Playoff Victory for Sluman

With the help of a tree and a ditch, Jeff Sluman finally won a sudden-death playoff.

After going 0 for 6 in previous playoffs, Sluman made an eight-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff with Australian rookie Paul Gow on Sunday to win the B.C. Open at Endicott, N.Y.

“I’ve lost them in one-man, two-man, six-man playoffs, just about everything,” said Sluman, who lost in a six-man playoff in the Nissan Open in February at Riviera Country Club. “I wanted to get off the ‘schneid’ and I did. It makes me feel pretty good.”

It didn’t come easily.

After squandering a two-stroke lead on the final hole of regulation, and scrambling to save par on the first playoff hole, Sluman finally had fortune go his way.

Gow’s tee shot hit a tree, bounced across the 18th fairway and rolled into a concrete, water-filled ditch. With half his ball visible, Gow managed to chip it out of the ditch and into the middle of the fairway, but he was forced to settle for a bogey when he missed a 12-foot putt to save par.

Leaving nothing to chance, Sluman sank the eight-footer for birdie to claim the $360,000 winner’s check. It was Sluman’s fifth PGA Tour victory and first since the 1999 Sony Open in Hawaii.

Sluman and Gow, who began the day as co-leaders at 16 under, shot six-under 66s to finish at 22-under 266. Gow, who had never finished better than a tie for 16th this season, earned $216,000.

Rosie Jones birdied the final hole for a one-under 70 that gave her a one-stroke victory over Laura Diaz in the LPGA Big Apple Classic at New Rochelle, N.Y., a tournament she had come close to winning three times.

It was the first time Americans finished 1-2 in an LPGA tournament since last year’s Betsy King Classic, a span of 28 events. Americans held six of the seven top spots on the final leaderboard.

Jones, 41, won for the second time this year and 12th time in her career. She finished third in this event in 1990 and second in 1993 and again last year by one stroke to Annika Sorenstam.

Dana Quigley had a three-stroke lead on the 17th hole when darkness forced the suspension of the final round of the SBC Senior Open at Long Grove, Ill.

Play was scheduled to resume at 6 a.m. PDT today, with Quigley 45 feet from the hole on the par-three 17th. Second-place Jay Sigel, playing alongside Quigley, had a 20-foot birdie putt.

The players returned to the Kemper Lakes course after a rain delay of 4 hours 15 minutes but did not have enough time to complete the round. Four other players also will finish today.