot, then hit a sand wedge to six feet to make his birdie.

A gallery marshal cost him a stroke at the seventh hole when his drive hit the marshal in the leg. The ball came to rest behind a tree. Hoch had to chip back to the fairway and wound up with a bogey.

Hoch came back to birdie the eighth hole and par the ninth.

Hoch peeked at the scoreboard and knew he had a two-stroke lead. He birdied the 11th with an eight-foot putt, had a couple of scrambling pars and then had a scrambling birdie at the 483-yard 14th. He went from the rough to a bunker, then blasted to within a foot and tapped it in.

“That was the key shot,” Hoch said of his 60-foot bunker shot. “I’m not usually too good with those, but that one was perfect.”

Although he bogeyed the 17th, his lead was so safe, he teed off on the 501-yard 18th with an iron. He played it safe all the way in and two-putted from 20 feet for his par.

Hoch is happy that he won, but he knows that the stigma of the Masters won’t be soon forgotten.

“I guess it’s nice to be remembered for something,” he said. “There are times when I’m introduced to people who aren’t golf fans, but when they are told that I’m the one who missed that short putt, they say, ‘Oh, yeah, I remember him.’

“But at least I had my shot. That’s why I felt good when Dan Jansen won that gold medal after everything he had been through. It really inspired me. I’m always looking for inspirational things like that.”

Saturday night, the inspiration came from the movies. Hoch will take it.