It’s Close, but Estes Gets His Win

Bob Estes survived with an even-par 71 Sunday to finish off a wire-to-wire victory in the St. Jude Classic at Memphis, Tenn., for his second win on the PGA Tour, holding off Bernhard Langer by a stroke.

Estes started the day with a one-stroke lead over John Daly and Scott McCarron and was ahead by four through 13 holes.

Then Estes, who opened the tournament with a course-tying 61, made it interesting as he bogeyed two consecutive holes to reduce his lead to a stroke.

He finished off his first victory since the 1994 Texas Open with difficult par saves on Nos. 16 and 17 to pick up the biggest check of his career, $630,000. He finished with a 17-under 267 total.

“I guess that’s the only way I can do it now,” Estes said. “Now I know I have to get off to a good start every week if I hope to win more tournaments.

“I made it a little tougher than I meant to. I wanted a four- to five-stroke cushion coming down the stretch. You only got to win by one, don’t you?”

Langer (66) finished second, while Tom Lehman (66) and McCarron (72) were tied for third at 269. Two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange (69), Paul Goydos (68) and Daly (73) were all at 270.

Daly, who last won at the 1995 British Open, had his best round in years on Saturday with a 63. He struggled with his short irons and putter after three consecutive rounds in the 60s.

Estes could have put away the title on the front nine but missed short birdie putts on Nos. 5, 6 and 7. He led by four strokes despite missing birdie putts on the 11th and 12th holes.

That’s when he ran into trouble with only his second and third bogeys of the tournament. He hit a tee shot on the par-three 14th way left into the rough and couldn’t get up and down. His tee shot on the par-four 15th wound up behind some trees, forcing him to punch out into the fairway.

As Estes bogeyed No. 15, Langer made a long birdie putt that put him at 16 under and a stroke off the lead.

Estes settled down and sealed his victory on the par-five 16th with a tough par. He hit his second shot into a bunker next to the green, came out through the green then chipped back onto the green for a short par putt. He also pulled out a par after a poor tee shot on 17.

After a long slump, Laura Davies is soaring again.

“If I can get a run of good weeks, then I’ll be right up there in the clouds again,” the 37-year-old Englishwoman said after winning the Rochester International for her 20th victory on the LPGA Tour.

Davies shot a two-over-par 74 at the tree-lined Locust Hill course in Rochester, N.Y., spoiling a largely trouble-free round with a double-bogey on the final hole. She finished at nine-under 279.

That was three strokes better than Wendy Ward, who finished with the day’s best round of 67, and Maria Hjorth of Sweden, who shot a 72.

Davies’ previous victory was 16 months ago at the Los Angeles Women’s Championship. If she wins two more tournaments--or wins her fifth major--it would qualify her for the Hall of Fame.

John Schroeder tapped in a one-foot putt on the second playoff hole to beat Allen Doyle in the NFL Golf Classic at Clifton, N.J., and earn his first victory on the Senior PGA Tour.

Both players parred the first playoff hole, the par-five 18th. But on the par-three 17th, the second playoff hole, Schroeder put his first shot on the edge of the green to the left of the pin and putted to within a foot of the cup to set up the winning shot.

Doyle played his first shot short of the green, hit an uncharacteristic poor chip and missed a 12-foot putt for par.

The victory, worth $180,000, gives Schroeder a full exemption for the next calendar year and earns him a berth in the 2002 MasterCard Championship in Hawaii. It increases his 2001 earnings to $401,361.

Colin Montgomerie is set to play the U.S. Open after receiving treatment for a back injury. The tournament at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla., begins Thursday.

Montgomerie, 37, withdrew from the English Open at Meriden, England, during Friday’s second round because of a sore back. He has received treatment in London the last two days.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Up Next

This week’s tournaments:

* PGA: U.S. Open, Thursday-Sunday, Southern Hills, Tulsa, Okla.

* LPGA: Evian Masters, Thursday-Sunday, Evian-les-Bains, France.

* Seniors: Instinet Classic, Friday-Sunday, Princeton, N.J.