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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Back From Injury, Singh Emerges From Playoff To Win Phoenix Open

Compiled From Wire Services

Vijay Singh, coming off a year in which he was troubled by a bad back, two-putted from 50 feet Sunday to par the first playoff hole and win the Phoenix Open.

Singh’s 2-1/2-foot putt was the winner after Billy Mayfair, whose second shot missed the green, was unable to get up and down on No. 18 for the second time in a matter of minutes. Mayfair chipped out of sand and made a 3-foot putt to save par on the 18th green and force the playoff.

It was the first playoff in this tournament since 1988, when Sandy Lyle beat Fred Couples on the third extra hole.

Singh and Mayfair started the round at 10-under and shot 5-under-par 66s, finishing at 15-under 269.

Ben Crenshaw, the third-round leader at 11-under, shaved two strokes off par and finished at 271.

Bruce Lietzke, Payne Stewart and Steve Jones made up the first cluster at 272, with Joe Ozaki, Hale Irwin, John Adams, Steve Lowery and two-time Phoenix champion Mark Calcavecchia at 273.

At Manila, Philippines, Fred Couples, surprised at his own success, shot a final-round, 1-under-par 71 and won the Johnnie Walker Classic, his second straight tournament title.

Couples finished with a total of 277, 11-under par over the 7,016-yard, par-72 Orchard Golf and Country Club.

Nick Price, the world’s No. 1 player in 1994, fired a 70 for second place at 279.

At Kohala Coast, Hawaii, Raymond Floyd missed three birdie tries as the stakes and the tension mounted in the Senior Skins Game, then rolled in an 8-footer at No. 17 to win the richest hole - $290,000 - in skins history.

The birdie putt for more than a quartermillion dollars came after Arnold Palmer missed from 10 feet and Jack Nicklaus missed from 14 feet at the par-4 17th hole. It gave Floyd the Senior Skins title for the second consecutive year.

At Delray Beach, Fla., Cy Young, 70, says he can’t hit a golf ball like he used to. But his one-armed swing nailed two holes-in-one at Lakeview Golf Course Saturday.

The 70-year-old Delray Beach man, who lost part of his left arm to gangrene when he was 10, teed off with a 3-iron on Saturday. His first shot soared 96 yards and went right into the cup on hole No. 1.

About a dozen people witnessed the shot.

On hole No. 13, he did it again. This time, he hit the ball 107 yards into the cup with a 3-wood.

Young has been playing for 37 years and has now hit three holes-in-one - all of them at Lakeview, an executive golf course with mostly par-3 and par-4 holes.