Jim Colbert's problems grew longer as he walked towards his ball on the 17th green.
Wasn't it just two hours earlier that Colbert had an eight-shot lead - 10 over Ray Floyd - at the Senior Tour Championship?Wasn't it just a few moments before that Floyd crashed a 5-iron within 10 feet of the cup on No. 17 and sunk the putt to get within a shot of first?
And wasn't Colbert's own slicing 5-iron farther away from the hole than he originally thought?
"I hadn't played the hole well all week, but I thought, `Here I finally hit a good shot in.' I'm thinking it's 6 or 7 feet, and I get there and it's about 20 feet," Colbert said. "I thought the only way to take Raymond out of this was to make the putt."
Colbert, in the middle of a large collapse, steadied himself and his putter, rolled in the birdie putt on the next-to-last hole and held off Floyd to win the tournament and capture the Seniors' money title.
"It was the biggest putt I ever made in my life," he said. "It was a big deal."
Colbert, who led start to finish, ended with a 74 for a 6-under 282, one better than Floyd, the defending champ who came from six shots down in 1994 on the final day to send Jim Albus off sulking.
Floyd's 69, which included consecutive birdies on Nos. 16 and 17, nearly did the same to Colbert, who earned his tour-high fourth title of the year and a record $1,444,482.
Colbert won $262,000 for first.
At Mexico City, John Cook, who did not win on the PGA Tour this season, shot a 3-under-par 69 on Sunday for a one-stroke victory over Scott Verplank in the Mexican Open.
Cook, who earned $30,000, had a 15-under 273 total on the Club de Golf Mexico course. Verplank closed with a 69.
Bob Tway shot a 69 to finish third at 275 and 1994 winner Chris Perry and Jay Don Blake followed at 277.
At Chonan, Japan, English star Laura Davies successfully defended for title in the Itoen Ladies on Sunday, closing with a 2-under-par 70 for a two-stroke victory over Japan's Mayumi Hirase and South Korea's Ko Woo-soon
Davies, who earned $108,000 for her third career victory on the Japan LPGA tour, had a 5-under 211 total on the Great Island Club course. Hirase closed with a 69 and Ko, who won last week's Japan Queens Cup, shot a 70.
At Shenzhen, China, Americans Davis Love and Fred Couples won the World Cup of Golf for a record fourth straight year Sunday, combining for a 14-stroke victory over Australia's Brett Ogle and Robert Allenby.
Love shot a 5-under 67 and Couples added a 69 for a 33-under 543 total on the Mission Hills course. Love also won the individual title, beating Japan's Hisayuki Sasaki on the fifth extra hole after they tied at 21-under 267.
Couples and Love, who each earned $200,000, joined the team of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as the only four-time champion. Love made $100,000 in the individual competition.
At Melbourne, Australia, Sweden's Liselotte Neumann birdied the final three holes of regulation Sunday, then beat compatriot Annika Sorenstam and American Jane Geddes in a playoff in the Women's Australian Open.
Neumann, who won with a birdie on the third extra hole, closed with a 2-under 71 to tie Sorenstam and Geddes at 9-under 273 on the Yarra Yarra course. The three players birdied the first playoff hole and Geddes dropped out on the second when her Swedish rivals birdied.