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

Sudden Fame For Johnson Golf

Associated Press

Being a pretty good player just wasn’t enough for Chris Johnson, who five years ago made a commitment to excellence.

The results were on full display Sunday.

Johnson made an 8-foot par putt on the second playoff hole to win the LPGA Championship at Rockland, Del., edging Leta Lindley to capture her first major championship in 18 years on tour.

“I think I know what this means more than some of the other players out here,” Johnson said. “My career started over five years ago. … It’s been coming, and it all came together this week.”

Johnson had six career wins through 1991, but she wasn’t at all satisfied.

“I figured I could wait for a good week and struggle and make some money, but that’s not what I wanted,” she said.

Johnson took lessons from pros Hank Haney and Mike LaBauve, and it finally paid off with a $180,000 winner’s check - the biggest payday of her career.

After both players bogeyed the first playoff hole, Johnson was virtually assured the victory when Lindley’s shot from the 10th tee soared into the trees to the right of the fairway.

Lindley then punched the ball onto the fairway and hit to within 30 feet of the pin. Johnson put pressure on herself by hitting into the crowd behind the green, but she got herself within 8 feet with her third shot.

“I really got lucky there,” Johnson said. “The gallery stopped the ball.”

After Lindley came up short on her par putt, Johnson made hers to clinch her biggest win since turning pro in 1980. “It wasn’t very pretty,” she said.

PGA

History seems to be a virtual blank page in front of Tiger Woods and he is filling it in as he goes along.

Playing far from his best but better than anyone else, Woods shot a final-round 68 to win the GTE Byron Nelson Classic in Irving, Texas, by two strokes over Lee Rinker, tying the tournament record with a 17-under-par 263 total.

Woods started the day with a lesson from coach Butch Harmon, who drove four hours from Houston after a late-night call from his pupil, and ended it with an emotional hug from his mother, Tida, on the final green.

In between he hit all the right shots exactly when they were needed, the most astounding of which were a 170-yard punch 6-iron from off the edge of a drainage grate to 8 feet on No. 15, then a 240-yard fairway driver on the 16th hole that gave him the clinching birdie.

“Playing like this means a lot to you, it really does,” Woods said after winning with a game he rated as a C-plus effort. “It goes to show that if you think well and you have a good short game you can win.”

Woods took the lead for good while he was walking down the 14th fairway and Rinker was making a bogey on the hole ahead of him. No one else really made a run at the lead. Tom Watson and Dan Forsman finished four strokes back at 267 and seven other players were at 268.

Woods is now the second-youngest person in the history of pro golf to get five victories. Horton Smith, who played in the 1920s, had seven wins before he was 21.

But Woods’ five victories in his first 16 pro tournaments is unmatched. Smith won only two of his first 16 starts.

Former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett began the day among the leaders but shot a 75 to fall to 10 strokes back at 273.

Senior PGA Tour

Bruce Crampton birdied the third playoff hole to defeat Hugh Baiocchi and win the $950,000 Cadillac Senior Golf Classic, his first Senior PGA Tour victory in five years.

The 61-year-old Crampton became just the sixth player over the age of 60 to win a tournament and ended the tour’s longest stretch between tournament wins - 5 years, 2 months and 10 days.

Dave Stockton, who led through most of the third round, had bogeys on 12 and 18 to finish third with a 71 and 212 total, while Lee Trevino (66) and Isao Aoki (68) finished tied for fourth at 214.

English Open

Per-Ulrik Johansson - part of the 1995 European Ryder Cup championship team - went from 10th to third in the points race for this year’s competition when he shot a 5-under-par 67 to win the English Open at Ware, England.