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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Brilliant Finish Helps Couples Grab Tpc Title

Associated Press

Golf

The talk all week at The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra, Fla., was of first-time winners and how it can’t happen here.

Three in a row at Honda, Bay Hill and New Orleans was one thing, some of the wiser heads whispered. But not on the TPC Stadium Course at Sawgrass. Not against a field this talented, this deep and this experienced.

Fred Couples showed why Sunday with a masterful 8-under-par 64 - including an eagle on the dangerous 16th and a birdie on the treacherous 17th - for an 18-under-par 270, four strokes better than Tommy Tolles and Colin Montgomerie.

Tolles, the 29-year-old trying for his first PGA Tour victory, closed with a 72, bogeying two of the last four holes. And Montgomerie finished with a 68, losing his chance when he dumped his second shot on No. 16 into the water.

It was the 12th victory for Couples, who has been hampered by back problems the last two years, and his first since the 1994 Buick Open.

Rocco Mediate finished with six consecutive birdies and was tied for fourth at 13-under-par 275 with Fuzzy Zoeller, Kenny Perry and David Duval. Tom Lehman and Grant Waite were another stroke back at 276.

Former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett finished at 279 and earned $35,735.

Sheehan saves par, wins Dinah Shore

At Rancho Mirage, Calif., Patty Sheehan scrambled on the final hole before rolling in a dramatic 7-foot putt to save par and avoid a four-way playoff in winning the first Nabisco Dinah Shore title of her LPGA Hall of Fame career.

She finished the final round with a 1-under-par 71 that put her 7-under for the LPGA’s first major tournament of the year.

Annika Sorenstam of Sweden, the LPGA’s leading money winner and player of the year in 1995, finished second along with Meg Mallon and Kelly Robbins.

Robbins shot her way into contention with a 68, but a double bogey on No. 15 cost her dearly. At the time, she was 8-under and held a two-shot lead.

Sorenstam, who bogeyed No. 18 when she left her 6-foot par putt below the hole, shot 70. Mallon, who won the tournament in Hawaii last month, missed short birdie putts on the last three holes, including a six-footer on No. 18.

Tracy Hanson of Rathdrum, Idaho, shot a final round 74 to finish with a four-day total of 286 to earn $16,212. Clarkston’s Robin Walton finished 4-over 292 after shooting a 73.

Weiskopf leaves pack behind

Tom Weiskopf, his game jump-started with a birdie on the ninth hole, shot a 3-under-par 69 to win the $650,000 SBC Dominion Seniors in San Antonio by two strokes.

Weiskopf, who shared the lead with three others entering the final round, finished with a total of 9-under 207 for his third Senior PGA Tour victory.

Gary Player, Bob Dickson and Graham Marsh were at 209. Player, the winner of 18 senior titles, closed with a 68.