Patty Sheehan made a sensational birdie on the 16th hole Sunday and went on to win the U.S. Women's Open by a stroke over Tammie Green.
In capturing the Open for the second time in three years, the LPGA Hall of Famer won her fifth major championship.Sheehan, wearing bright red knickers and white knee socks, and Green both closed with par-71s on the Old Course at Indianwood Golf and Country Club.
Sheehan finished at 277, sealing her triumph with a par on the final hole after Green's 10-foot try for a birdie and a tie rolled just outside the right edge of the cup.
Liselotte Neumann of Sweden shot a 69 for and was third at 281. Spain's Tania Abitol and Peru's Alicia Dibos tied for fourth at 283. Those were the only golfers to break par as Indianwood came back to punish the field for the early liberties taken in the early rounds, right after the course had been softened by rain.
Helen Alfredsson completed her collapse Sunday after breaking Sheehan's 36-hole record by two strokes with a 132. The Swede got to 13-under after the first seven holes of the third round, then dropped eight strokes the rest of the round. A triple-bogey at No. 7 in the fourth round put her at 1-over, a drop of 14 strokes in 18 holes.
Green caught Sheehan at 6-under with a birdie at the 12th hole, hitting a marvelous recovery from the right rough to within five feet of the pin and rolling in the putt for birdie.
By the time they got to the pivital 16th, a 404-yard par-4, both golfers appeared tense. Green drove a fairway bunker and had to scramble to save par. Sheehan drove in the right rough, but slashed a mighty second shot to within four feet of the pin. Sheehan sank almost to her knees when the birdie putt eased into the cup.
As she does so often, Sheehan was scrambling again at the home hole. Her drive landed in the right rough while Green's booming drive cut the dogleg right, hit the downslope of the fairway and rolled down the hill almost to the green.
But Sheehan slashed her approach to the middle of the green, one of the largest putting surfaces in the United States. Her lag putt stopped about three feet from the cup and, using a little gamesmanship, she let Green finish first, even though Sheehan's fourth putt was a little outside Green's. That put the spotlight where it belonged, on Sheehan.
As the putt dropped, Sheehan thrust her arms in the air. She ran and jumped into the lap of her caddy, Carl Laib, then took off on a victory dance around the green, waving her visor and pumping her arms. Sheehan stopped when she got to Green and the two embraced.
Sheehan, starting the day at 7-under, a shot ahead of Green, never trailed during the final round. She birdied the third and bogeyed the sixth while Green bogeyed the second.
On the ninth, Sheehan had trouble getting out of a greenside bunker and needed an eight-foot putt just to salvage a bogey that dropped her to 6-under, still a stroke ahead of Green.
Sheehan won her first Open in 1992. In 1989, at Indianwood, she was battling Betsy King for the lead before being derailed by a triple-bogey on the eighth hole. She ended up at 79, tied for 17th.
A year later in Atlanta, Sheehan led by 11 strokes in the fourth round, but King edged her by one stroke for the championship. Two years later, the Open finally belonged to Sheehan when she defeated Juli Inkster in an 18-hole playoff at Oakmont.