McRoy Rallies to Win at B.C.

Get ready Huntsville, Ala., the McRoys are going to have another bell-ringing celebration and it should be the best one yet.

Spike McRoy rallied from seven strokes behind Sunday to dart past Shaun Micheel and win the B.C. Open at Endicott, N.Y., by one stroke over Fred Funk.

It was the first PGA Tour victory for McRoy, 34, who earned $378,000 and a two-year exemption on the tour.

His father, Robert McRoy Sr., has a pole in his backyard in Alabama with a bell on top. After every tournament victory, an engraved plaque is nailed on the pole and, with family and friends present, the bell is rung to celebrate the achievement.

“It’s going to be really cool to see that one go up there,” Spike McRoy said. “I know he’ll be very proud.”

There are other plaques on the pole marking the Alabama Open, the two Hooters Tour tournaments and the two Buy.com Tour events McRoy won.

But nothing can match the PGA Tour title, nor the improbable way McRoy won it.

“It’s just a funny game like that, you know?” McRoy said. “It’s so hard to put four solid rounds together, whether you’re at Bethpage, the hardest golf course I’ve ever played, or a very scoreable course like this.”

McRoy closed with a seven-under-par 65 on the En-Joie Golf Club course for a 19-under 269 total.

Micheel, who also was seeking his first PGA Tour win, bogeyed the last two holes to fall out of a tie with McRoy and into a five-way tie for third place at 17-under.

McRoy rolled in a twisting 31-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to tie Micheel, who started the day with a three-shot lead at 19-under.

At the same time, Micheel was falling from 19-under to 18-under when he dribbled a shot out of a greenside bunker on the par-three 14th and bogeyed.

Needing a birdie to tie, Micheel hit his tee shot on the par-four 18th into the trees right of the fairway, lined his second shot into rough left of the green, and could not get close with his chip for birdie.

He bogeyed to fall out of second place.

Micheel’s 74 followed rounds of 65, 65 and 67. He declined to be interviewed afterward.

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South Korea’s Mi Hyun Kim came up big against Kelly Robbins in the final round of the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic at Vienna, Ohio.

Kim, who is listed as 5 feet 1, hit a seven wood to within four feet on the 17th hole and made the birdie putt to beat Robbins by a stroke.

Kim finished with a three-under 69 for a 14-under 202, and earned $150,000 for her fourth LPGA Tour victory. Robbins, who won the last of her nine tour titles in 1999, closed with a 71.

“Any time you can finish second, you’ve hit a lot of shots well,” Robbins said. “But I was licking my chops hoping for something better.”

Kim, at a two-club disadvantage on nearly every approach shot as she matched Robbins stroke for stroke, said she didn’t enjoy what turned out to be a match-play showdown.

“No, because she’s a very long player,” Kim said. “Every time she was playing a short iron, I’d have to hit a long iron or a fairway wood.”

Two-time defending champion Dorothy Delasin and Grace Park closed with 67s to tie for third place at 205.

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Bob Gilder won the SBC Senior Open at Chicago when Hale Irwin struggled on the first playoff hole, nearly whiffing a shot in the high grass and hitting another into the water.

Gilder missed a final-hole putt that would have won the tournament, then returned to the 18th and ended the playoff with a short par putt to earn his first victory this season.

Gilder closed with a one-under 71, and Irwin, a three-time winner in the event, had a 66 for 12-under 204 totals.

Bruce Fleisher (66) finished third at 10-under.

Irwin was playing four groups ahead of Gilder and had to wait to see if he would win or go to a playoff. He watched from a golf cart, went out to practice and returned to see Gilder miss his chance to win on the 18th.

Irwin took a lead into the clubhouse at 12-under with birdies at Nos. 13 and 17.