Reid shocks seniors
Mike Reid once was on the wrong end of one of championship golf’s worst collapses. This time he benefited from not one but two improbable breakdowns minutes apart for a Senior PGA victory at Ligonier, Pa., even he didn’t think was possible.
Reid, down by three shots with one hole to play, forced himself into a three-way playoff with Dana Quigley and Jerry Pate with a long eagle putt on No. 18, then birdied 18 again on the only playoff hole for his first tournament win since 1990.
All day, the senior tour major was Quigley’s to win, then Pate’s, but, somehow, Reid won instead, leaving the how-did-this-happen winner in tears.
“I’m as shocked as anybody,” said the 50-year-old Reid, who wasn’t eligible for the Champions Tour until last year and hadn’t won since the 1990 Casio World Open in Japan.
Pate, absent from tournament golf for more than 20 years until last year, missed an 8-footer for birdie that would have forced a second playoff hole. Quigley was out of it after hitting his second shot into the water on the 515-yard, par-5 playoff hole.
That Reid made the playoff was remarkable by itself, as Quigley and Pate seemingly staged a two-man race all day. Reid was down by six shots with eight to play and three shots with only the 18th left, only to drop a 30-footer for an eagle 3 while Pate bogeyed by three-putting from 18 feet.
Reid and Pate shot 70s to match Quigley (72) at 8-under 280.
What rallied Reid was the memory of Payne Stewart’s comeback in the 1989 PGA Championship to steal a title Reid seemingly had won.
As Stewart birdied four of the last five holes, Reid took a bogey on No. 16 and a double bogey on No. 17 and lost by one shot. That year, Reid led the Masters with four holes to play but also couldn’t hold on.
Reminded of that PGA collapse, Reid’s eyes welled in tears.
“I had control of that tournament and by all rights, I should have won,” Reid said. “And today it was Dana Quigley and Jerry Pate, they had control and should have won. … Fate takes a hand and I can’t explain it. My putt went in, Jerry’s missed and I’m feeling like I stole something.”
PGA Tour
Justin Leonard frittered away most of the largest lead on the PGA Tour this year before pulling out a one-stroke victory over David Toms in the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn., the first wire-to-wire win of his career and the second on tour this year.
Starting with an eight-stroke lead, Leonard closed with a 3-over 73 to finish at 14-under 266 and earn his second title of the year and 10th of his career.
Toms, the winner the previous two years, helped spice up the final holes with a 63 that included four birdies, an eagle and a bogey on the back nine.
Former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett shot 1-over par, 71, to finish at 2-under, 278, tied for 24th place.
LPGA Tour
South Korea’s Jimin Kang aced the 15th hole just moments after a deflating bogey and shot a 6-under 66 to win the LPGA Corning (N.Y.) Classic, edging Annika Sorenstam and rookie Meena Lee by two strokes for her first career title.
Kang, who finished with a 15-under 273 total, became the seventh first-time winner in the tournament’s 27-year history and denied Sorenstam her fifth victory in seven starts.
Tracy Hanson, from Rathdrum, Idaho, shot 1-over par, 73, to finish at 4-over, 292, and in 58th place.
European PGA Tour
Argentina’s Angel Cabrera won the BMW Championship in Virginia Water, England, for his third European tour title, closing with a 5-under 67 for a two-stroke victory over Ireland’s Paul McGinley.