Simpson Wins Rain-Plagued Event

The most difficult part of Scott Simpson’s playoff victory at the rain-shortened Buick Invitational at San Diego might have been the 90 minutes he was watching TV. Or it might have been the five years he spent wondering if he would ever win again.

“I was watching and thinking, ‘Geez, these guys can’t make any birdie putts,’ ” Simpson said after he made a four-foot birdie putt on the first sudden-death hole and Skip Kendall missed a three-footer to extend the playoff.

“I really thought someone would burst through and get to 14 or 15 under,” Simpson said.

He needed to finish only three holes Sunday in the rain-shortened 54-hole event and got into the clubhouse at 12-under par. Then he watched Tiger Woods, Davis Love III and Kevin Sutherland miss chances to catch or pass him.

All three finished one stroke back.

Woods left a 40-foot eagle putt a foot short on the final hole. Love’s chip for eagle from 50 feet on No. 18 missed by inches. And Sutherland missed a 12-foot birdie try on the hole.

Only Kendall, with a birdie on the last hole, was able to catch Simpson.

“I definitely dodged a lot of bullets today,” Simpson said. “And I tell you, I didn’t know if I would ever win again.”

But win he did, needing only 23 putts in shooting a 64 in a third round that started on Saturday and ended on Sunday. It was Simpson’s seventh PGA Tour victory, including the 1987 U.S. Open, but first since the 1993 Byron Nelson Classic.

Playing this year on a one-time special exemption because he is among the top-50 on the career money list, Simpson tied a tour record by coming from eight strokes back in the final round to win.

For Kendall, it was his best finish in 108 tour starts, and he will try to remember it more for the putt he made on the last hole of regulation to force the playoff than for the putt he missed to lose.

“I’m not going to lie, it hurts,” Kendall said. “But I’m happy with what I did this morning to get into the playoff.”

The soggy victory by Simpson ended another sloppy week in which El Nino storms moving into California made it impossible for the PGA Tour to play a full 72-hole event.

Last Monday, Pebble Beach was suspended after 36 holes and will be completed as a 54-hole tournament on Aug. 17.

After a torrential storm on Friday, nearly an inch more rain drenched the Torrey Pines course overnight. Soaked greens and water-filled bunkers made it impossible to resume the third round as early as planned.

By mid-morning, the PGA Tour decided to scrap plans to try to finish the third and fourth rounds on the same day and reduced the tournament to a 54-hole event.

Simpson, Steve Pate, Bob Tway and Sutherland went back out to resume the third round, tied for the lead at 11-under.

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Gil Morgan, who started the day five shots behind, claimed his second victory of the season with a dramatic chip-in eagle on the par-five finishing hole to win the $180,000 Senior LG Championship at Naples, Fla.

Morgan finished at six-under-par, two shots better than Dale Douglass and Raymond Floyd.

Second-round leader Jim Albus, looking for his first victory since 1995 after two injury-plagued seasons, fell out of contention with a 77.

Standing 199 yards from the flagstick on the par-five finishing hole, Morgan made the decision to go for the green over water.

The shot cleared the hazard bulkhead and stopped in rough, 40 yards from the hole.

He then used a sand wedge, the ball hitting the green, bouncing once and rolling straight into the cup for eagle.

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Greg Norman won his own tournament, the Greg Norman International at Sydney, Australia.

Norman started the last round a stroke behind Jose Maria Olazabal and beat the 1994 Masters champion by two strokes.

Norman, who closed with a five-under-par 67 for a 272 total, won for the first time in the six years of this event.

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South Africa’s Ernie Els won his third South African Open at Durban, South Africa, by three shots over countryman David Frost.

Els shot a final round 69 for a 273 total. Frost finished with a 71 for 276.