Waldorf, Lehman Clear Table for Six

You’ve seen two-way and three-way golf playoffs, but a playoff involving six players?

That’s not golf, that’s a bowling team. But there they were Saturday in the Diners Club Matches, six players with six caddies and three golf carts, out there at PGA West trying to decide which two-man PGA Tour team would advance to today’s championship round.

It took two extra holes to decide the winners, who turned out to be Tom Lehman and Duffy Waldorf, but that didn’t happen until after they had to go an extra hole to beat Mark Brooks and Andrew Magee in a playoff.

“From where we came from to where we ended up, it was unbelievable,” Waldorf said.

Waldorf two-putted for par on No. 18, the 20th hole of the day, in what was a very wet final hole. Waldorf and Mike Hulbert were the only two who made it to the green safely--Lehman, Steve Jones, Rick Fehr and Justin Leonard all hit their approaches into the water.

“For four guys to hit it in the water, that’s pretty weird,” Waldorf said after watching Hulbert miss a two-foot par putt on the last hole that would have kept it going.

Waldorf finished fast. He birdied the 18th to even the match with Brooks-Magee, then won it on the first playoff hole after knocking an eight-iron to six inches. Then came the playoff.

As it turned out, it was a twofold victory for Lehman-Waldorf. Not only did it put the pair into today’s final against Scott Hoch-Kenny Perry, it also got them out of the tricky, swirling wind that for most of the day altered the flight of golf balls.

Hoch-Perry scored a 1-up victory against Steve Stricker-Kirk Triplett to get to the final, no thanks to the wind.

“It even affected my putting,” Hoch said. “I had trouble staying steady over the ball.”

It was a day of surprises for Dottie Pepper and Julie Inkster. They didn’t expect to lose, and they did. They didn’t expect to be in a playoff, and they were. And they didn’t expect to be in a playoff with the team they beat Friday, and they were.

Other than that, it was a routine match, if you don’t count a three-hole sudden-death playoff victory over Karrie Webb-Michelle McGann to end the round-robin format.

Inkster’s eight-foot birdie putt won it and set up a championship match today against Tammie Green-Kelly Robbins.

Inkster told Pepper in the morning that all they needed to do was play the way they had been playing and they would be fine.

“Well, we played the way we’ve been playing and we lost,” Pepper said.

Patty Sheehan-Nancy Lopez won, 2-up, which forced Inkster-Pepper into a sudden-death playoff with McGann-Webb to decide which team would play Green-Robbins.

Of course, Inkster-Pepper had beaten McGann-Webb on Friday and now here they were again.

“We already beat ‘em once,” Pepper said. “What more do we have to do?”

The Jim Colbert-Bob Murphy team, which won last year’s Senior PGA Tour division, has a chance to bank another $220,000 if it can defeat Vicente Fernandez-Jay Sigel.

Colbert-Murphy defeated Jimmy Powell-Larry Mowry, 3 and 2, and Fernandez-Sigel defeated Hale Irwin-Dave Stockton, 4 and 3.