Given A Second Chance, Dent Sinks Winning Putt

Golf

Jim Dent missed a 2-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation, but sank one on the second playoff hole Sunday to defeat Lee Trevino and win the Home Depot Invitational at Charlotte, N.C.

Dent’s 11th Senior PGA Tour victory came after Larry Gilbert was eliminated on the first extra hole and Trevino missed the green with his tee shot on the second - the 142-yard 17th at the TPC at Piper Glen.

“This is everything. Winning is your whole year,” said Dent, who had been 11th or better in five of his previous eight events.

Dent, the tour’s fifth-ranked putter, had a chance to win it in regulation but pulled a 2-foot birdie putt on the 514-yard 18th.

Dent made sure he didn’t make the same mistake twice.

After Trevino chipped to 3 feet on their decisive playoff hole, Dent stepped up to his potential winning putt, got ready to hit it and then backed off. He surveyed it a second time and then knocked it in to collect the $135,000 winner’s check.

Dent, Trevino and Gilbert finished at 8-under-par 208.

PGA

Scott McCarron shot a 3-under-par 69 to claim his second victory in his third season on the PGA Tour, winning the BellSouth Classic at Duluth, Ga., by three shots.

McCarron won the $270,000 first prize with a 72-hole total of 274, 14 under par on the hilly, 7,259-yard TPC Sugarloaf Country Club course.

There was a three-way tie for second at 277 among third-round co-leader David Duval, Brian Henninger and Lee Janzen.

LPGA

Terry-Jo Myers tapped in a 1-foot par putt on the fifth playoff hole to win the $675,000 Sara Lee Classic at Nashville, Tenn., her second LPGA tour victory this year.

Laurel Kean lipped out her 3-foot putt for par, and Myers wasted little time tapping in on the par-4 18th hole for her third career victory.

Myers, who won the Los Angeles Women’s Championship in February for her first victory in nine years, missed a chance to pick up the $101,250 winner’s check on the final hole of regulation when her 18-footer for birdie from the fringe veered left.

Instead, she finished with a 2-under 70 and a 9-under 207 total and went to a playoff with Kean, who shot a 66, and Nancy Harvey, who two-putted 18 for bogey and a 68.

Europe

After going 16 months without a European tour victory, Bernhard Langer made it two in a row with a two-stroke triumph in the Benson and Hedges International at Thame, England.

The two-time Masters champion, who last week won the Italian Open, held off a late charge by Ian Woosnam and finished at 276, 8 under par.

TV deal may double prize money

Television contracts negotiated by the PGA Tour should push total prize money past $150 million by 2002 - twice the size of this year’s purse - and dramatically increase golf on TV, according to commissioner Tim Finchem.

The four-year package with six networks begins in 1999 and includes regular tour events in prime time for the first time, the addition of three World Championship Series events and Thursday-Friday coverage of every tournament.