GOLF ROUNDUP : Jacklin Shoots a 68 to Win Senior Event

Tony Jacklin, five weeks removed from his 50th birthday and playing on a sponsor’s exemption, shot a four-under 68 on Sunday and won the Senior PGA Tour’s rain-shortened First of America Classic at Grand Rapids, Mich.

The event was shortened to 36 holes when rain washed out Saturday’s round.

Jacklin, the 1969 British Open champion and 1970 U.S. Open winner, beat Dave Stockton by one stroke in only his fourth start on the Senior Tour.

It was his first victory in the United States since the 1972 Greater Jacksonville Open and his first professional victory since the 1982 Sun Alliance PGA Championship.

Jacklin, two strokes off the lead when play began, finished with an eight-under 136. His second 68 included an eagle on the 513-yard, par-five 13th hole at Egypt Valley Country Club.

“This is great,” said Jacklin, who earned $97,500. “I am just so happy. I can tell you I didn’t expect to win this early.”

Lee Trevino and Jim Albus finished two strokes behind. Trevino shot a 66 on Sunday. Albus, who shared the first-round lead at 66 and was seeking his second consecutive victory, had a 72.

British Seniors champion Tom Wargo and Harry Toscano tied for fifth at 139, with John Paul Cain and Jimmy Powell another shot back.

Trevino, who has won six times this year, earned $42,900 and passed Bob Charles as the tour’s all-time money leader with $5,076,469.

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Maggie Will survived the first playoff hole despite a bogey, then birdied the second to beat Jill Briles-Hinton and Alicia Dibos in the inaugural Children’s Medical Center LPGA Classic at Beavercreek, Ohio.

Will, 29, of Whiteville, N.C., rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt to close out the playoff and collect $52,500 from a purse of $350,000.

It was the third victory in her six-year career and her first top-10 finish since 1992.

Her third consecutive round of two-under 70 got her to six-under 210 and into the playoff. She made a 24-foot, side-hill birdie putt on the 18th hole to jump into a share of the lead.

Briles-Hinton had a two-stroke lead heading to 18, but she bogeyed the hole while Will and Dibos, the 36-hole leader by one stroke, each birdied to force extra holes.

“You always have the feeling that somebody else will knock it in,” said Briles-Hinton, a non-winner in eight years and 213 tournaments as a pro. “That way you won’t be so disappointed when they do.”

Beth Daniel, the tour’s No. 2 money winner, missed a 10-foot birdie putt on 18 that would have put her in the playoff. She had a final-round 71.