It was strictly a family affair for Dave Stockton.
With his youngest son, Ronnie, carrying his bag, Stockton overwhelmed the rest of the field Sunday to win the Senior Players Championship. Then he hurried inside to see if his oldest son, PGA Tour rookie Dave Stockton Jr., would win the Greater Hartford Open at Dearborn, Mich.A victory in Hartford would have made the Stocktons the only father-son duo to win PGA tournaments in the same week and the first to win the same tournament as senior won the GHO in 1974.
As it turned out, the younger Stockton finished in a four-way tie for third. His father couldn't have been prouder.
"I think it's awesome what he did," Stockton said. "It's just phenomenal. This is really going to help him. All he's needed was a good, high finish."
Stockton had such a large lead on all the challengers that he could easily afford to keep up with his son's progress. He repeatedly asked ABC-TV crew members for updates while working his way around the TPC of Michigan layout.
"I figured I had this tournament pretty much under control," Stockton said. "I figured it was OK to check on him a little bit."
He had that figured right.
Stockton, who won the championship two years ago, clinched the 1994 title with a 4-under-par 68 in the final round. That gave him a 17-under 271 total and a six-stroke victory over the rest of the star-studded senior field.
It was the lowest competitive score ever on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course which opened in late 1990. Stockton set the mark of 11 under in 1992.
"My iron game was so good, I had a lot of short putts," Stockton said.
For the record, Jim Albus was second in the Seniors Players Championship at 11 under. Lee Trevino, Isao Aoki and Raymond Floyd all finished another stroke back.
But this day belonged to Stockton. He started the day at 13 under, five strokes ahead of his challengers. It was unlikely anyone could catch him.
"I don't know how realistic it was to think I could win the tournament when Dave had a five-shot lead," Albus said. "But the other thing is that Dave just didn't make a bogey. It's just not in his vocabulary, I guess."
Stockton sealed his title with two magnificent shots on Nos. 3 and 4, a 547-yard par-5, followed by a 210-yard par-3.
Stockton put his approach on 3 less than a foot from the pin and tapped in for birdie. Then he holed out from a greenside bunker on 4 for another birdie to go 15 under.
"To me, that was the turning point," Stockton said. "I got back the two strokes I lost when Jim birdied the first two holes. And even though he birdied No. 7 to pull within four, I was back in the game."
After missing makeable birdie putts on the two previous holes, Stockton removed his black and white baseball-style cap at No. 9 and drilled a 7-footer for another birdie. That enabled him to turn at 16 under.
Stockton's toughest moment came at No. 13, a 506-yard, par-5 with a slight dogleg to the left.
A hard rain was falling by the time Stockton reached the tee. The thick grass on the left side, at the knee of the dogleg, was where Tom Weiskopf had lost a ball during the third round.
"I'd like to hit a big drive there, but it's such a risk," Stockton said. "I steered it at times, but this is a course that demands that you do that."
Stockton, too, missed the fairway. But he drove into the right rough, which wasn't nearly as thick as that on the left.
"I was in the rough but, you know, if I hit it left there, I can make an `X' and I'm out of it," Stockton said.
There would be no X's on this day.
Stockton punched a mid-iron safely onto the fairway, then used an 8-iron to flip the ball 22 feet from the pin. The curling putt slid into the cup for another birdie, putting Stockton 17 under.
Classic overkill, as it turned out.
Albus, who won the first championship after the tournament was moved from the Dearborn Country Club to the TPC in 1991, made an early bid to catch Stockton. Albus birdied three of the first five holes to get to 11 under, which left him only four strokes behind the leader at the time. He never got any closer.
Nicklaus, as only he can do, made a tremendous early charge, only to run out of steam on the back side. Nicklaus shot 31 on the front, turning at eight under. The charge continued with birdies on 10 and 12.
But Nicklaus pulled his drive on No. 13 left into a thicket of trees. His ball slipped into a hollow under some roots and was unplayable. After a drop, he slashed a mighty iron back onto the fairway and chipped within six feet of the pin. But his putt to save par slid just past the cup and he never recaptured the magic.
"Not making the par at 13 really killed my momentum," he said.
Nicklaus finished eight under.
At Cromwell, Conn., David Frost held off Greg Norman for a one-stroke victory in the Greater Hartford Open on Sunday and frustrated Dave Stockton Jr.'s bid to make history with his father.
Frost shot a final-round 69 to set a 72-hole record at 12-under-par 268, one shot better than Norman, who finished birdie-birdie for a 69.
Stockton, who entered the final round tied for the lead at 11 under, shot a 72 and finished in a four-way tie for third at 271.
Frost made just two bogeys over his final 31 holes, but one was Sunday on 17. The four-shot lead he had held after 16 was down to one but he made it stand up when he two-putted for par on 18. The 268 was the lowest score in the three years since the course at the Tournament Players Club at River Highlands was renovated. Since 1991, the lowest score after 72 holes was defending champion Nick Price's 9-under 271 last year.
It is Frost's first victory on the PGA Tour this year and ninth of his career. He becomes the 24th different winner in 25 tournaments this year, with Price being the only golfer with two PGA titles this year.
Tied with Stockton for third were Corey Pavin, Steve Stricker and Dave Barr.
In the early going, it was mostly a three-way race involving Stockton, Frost and Norman. Stockton and Frost were neck-and-neck at 12-under until Stockton bogeyed No. 6 to fall a stroke back.
Stockton, paired with Frost for the second straight day, fell to 9-under with a double bogey at No. 7, a par-4, and could never recover.
About the same time, Norman, who started the day at 10-under and was playing a group ahead of Frost, began making a move. After parring his first six holes, he birded Nos. 7 and 8 to tie Frost for the lead.
Norman and Frost remained tied at 12-under until the 12th. Norman double bogeyed the par-4 hole and Frost made bogey after his shot from the sand caught the lip of the trap and left him in the rough.
At Somers Point, N.J., Donna Andrews overcame swirling wind and her own gremlins on Sunday to score a two-stroke victory over fast-closing Michelle Estill in the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Andrews tried to give the tournament away down the stretch when she bogeyed No. 15, double bogeyed No. 16 and bogeyed No. 17. After losing four strokes to par in three holes, Andrews held on to complete a 3-over-par 74 and finish 54 holes at 6-under 207.
She was two strokes ahead of Estill and three clear of Dottie Mochrie, Barb Bunkowsky, Caroline Pierce and Kim Saiki.
Estill, seemingly out of contention after a 77 on Saturday, tied the under-par record for a tournament round with a 6-under 65 on Sunday over the 6,235-yard, par-71 Greate Bay Country Club course. Pamela Wright shot a 6-under 64 in 1990 when the tournament, then known as the Atlantic City Classic, was played at the par-70 Sands Country Club.
Mochrie had a shot at Andrews but bogeyed the last two holes to fall back into the four-way tie for third. Mochrie finished with a 73, Bunkowsky shot 74, and Pierce and Saiki each had 71s.
In overcoming her late stumbles, Andrews won for the third time this season, adding to earlier victories in the Dinah Shore and Ping-Welch's Championship. The ShopRite title was worth $75,000, increasing Andrews' earnings for the year to $341,278.
Amy Alcott and Betsy King each fell short of the one victory needed to gain automatic entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame. Alcott shot a 71 to finish at even-par 213 and King, 4-under when play began, skied to a 76 and a final 214.
Defending champion Shelley Hamlin shot a 74 for 216.