Nicklaus Wins as Aoki Has a 9 on Way to a 77

Jack Nicklaus has spent a lifetime winning tournaments with one magnificent charge after another.

On Sunday at Lutz, Fla., Nicklaus played a typically strong closing round. All around him, however, was some bizarre and bungling golf. And that was enough for Nicklaus to win the GTE Suncoast Classic, his ninth victory on the Senior PGA Tour.

“I played well, but those guys gave me the tournament with the things that happened,” said Nicklaus, who shot a four-under-par 67 that included an eagle on the 14th hole.

“All of a sudden I’d been given a gift of a chance to win a golf tournament,” he said.

Consider the wreckage:

--Isao Aoki began the day with a five-stroke lead over Nicklaus, then gave it all away with a nine on the par-four 13th hole in a closing 77.

--Bob Murphy took a triple-bogey eight on the seventh hole when his blast from a bunker caught the lip and bounced back to hit his hat for a two-stroke penalty.

“Murphy’s was just a pure unlucky break for him and Aoki’s was just one strange hole,” Nicklaus said.

Nicklaus finished with a two-under-par 211 to edge J.C. Snead, who finished at one-under 212 after a closing 65.

On the 13th hole, Aoki hooked his tee shot into water. After taking a drop, he left his approach short, then hit three wedges back and forth over the green before finally getting his fourth chip on and two putting.

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Jim Furyk, forced to a playoff when Brad Faxon eagled the last hole of regulation with a 45-foot eagle putt, won the Hawaiian Open in Honolulu with a birdie on the third extra hole.

Furyk, who started the day in third place behind co-leaders Faxon and Steve Stricker, was tied with Stricker from the 10th through 17th holes.

That’s when Faxon jolted the gallery with his spectacular eagle putt, vaulting him into the lead at 11-under 277.

Needing a birdie to tie, Stricker missed a 15-footer.

Furyk two-putted from 25 feet for a birdie, creating the tournament’s first playoff since 1987.

Stricker’s 10-under 278 was good for third place.

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Craig Parry shot a two-under 71 to win the Australian Masters at Melbourne for the third time in five years. Parry, with a 13-under 279, finished two strokes ahead of Bradley Hughes, who bogeyed the last two holes and shot a 73.