Douglass Birdies Third Hole To Win Bell Atlantic In Playoff

Dale Douglass birdied the third playoff hole Sunday to win his second Bell Atlantic Classic championship and his 11th career Senior PGA Tour title.

Douglass, who won this title in 1990, went to the extra holes tied at 4-under-par 206 with John Schroeder and Tom Wargo. For the victory, in Malvern, Pa., he earned $135,000 - more than doubling his earnings for the season.

Douglass hit his approach shot at the par-4, 403-yard 16th to within 5 feet of the cup and drained the putt for the win.

Schroeder, who began the day at 5-under and tied for the lead, bogeyed the third playoff hole. Wargo, a first-round co-leader, made par.

At the first sudden-death playoff hole, the 488-yard par-4 18th, Douglass and Wargo lipped out birdie putts and settled for a par. The trio parred the second playoff hole, No. 15, a 198-yard par-3.

Only six players finished the 54-hole tournament below par at the Chester Valley Golf Club, a rolling and hilly 6,608-yard layout with small and severe greens. Three of the tour’s 10 toughest holes last year were here.

First-round co-leader Bobby Stroble finished with a 209 - three strokes behind the winner.

Lee Trevino, a two-time Bell Atlantic winner, withdrew after the first round with back spasms.

In Rochester, N.Y., Dottie Pepper ran up a six-stroke lead, then held off a late charge by Annika Sorenstam to win the rain-battered LPGA Rochester International by two shots.

Pepper, a multiple winner on tour whose game slumped this spring, fired a 6-under-par 66 in the morning and a 71 in the afternoon to finish at 10-under 206 at the soggy Locust Hill Country Club course.

Sorenstam, the two-time U.S. Open champion from Sweden, had a 67 and a 69 on the 36-hole final day of the tournament that was shortened to 54 holes from 72. Thursday’s opening round was washed out and less than half the field of 141 completed the second round on Saturday when a downpour suspended play for 7 hours and the leaders got in just one or two holes.

Tracy Hanson of Rathdrum, Idaho, shot 76 to finish at 2-over 218. She earned $4,409.

Darren Veitch, an International Hockey League player who bounced around the NHL for 10 years, shot a 3-under-par 69 to win the Celebrity Golf Association’s Chicago Classic.

Michael Jordan birdied the last hole, but the Chicago Bulls star ended up 61st in the 63-person field, 49 shots behind Veitch, after a closing 84.