Nancy Lopez, like Jack Benny, thought she was stuck on 39.
But Lopez captured her 40th career victory and third LPGA Championship with a final-round 6-under-par 66 Sunday to overtake Ayako Okamoto at the Jack Nicklaus Sports Center in Mason, Ohio, and win by three strokes."I got to 39 and wondered if that was going to be it," Lopez said. "I was stuck on 39 for a while, getting a lot of seconds and thirds. I was frustrated. I was beginning to hate that number. But I like 40 a lot better."
Lopez, who collected $75,000, won her third career major - LPGA Championships as a rookie in 1978 and again in 1985 - by picking up five strokes on Okamoto over the final eight holes.
Lopez finished at 274, 14-under-par, over the 6,359-yard Grizzly Course. Her closing 66 was the low round of the day.
The victory marked Lopez's fifth top-10 finish in her 11 starts at the LPGA Championship and upped her winnings in the event to more than $157,000. Published reports have the tournament moving from the current site next year - where Lopez lived for two years - to be replaced by a men's Senior Tour event.
Lopez, who started the day two strokes behind Okamoto, stalked her playing partner to pull even at the turn. But she three-putted the 10th hole for a bogey while Okamoto was birdieing to regain the two-stroke lead.
Lopez chipped in for a birdie from 15 feet on the 11th hole to cut Okamoto's lead to one stroke, then rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt at 12 while Okamoto was bogeying. Lopez then slammed the door shut with a 20-foot birdie putt at 17.
Lopez, 32, then closed her round with another birdie for her first victory this year. It made her the top money-winner with more than $279,000 as she has finished in the top three in eight of 10 tournaments this season.
The loss continued Okamoto's final-round misfortune at the LPGA Championship. She had finished tied for third in each of the last three LPGA Championships after shooting her worst round of the tournament on the final day.
Susan Sanders, a non-winner in her five years on the tour, shot a final-round 68 to finish alone in third at 278.
Pat Bradley, who won the LPGA Championship in 1986, and non-winner Allison Finney both shot 73s to finish at 283.
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In Fort Worth, Texas, Ian Baker-Finch was given breathing room by the double bogey that struck down Tim Simpson on the 14th hole and cruised to a four-stroke victory Sunday in the Colonial National Invitation tournament.
Baker-Finch, a 28-year-old Australian, needed only a closing round of par 70 to become the first wire-to-wire winner on the PGA Tour this year.
A rookie on the American tour but a veteran of five years of international play, Baker-Finch acquired his first American title with a 270 total, 10 under par on the Colonial Country Club course.
David Edwards, nine strokes back when play began, took second with a 65 for a 274 total, while Simpson, one stroke closer when play started, finished with a 68 for 276 and was tied for third with South African David Frost, who had a closing 69.
The triumph was worth $180,000 from the total purse of $1 million to Baker-Finch but, eventually, it will become much more valuable.
It also provided him with a two-year exemption on the American tour, and assured him of places in such exclusive events as the PGA championship, the World Series of Golf and, in 1990, the Tournament of Champions, Players Championship and the Masters.
Baker-Finch, winner of 10 titles world-wide, had a four-shot lead when the final round started. No one ever got closer than two shots.
U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange recorded a second consecutive 66 and finished at 277, three under par and tied for fifth with Lon Hinkle, who had a closing 68, and Nick Price of Zimbabwe. Price, in second place after three rounds, went to a closing 73.
Masters champion Nick Faldo of England shot 69 for a 281 total.
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In Scarborough, N.Y., Bob Charles shot a 5-under-par 65 Sunday to successfully defend his title in the $300,000 Seniors Commemorative Golf Tournbament, breaking his own tournament record with a 17-under-par 193 total for 54 holes.
Charles, who had a four-stroke lead entering play Sunday, saw it narrowed to two by Don Bies when he bogeyed the par-4 eighth hole.
But Bies gave back a stroke with a bogey on the 12th and Charles went on to win by five strokes over Bies and Bruce Crampton, who each shot 66 over the 6,545-yard Sleepy Hollow Country Club course.
It was the third win on the seniors tour this year for the left-handed New Zealand native, who earned $45,000 to boost his 1989 earnings to $184,137. Last year, Charles was the tour's leading money-winner with $533,929 and six titles, including a record 196 here.
Bies's second-place finish earned him $24,500 and put him at the top of this year's money-winning list at $229,482.