Curtis Strange won the $535,000 first prize and clinched Player of the Year honors today in Pebble Beach, Calif., when he birdied the second hole and beat Tom Kite in a playoff in the Nabisco Championships of Golf.
Strange's fourth victory of the season made him the first player to surpass $1 million in official single-season earnings on the PGA Tour.
Strange's fourth victory of the season made him the first player to surpass $1 million in official single-season earnings on the PGA Tour. The playoff was won on the 17th hole at the rain-soaked Pebble Beach Golf Links, the site of Tom Watson's historic chip-in that beat Jack Nicklaus in the 1982 U.S. Open.
The playoff began on the 16th hole and each player made a two-putt par.
Strange laced a three-iron shot to within two feet of the flag on the 17th green, a par-3 hole jutting into the pounding surf of Monterey Bay.
He jerked his tee from the ground and stalked away as Kite prepared his response.
- At Melbourne, Fla., Miller Barber edged closer to Don January for career victories on the Seniors tour when he shot a 4-under-par 68 Sunday to win the $225,000 PGA Senior Classic.
- And at Tallahassee, Fla., Bill Glasson, capping his best season in five years on the PGA tour, took the lead in the $500,000 Centel Classic when Tommy Armour bogeyed the 17th hole and then held on to win by two strokes Sunday.