Estes Takes Safe Way to Victory

Playing a conservative and steady game while playing partner Bob Burns, Rich Beem and others bounced up and down a crowded leaderboard, Bob Estes won the Kemper Insurance Open on Sunday at Potomac, Md.

Estes’ round of 17 pars and one birdie for a 11-under total of 273 gave him his fourth PGA Tour victory in a tournament where difficult conditions made the course play like a major.

“It was a U.S. Open kind of setup and round,” said Estes, who beat Beem by one stroke and Burns and Steve Elkington by two. “That experience helped me out a lot today. It was really a smart round of golf for the most part--there weren’t a lot of birdies out there.”

There was drama. Burns took the lead with a hole in one at the 11th hole. Five holes later, Estes played a shot to the fat part of the green, then watched Burns take a risky approach shot that eventually rolled onto a drainage grate. Burns ended up with a double bogey, and Estes was back in the lead.

Estes acknowledged he didn’t take a single risky shot during his one-under, final-round 70, which earned him the winner’s share of $648,000 and broke the tournament’s three-year streak of first-time winners.

Elkington, Justin Leonard and Beem were all in the hunt until hitting into the bunker at the back of the par-three 17th.

Elkington and Beem each lost a shot on the hole to fall to 10 under, and Leonard dropped two shots to go to eight under.

The tournament was also notable as the final one for Ken Venturi, a former U.S. Open winner turned golf analyst who retired from the broadcast booth after 35 years.

“You’ll always be in my thoughts,” Venturi said. “It’s been a long time. I don’t know where the time went--35 years. It’s unbelievable. I’ve really been very lucky.”

Many players paid tribute to Venturi as they finished their rounds.

Chris DiMarco looked to the broadcast tower and clapped as he walked off the 18th green. Leonard doffed his cap. Greg Norman pointed toward Venturi and threw his ball toward the booth, despite coming off a three-putt bogey.

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No record seems safe from Annika Sorenstam.

A little more than a year after shooting the first 59 in LPGA history, Sorenstam matched the best 54-score on the tour in winning the inaugural Kellogg-Keebler Classic at Aurora, Ill.

Sorenstam fashioned a 21-under 195 with a sizzling finish to win by 11 strokes, the largest margin on the tour this year.

It was the fourth tour victory of the season and 35th overall for Sorenstam, who closed with a seven-under 65, and it set her up for a strong run at the tour’s second major, the LPGA Championship starting Thursday at the DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, Del.

Sunday, she matched the best 54-hole winning score in relation to par. Wendy Ward was 21 under in the 2001 Wendy’s Championship. Danielle Ammaccapane (71), Michele Redman (68) and Mhairi McKay (70) tied for second at 10 under.

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James Mason, the 51-year-old teaching pro from Dillard, Ga., who had to qualify for the tournament, shot a three-under 69 to win the NFL Golf Classic by two strokes at Clifton, N.J. Mason made an eagle with an iron from the second fairway and a birdie from the bunker on the sixth hole in becoming the first qualifier to win on the senior tour since Jim Ahern in the 1999 AT&T; Canada Senior Open. Mason is the eighth qualifier to win a senior title.

Mason, who earned $195,000 and a one-year exemption, had a nine-under 207 total on the Upper Montclair course. Dave Eichelberger (72), Bruce Fleisher (67) and Morris Hatalsky (67) tied for second.

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Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa, a sophomore who left the University of Arizona to play in her first pro tournament, tied for second, one stroke behind winner Melinda Price in the Futures Tour’s Aurora Health Care Charity Golf Classic at Sussex, Wis. Price finished with a two-over 218.