Breaks Go Duval’s Way Again

Having finally won on the PGA Tour, David Duval last week explained the difference between his victory last weekend and his seven runner-up finishes in 92 previous tournaments.

“Breaks,” he said. “Basically, that’s what it boils down to.”

On Sunday, at Lake Buena Vista, Fla., he showed what he meant.

Duval won for the second week in a row by holing a 15-foot par putt on the first playoff hole against Dan Forsman.

Maybe it was his drive on No. 17 that hit smack into a tree guarding the lake, but ricocheted safely onto the fairway to set up a birdie instead of taking a splash for an almost certain bogey.

It could have been his 60-foot putt on the 11th hole when he trailed Forsman by two strokes. Instead of rolling by the hole on a green dried out by whipping winds, it plopped into the cup for a birdie.

“I’m looking at bogey and I made a birdie,” he said. “That was huge. That threw me right back in the mix.”

Or perhaps it was the extra hop that Forsman’s ball took on the first playoff hole, giving him a nasty lie in the collar of the Bermuda rough. Forsman stubbed the wedge from 30 feet, then missed his 20-foot par putt.

“If he was going to win the golf tournament, maybe he would have had a nice little lie,” Duval said.

After three years of explaining why he couldn’t win, everything is starting to bounce Duval’s way.

“I think there is a lot to be said for those breaks,” Duval said. “I always said that the breaks are going to even out. Maybe I’m getting some of the breaks as they are going now.”

Duval, who closed with a two-under-par 70 for a 270 total, is believed to be the first player to win a playoff in consecutive weeks.

Len Mattiace, who started the final round with a two-stroke lead over Duval and Forsman, shot a 74 and finished tied for third with Ted Tryba at 272.

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Sweden’s Joakim Haeggman shot a record-tying 27 for nine holes in defeating American Justin Leonard in the semifinals, but was outplayed by Ernie Els in the final at St. Andrews, Scotland, as South Africa won its first Dunhill Cup.

Haeggman’s record performance on the first nine helped the Swedes top the defending champion United States, 2-1, for a place in the final. That didn’t unsettle Els, who clinched the $1.6-million title with a final-round 69 to beat the Swede by three shots and give South Africa a 2-1 victory.

South Africa’s Retief Goosen, who won all five of his matches in the tournament, shot a 70 to beat Jesper Parnevik by four. Sweden’s Per-Ulrik Johansson shot a 71 to beat David Frost by three, before Els clinched the victory for the South Africans.

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Juli Inkster birdied the first hole of a playoff to defeat Kelly Robbins and Helen Alfredsson and win the $525,000 World Championship of Women’s Golf at Seoul, South Korea.

Inkster was in fifth place entering the last round, but she shot a five-under-par 67 to pull even with Robbins and Alfredsson after regulation at eight-under 280.

Inkster won the top prize of $131,000 with a 12-foot putt on the first extra hole.

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Shooting a one-over-par 73 for a tournament-record 10-under 278 total, Steve Flesch won the Nike Tour Championship at Opelika, Ala. to earn a spot on the 1998 PGA Tour.

Flesch, 30, from Union, Ky., earned $54,000 to jump from 24th to fourth on the money list with $133,190. The top 15 players on the list earned 1998 PGA Tour exemptions.