Marsh Takes U.S. Senior Open For First Major

Golf

Par. Perfect.

Using a textbook par on the 18th hole, Graham Marsh was the only player to break even in the U.S. Senior Open. He was able to outlast good friend John Bland and win by a single stroke on a steamy Sunday at one of the nation’s most challenging courses.

Marsh entered the final round with a two-stroke lead over Bland, but bogeyed the first three holes. The two jockeyed for position the rest of the 88-degree day at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Ill.

Marsh ended up with seven bogeys - the last coming at No. 16 with a three-putt over a treacherously undulating green - before closing with a clutch birdie on 17 and that perfect par on 18.

“Somehow, I scrambled and scraped and got it done,” Marsh said. “I didn’t have the kind of start I was looking for, but my plan was just to be totally patient. It’s easy to be patient when things are going well. The challenge is being patient when things are going astray.”

It was the first major championship for the 53-year-old Australian, who finished second, eighth and fourth in his first three U.S. Senior Opens. He won despite a closing round of 4-over-par 74.

PGA Tour

Greg Norman birdied his final three holes - the last with a 30-foot putt - to win the rain-plagued St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn., by one stroke, his first PGA Tour victory since March 1996.

Norman’s last tour victory came in the 1996 Doral-Ryder Open, six weeks before he blew a six-stroke lead in the final round of the Masters. The Australian star did win his fifth Australian Open title in November, and also took the Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf in January.

Repeated rain delays forced all of the field to finish the third round Sunday morning, and Norman played 15 holes for a 69. With an hour’s rest, he then turned in six birdies and a bogey for a 5-under 66.

Norman finished at 16-under 268, a stroke ahead of Hart, who shot 66-269. Craig Parry (66) and third-round leader Robert Damron (70) finished two strokes back.

LPGA Tour

Annika Sorenstam knows pars win the U.S. Open. Michelle McGann proved birdies win the Shoprite LPGA Classic in Somers Point, N.J. Sorenstam, showing grit to go with her graceful swing, gutted out a run of 15 consecutive pars, the most spectacular of which came after she played a shot lefthanded from against a tree.

Yet the breeze Sorenstam felt on a steamy day by the Jersey shore was McGann streaking past her with a bogey-free 64, to finish 54 holes at 12-under-par 201, three strokes better than Sorenstam.