Watson Strolls in Hogan’s Alley

Tom Watson secretly believed he might never win again.

But he did win, and the wait wasn’t nearly as long as last time.

Watson, 48, pulled away with a four-under-par 66 Sunday and won the MasterCard Colonial at Fort Worth, Texas by two strokes with a 15-under 265.

“Winning at my age is a rarity,” Watson said. “And at the beginning of the week I didn’t give myself much chance.”

Watson, who ended a nine-year victory drought when he won The Memorial in 1996, won his 39th tournament in his 26 years as a professional.

Watson finished two strokes ahead of 28-year-old Jim Furyk, who closed with a 68.

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Colin Montgomerie shot a seven-under 65 to take a one-stroke lead going into the final round of the Volvo PGA Championship at Virginia Water, England.

Montgomerie had six birdies and an eagle for a three-round total of 205, 11-under par. He is one stroke ahead of fellow Scotsman Dean Robertson and Sweden’s Mats Hallberg. Robertson shot a 67, Hallberg 69.

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Jay Sigel made a seven-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to beat Jose Maria Canizares and win the Senior Bell Atlantic Classic at Avondale, Pa. Sigel and Canizares each finished 54 holes at 11-under 205.

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Tammie Green shot a final-round 65 and won the Corning Classic by seven strokes over Brandie Burton and Emilee Klein at Corning, N.Y. Green finished with a 72-hole total 20-under 268.

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Despite erratic play, Laura Davies won the LPGA Skins Game at Frisco, Texas for the second time. She got three skins worth $120,000 to give her $270,000 in the two-day competition.

Tennis

UCLA was swept out of the NCAA men’s tennis championships by Stanford, which rolled to a 5-0 quarterfinal victory Sunday at Athens, Georgia.

The No. 1-seeded Cardinal, winner of 37 consecutive matches dating to last season, is looking for its fourth consecutive championship.

Stanford took a 1-0 lead after Paul Goldstein and Ryan Wolters rallied from a 5-1 deficit to win 8-5 over the Bruins’ Alex Decret and Brandon Kramer.

In singles play, Wolters defeated UCLA’s Jason Cook, 6-3, 6-3, and the Cardinal momentum carried over into Geoff Abrams victory over Decret.

In other matches, third-seeded Georgia defeated Pepperdine, 4-2, and second-seeded Louisiana State stopped Mississippi, 4-0.

Top-seeded Florida capped a perfect season with a 5-1 victory over No. 3 Duke to win its third NCAA Division I women’s tennis championship at South Bend, Ind.

Nicolas Kiefer upset Petr Korda at the World Team Cup, helping a young German team win the title against the Czech Republic at Duesseldorf, Germany.

Kiefer, buoyed by the home crowd, defeated the world’s No. 2 player, 7-5, 6-3, as Germany swept the final, 3-0, at the eight-nation tournament.

Track and Field

The UCLA men’s and women’s teams won championships at the Pacific 10 Conference meet at Palo Alto. It was the sixth conference title of the ‘90s for each program.

The Bruin men finished with 135.5 points to outdistance USC (115). The Bruin women had 174 points to finish ahead of Stanford (136) and USC (121).

Softball

Two-time defending champion Arizona remained unbeaten with a victory over Oklahoma State and Fresno State eliminated Washington to set up the championship game of the NCAA Women’s College World Series at Oklahoma City.

Fresno State must defeat Arizona twice to win the title. The Wildcats, who have won 29 games in a row, are looking to become only the second team to ever win three consecutive titles.

Miscellany

Fans of the Greek basketball team Panathinaikos Athens clashed with police at Athens, Greece and set fire to a subway station under construction after their club clinched their first national championship in 14 years.

Panathinaikos, which won the European championship in 1996, was led to a 68-58 victory over PAOK by former NBA guard Byron Scott, who scored 23 points.

Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, which hurled flares and fire bombs at the Omonia metro station.

Grant Dalton’s Merit Cup was first across the finish line in the final leg of the Whitbread Round the World yacht race at Southampton, England, though Paul Cayard’s EF Language already had won the overall title.

Dalton’s second-stage win put his team ahead of Swedish Match in the final standings, 698 points to 689. Cayard’s crew won the title with 836 points.

The No. 1-seeded team of Jose Loiola and Kent Steffes beat 18th-seeded Roberto Lopes and Franco Neto, 15-6, in the beach volleyball finals of the Coppertone Championships at Daytona Beach, Fla.