Damron Holds Off Verplank

First came the comeback bid from Tiger Woods, then a gutsy challenge by hometown favorite Scott Verplank.

Robert Damron withstood it all Sunday to win the Byron Nelson Classic at Irving, Texas, on the fourth playoff hole for his first PGA Tour victory.

Damron, after leaving two potential winning putts on the lip, rolled an 18-footer into the heart of the cup on the par-three 17th and thrust his fist into the air. Verplank’s birdie putt from 15 feet never had a chance.

“It’s been such a long day, so many holes,” Damron said. “It was so up and down. It hasn’t really soaked in yet.”

Woods was long gone when the winning putt fell, although he managed to make it interesting with seven birdies on his first 12 holes to tie for the lead. He finished with a seven-under 63, and wound up three strokes back after a strong finish from Damron and Verplank.

Damron became the first player in seven years to make the Nelson Classic his first victory, and it came in his 132nd start on tour.

He earned $810,000--more than he won in any of his four full seasons on tour--and became a surprising winner in a field that featured five of the top seven players in the world and 23 of the top 30 on the money list.

Damron and Verplank, who was trying to become the first Dallas-born player to win the Nelson Classic, closed with 66s to finish at 263.

Verplank turned in a gritty performance with birdies on three of the last four holes. The final one was a birdie putt from 15 feet that forced the third consecutive Nelson playoff. He didn’t have a birdie putt longer than 18 feet in the playoff, and three of them were one turn away from falling.

Woods, in his first tournament since winning the Masters four weeks ago, wasn’t particularly sharp. Still, he required only 21 putts and was tied for the lead until Damron and Verplank pulled away.

“I did notice on No. 4 that Tiger had already gotten to 14 under,” Damron said. “I just remember thinking, ‘Wow, I’m glad he doesn’t have many more holes to go.’ ”

It was the second consecutive year Woods went into the final round chasing the lead and closed with a 63, only to come up short. A year ago, he finished one stroke out of a three-man playoff.

“I’m very pleased that I was able to hang in there and not really have my best stuff,” Woods said. He leaves tonight to play in the Deutsche Bank tournament in Germany.

This time, he ended up tied for third with David Duval (67) and Nick Price, who had control of the tournament until giving up shots on the 16th and 17th holes and settling for a 67.

That set the stage for Verplank and Damron, and both handled the pressure and hot temperatures with one clutch shot after another.

“I’m disappointed I didn’t win the tournament, but other than not winning, I couldn’t ask for anything else,” Verplank said.

Juli Inkster didn’t begin the final round thinking about winning, not with Annika Sorenstam at the top of a crowded leaderboard. Three quick birdies changed her mind.

“When I birdied three, four and five to get to nine under and they were at 10, I’m like, ‘We got a ballgame now,’ ” Inkster said. “That’s when I was in the tournament to win.”

Inkster shot a final-round 65 for a 14-under 274 to hold off Catriona Matthew by one stroke in the LPGA’s Electrolux USA Championship at Franklin, Tenn.

Sorenstam struggled with her putting in a round of 70 for a 12-under 276 to fall two strokes short in a bid for her second consecutive win and sixth in her last seven events.

Inkster had eight birdies and a bogey in her best round of the year. Matthew closed with a 69.

Sorenstam had her chances to win but missed a four-footer for birdie on No. 17. As Inkster birdied the par-five 18th, Sorenstam put her tee shot into the left rough and managed only a par after laying up. She said she would have been aggressive if Inkster had not birdied just ahead of her.

“I was in the position I wanted to be in. This time it didn’t happen,” Sorenstam said. “It’s happened before this year, so I can’t be too hard on myself.”

Pat Hurst, the defending champion who led by a stroke entering the round, had her worst round (74) on the Legends Club course to tie for seventh at nine-under.

Leonard Thompson defeated Vicente Fernandez of Argentina, 2-up, to win the Senior PGA Tour’s Enterprise Rent-a-Car Match Play Championship at Augusta, Mo.

Fernandez sent the match to the 18th hole with a birdie on the par-five 17th, but hit his second shot on the final hole into the water.

He then conceded the hole, and the match, to Thompson.

In the semifinals, Thompson defeated Hale Irwin, 4 and 3; and Fernandez defeated Bob Gilder, 6 and 5.

The victory was Thompson’s third on the senior tour. He did not make a bogey over the last 41 holes of the event, which started with two rounds of stroke play followed by a 16-man match play bracket.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Up Next

This week’s schedule for golf’s major tours:

PGA

Thursday-Sunday--Colonial, Fort Worth.

SENIOR

Friday-Sunday--TD Waterhouse Championship, Kansas City, Mo.

LPGA

Friday-Sunday--Champions Classic, Beavercreek, Ohio.