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Sanders Was the King After Hope Playoff

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

For a while, it looked as if there might be a 10-man playoff at the rainy 1966 Bob Hope Desert Classic.

That’s how many golfers were within a stroke of each other on the final nine holes at Indian Wells Country Club. But only Doug Sanders and Arnold Palmer finished the 18th tied, and Sanders won it by sinking a six-foot birdie putt on a par-three playoff hole.

Sanders had started the day six strokes behind Harold “Catfish” Kneece, who had led after the second, third and fourth rounds of the 90-hole tournament. But Sanders’ short-iron game caught fire on the back nine and he finished with a 66.

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In his final round, Sanders left himself with three 18-inch birdie putts after two wedges and a nine iron.

Palmer, who muffed an easy putt at 17 that would have earned him the $15,000 first-prize money, shot a 70. Phil Rodgers and Mike Souchak were in position to catch both on the 18th but faltered.

A TV network asked that the 145-yard 15th hole be used as the playoff hole, and Sanders put a seven-iron shot six feet from the pin. He made the putt, but later said: “It looked like 40 feet, not six.”

Palmer said he was distracted on his short putt at 17 by a landslide, which began on a rocky hill by the hole.

Whatever, his four-foot putt wasn’t close.

“It was a very bad putt, one of the worst I’ve ever hit,” he lamented.

Also on this date: In 1958, Ted Williams, 39, signed a $135,000 contract with the Red Sox, at the time the richest deal ever in baseball. . . . In 1967, Muhammad Ali defended his heavyweight championship for the eighth time with an easy decision over Ernie Terrell. . . . In 1990, Brett Hull joined father Bobby as the only father-son hockey players to score 50 goals in a season. . . . In 1960, NBA rookie Wilt Chamberlain scored 44 points and had 45 rebounds to lead Philadelphia to a win over Syracuse. . . . In 1960, University of Cincinnati star Oscar Robertson became major college basketball’s all-time leading scorer when he scored 29 points against Houston.

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