Eagles Carry Duval to Victory

David Duval, figuring he needed an eagle on the back nine to make a run at the Shell Houston Open championship, got two and won by one stroke Sunday at The Woodlands, Texas.

“How about that! Good stuff,” Duval said after the eagles vaulted him from five shots back with eight holes to play.

“A lot of things went my way on that back nine,” said Duval, who had an eight-under 64 final round for a 12-under 276 total.

With his victory in February at Tucson, Duval becomes the PGA Tour’s first multiple winner this year. It’s also his fifth victory since October.

He has won five of his last 12 events and is now No. 1 on the money list with $1.24 million, passing Justin Leonard.

Duval, idle since finishing second at the Masters last month, was six shots behind third-round co-leaders Jeff Maggert and Dan Forsman at the start of play Sunday.

At the 10th he buried his approach shot in a bunker and took a bogey that put him at seven under. At the time Lee Janzen was at 12 under.

At the par-five No. 13, his drive left him 200 yards out and his next shot was 25 feet to the right of the hole. The putt went in.

At 15, another par-five, his second shot from 211 yards landed 14 feet from the hole. That putt went in too.

He birdied No. 16 and parred the final two holes.

Maggert finished one shot back, and Fred Couples, with birdies on three of the last four holes, had a 68 to wind up third at 10-under 278.

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Danielle Ammaccapane took care of the wind and the Swedes, shooting a final-round 71 on a tough day for scoring to win the Titleholders Championship at Daytona Beach, Fla. She finished at 12-under 276 for a one-stroke victory over Michelle Estill.

Ammaccapane was the only player among the top six at the start of the final round who managed to break par in winds that reached 30 mph.

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Playing in Hoover, Ala., just down the road from his native Birmingham, Huburt Green had an eagle and four birdies over the final nine holes to finish at 13-under-par 203 and win the Bruno’s Memorial Classic by one stroke over Hale Irwin.

Irwin shot seven under to charge from a fifth-place tie to the lead but was denied a third straight win when Green sank an eight-foot birdie putt on the par-five 18th for his first Senior PGA Tour victory.

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At Aichi, Japan, Davis Love III shot a three-under-par 67 in the rain and won the Chunichi Crowns tournament by eight strokes. . . . At Milan, Italy, Patrick Sjoland of Sweden shot a closing six-under-par 66 to win the Italian Open by three strokes.