Faced with a field that featured long hitters and celebrated youngsters, Mike Hulbert and Donna Andrews won the JCPenney Classic on Sunday with simple, steady golf.
In a modified alternate-shot format, they parred the final three holes to shoot a 3-under-par 69 and win the rain-shortened event by one stroke over the teams of Tiger Woods-Kelli Kuehne and Joel Edwards-Missie McGeorge.Hulbert and Andrews finished at 16-under 197, earning them $375,000 in the event that pairs players from the PGA and LPGA tours.
"The key was we got off to a good start on the front nine, and they couldn't catch us," Hulbert said. "We got up by three strokes and had a little cushion."
Most of the attention was on the team of John Daly-Laura Davies, the longest hitters on their tours, and on Woods-Kuehne.
Kuehne, who won her second U.S. Women's Amateur title, was making her professional debut with the 20-year-old Woods, who won his third straight U.S. Amateur and then bagged two PGA Tour titles in a span of two months.
Woods-Kuehne shot a final-round 68, but hurt themselves with a three-putt bogey from 5 feet on the 14th hole. After Woods rolled the birdie attempt 2 feet past the hole, Kuehne lipped out coming back.
"That really hurt us," Woods said.
It also opened the door for Andrews and Hulbert to claim the $375,000 winner's check.
Beginning the day tied with Pat Hurst and Scott McCarron, and one shot in front of the Woods-Kuehne team, Hulbert-Andrews birdied three of their first six holes to build a three-shot lead after 12 holes.
They stumbled only once coming in with a three-putt from 45 feet. But the winners made pars the rest of the way, claiming the victory on 18 after Andrews' drive left Hulbert 112 yards from the pin and in the middle of the fairway. He dropped the approach within 15 feet and Andrews' putt stopped at tap-in range.
The Hulbert-Andrews team did not reach a par-5 in two shots all week, but kept the big hitters behind.
"I think people put too much emphasis on the long ball," Andrews said. "The favorites coming in here were the long-ball hitters. We're just average. We hit it down the middle then knock it on the green.
"We showed that when we've got two of us hitting wedges in there, we can hit it just as close as you can if you've hit it up by the green in two and are chipping at it."
Despite coming up one shot short, the runner-up finish was good for $75,000 for Kuehne.