Murphy Sinks Putt and Rises to the Top

Bob Murphy finished the Senior PGA Tour’s longest day with an unlikely 80-foot putt on the ninth playoff hole to win the Toshiba Senior Classic Sunday.

The putt, which started from the lower tier of the 17th green, rolled over the hump and paused for an instant before falling, gave Murphy the victory over Jay Sigel and the $150,000 first-place check.

It was the longest playoff in senior tour history, surpassing the eight holes it took Orville Moody to beat Bob Betley in the 1992 Franklin Showdown Classic in Utah.

Murphy and Sigel, both former winners of the U.S. Amateur, played their own mini-match play tournament. They played the 16th, 17th and 18th holes three times during the playoff, each making birdie on 18 twice and par on the rest until Murphy’s finishing roll.

“I was sort of getting dizzy,” Sigel said. “We were going around and around and around.”

Murphy had several opportunities to end it earlier, starting with the 18th hole of regulation play, when he missed a six-foot birdie putt to finish 54 holes at six-under-par 207. Sigel, who won $88,000 for second place, had birdied the final three holes to also finish six under. The pair finished regulation one stroke ahead of Bob Charles, Isao Aoki and Gil Morgan.

Murphy missed putts of about eight feet on the fourth and sixth playoff holes, prolonging a day that stretched an hour and a half beyond the expected finish. At one point during the playoff, his wife, Gail, was heard to say: “Just make a putt so we can go home.”

Murphy actually made a dramatic one to stay alive on the seventh playoff hole. It was on the par-five 18, the fourth time he and Sigel had played the hole Sunday.

Sigel had chipped to within a foot for his birdie and Murphy was on the back fringe about 18 feet from the pin. His aggressive putt rolled straight into the hole, sending the twosome back out to the 16th hole.

“That’s everything that you live for, to get yourself in position to win, in that case it was to tie and sometimes those are even harder,” Murphy said. “Boy, when you stand there and you read it and you execute it and it goes in, that’s the greatest feeling.”

Then it was back to the reality of another playoff hole. Murphy said he wasn’t weary. “Adrenaline takes care of that,” he said.

Good fortune took care of the rest. After they parred the par-four 16th, Sigel seemed to get the advantage with his tee shot on the 190-yard, par-three 17th. After Murphy’s five-iron on the 17th easily cleared the water but barely made the green, Sigel hit his tee shot into the middle on the upper tier.

Murphy stepped up to his final putt hoping to only get it close.

“I hit the putt and it went right over my mark,” Murphy said, “it went over the top and started rolling down and I said, ‘Son of a gun, this may go in the hole,’ and it did.

“You never, ever expect to make them. You are trying to two-putt from there. Anywhere inside of four feet I would have said, “Thank you very much and let’s go on to the next hole.’ ”

Instead, Murphy flipped his putter about a few feet behind him, knocked his straw hat off, turned and walked away for several paces, hands holding his shaking head.

Sigel, who was going after his third victory on the senior tour, could only smile. “I asked him jokingly whether that was a chip or a putt.” Sigel said. “That was good stuff.”

Sigel finished the first 18 holes of the day with much better stuff than Murphy. Sigel trailed Murphy by six shots after 10 holes, but made four birdies and no bogeys on the back nine to finish at 70 for the round.

Murphy started the final round one stroke behind David Graham and moved ahead when Graham bogeyed No. 2 and Murphy birdied No. 3. Graham fell way off the pace, shooting 75 and finished in a tie for sixth with Hubert Green, Bruce Crampton and Lee Trevino.

Murphy never got more than one under for the day and consequently couldn’t pull too far away from the pack.

The pack, however, didn’t seem to be up to the chase. The 6,598-yard course at Newport Beach Country Club wasn’t giving up much. Pin positions were tougher and the poa annua greens that the players struggled with all week weren’t getting any easier to read.

