Estes’ Desert Gamble Hits a Jackpot

Bob Estes has always been known as the kind of player who plods his way around, careful not to take too many chances. He took a big one Sunday with his ball stuck in a desert bush, and came up a winner.

Estes kept his hopes alive by hitting a driver out of a bush for a miracle par on No. 6, then played nearly perfect golf the rest of the way in shooting a nine-under-par 63 to win the Invensys at Las Vegas Classic.

Estes came from five shots off the lead with a barrage of birdies, but it was the par he made on No. 6 that was critical in beating Tom Lehman and Rory Sabbatini by a stroke for his third career win.

“I don’t think anybody can call me conservative anymore,” Estes said. “My tournament was one shot away from being over when I hit that shot.”

Estes had made three birdies to get in contention when he hit a three-wood off the tee into the desert to the left of the sixth fairway. When he got to his ball, he found it perched waist high in the middle of a bush.

Estes choked up on his driver and swung at the bush. The ball dribbled out over the cart path into the rough. From there, he hit a nine-iron under one tree and over another to 45 feet, then made the curling downhill putt for par.

Estes went on to take the lead for good with a two-putt birdie on 16. He finished at 30-under for the five rounds to win the $810,000 first prize.

Scott McCarron, who began the final round three shots ahead of the field, had a triple-bogey on No. 4 and never recovered. Davis Love III finished fourth with a course-record 61. John Daly shot a 67 and finished tied for seventh.

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Ian Woosnam defeated Padraig Harrington, 2 and 1, at Virginia Water, England, to become, at 43, the oldest World Match Play champion.

Woosnam was invited to participate after British Open champion David Duval and PGA winner David Toms declined to fly across the Atlantic in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

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Sammy Rachels made a 30-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole to cap a final-round 69 to finish at 14-under 202 and win The Transamerica at Napa by one stroke over Raymond Floyd and Doug Tewell .... Ben Crane made a 12-foot birdie putt on the fourth extra hole to win a three-man playoff in the Buy.com Tour’s Gila River Classic at Chandler, Ariz.

Tennis

Lindsay Davenport beat Justine Henin of Belgium 7-5, 6-4, to win the Porsche Grand Prix at Filderstadt, Germany.

Davenport was in her eighth final of the year, having advanced when top-seeded Martina Hingis quit during their semifinal Saturday because of a torn ligament in her right ankle.

Hingis was scheduled to have surgery Sunday and is expected to be out six weeks.

The loss cost Hingis the No. 1 ranking, which she had held for 209 weeks, including the last 73 in a row. Jennifer Capriati moves into the top spot for the first time.

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Andy Roddick beat India’s Leander Paes, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5, to clinch the United States’ 4-1 victory over India in their Davis Cup World Group qualifier at Winston-Salem, N.C. James Blake capped it with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Harsh Mankad.

The U.S. advanced to the 16-team World Group in 2002. India is relegated to zonal play next year.

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Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia won his first ATP title, beating Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco, 6-3, 6-2, at Lyon, France, in the final of the $800,000 Lyon Grand Prix. .... Germany’s Tommy Haas won the $800,000 CA Trophy at Vienna, beating Argentina’s Guillermo Canas, 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-4 for his third title of the year .... Monica Seles overpowered Nicole Pratt of Australia 6-2, 6-3, to win the $140,000 Kiwi Open at Shanghai

Motor Racing

Michael Schumacher came up with a perfect ending to a championship season, winning the Japan Grand Prix for his record-tying ninth victory of 2001.

The German started from the pole in his Ferrari, opened a three-second lead on the first lap, and was in control the rest of the way. He finished the 53-lap race at the 3.6-mile Suzuka circuit in western Japan in 1 hour, 27 minutes, 33.298 seconds.

The victory allowed Schumacher to pass Alain Prost’s record of 798.5 career championships points.

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Rain washed out the Old Dominion 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race at Martinsville, Va. Officials rescheduled it for today at 11 a.m.

Todd Bodine will start on the pole for the 500-lap event on the .526-mile track, the oldest and shortest in the Winston Cup series. The race will be broadcast on TNT.

NASCAR also announced that its Winston Cup teams will have to use the same engine to qualify and race next season.

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Randy LaJoie won the Sam’s Town 250 at Millington, Tenn. LaJoie, a Busch series veteran, had not won a race since Daytona on Feb. 17 .... Townsend Bell of San Luis Obispo led every lap of the Dayton Indy Lights support race at Laguna Seca and in doing so clinched the series championship .... Italy’s Valentino Rossi won the 500cc world motorcycle championship, edging countryman Max Biaggi by 0.013 seconds to win the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, Australia. On Saturday, Australian rider Clint Farr died after two motorcycles collided during a Super Sport support race. Farr, 21, was airlifted from the track and died in a hospital, race officials said.