At one point, late in regulation play, seven players were at four under, two shots behind Murphy. Murphy saved par with a 10-foot putt on No. 14 and then birdied the par-five 15th for some breathing room.

Morgan and Charles got to five under on 17 and Murphy dropped to six under with a bogey. Morgan and Charles missed birdie putts on 18 that would have put them in the playoff.

“It was a very hard day to score,” said Murphy, who won his 11th senior tour event. “I think we saw that in the results of the tournament. I actually hit four or five shots that were exactly how I wanted them to be and they went over the green.

“It was a hard day to play and it really was a day for a tremendous amount of patience.”

Murphy’s wait certainly was rewarded.

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Scoreboard

FINAL-ROUND SCORES

Sunday’s final-round scores on the 6,598-yard, par-71 (35-36) Newport Beach Country Club course:

*Bob Murphy 65-70-72--207

Jay Sigel 69-68-70--207

*Won on ninth playoff hole

Isao Aoki 68-71-69--208

Gil Morgan 69-69-70--208

Bob Charles 68-68-72--208

Hubert Green 72-68-69--209

Bruce Crampton 66-73-70--209

Lee Trevino 68-69-72--209

David Graham 65-69-75--209

Jim Dent 70-72-68--210

Dick Hendrickson 74-68-68--210

Don Bies 72-68-70--210

Leonard Thompson 68-70-72--210

Dave Stockton 71-71-69--211

Bud Allin 69-72-70--211

Jack Kiefer 71-70-70--211

J.C. Snead 65-74-72--211

Chi Chi Rodriguez 73-67-71--211

Walter Zembriski 71-67-73--211

Simon Hobday 69-74-69--212

Bruce Summerhays 71-72-69--212

John Bland 70-72-70--212

Hale Irwin 72-70-70--212

Gary Player 69-72-71--212

Rocky Thompson 69-72-71--212

David Oakley 69-71-72--212

Walt Morgan 70-73-70--213

Buddy Whitten 70-73-70--213

Bob Eastwood 67-75-71--213

Jim Albus 71-71-71--213

Rick Acton 73-69-71--213

Brian Barnes 72-70-71--213

Dennis Coscina 74-73-67--214

Bobby Stroble 72-74-68--214

John D. Morgan 71-74-69--214

Tom Shaw 69-73-72--214

Jim Ferree 71-71-72--214

Bob Dickson 74-68-72--214

Dale Douglass 70-70-74--214

Tony Jacklin 73-72-70--215

Butch Baird 72-73-70--215

Charles Coody 71-73-71--215

John Jacobs 71-71-73--215

Dave Eichelberger 72-73-71--216

Terry Dill 73-69-74--216

Will Sowles 71-74-72--217

John Schroeder 72-70-75--217

Mike Hill 72-69-76--217

Jerry McGee 75-74-69--218

Larry Gilbert 77-69-72--218

Miller Barber 72-73-73--218

Gibby Gilbert 73-72-73--218

Al Geiberger 74-70-74--218

Tom Wargo 73-74-72--219

Mike McCullough 74-73-72--219

Frank Conner 73-74-72--219

Orville Moody 75-72-72--219

Larry Ziegler 72-74-73--219

Calvin Peete 70-73-76--219

Gay Brewer 75-73-72--220

Tommy Aaron 71-73-76--220

Dave Ojala 69-74-77--220

Don January 77-73-71--221

George Archer 73-74-74--221

Ron Skiles 71-76-74--221

Ray Carrasco 70-75-76--221

DeWitt Weaver 74-75-73--222

Jim Colbert 73-74-75--222

Bob Wynn 75-72-75--222

Harold Henning 74-72-76--222

Bobby Nichols 76-75-72--223

Jimmy Powell 77-76-71--224

Rick Talt 74-78-72--224

Gene Littler 78-74-73--225

Lee Elder 76-75-74--225

Deane Beman 79-72-77--228

Lou Graham 79-79-72--230

Billy Casper 77-83-76--236