It wasn't just another golf tournament for veteran D.A. Weibring.
"I had a lot of emotions going on," Weibring said Sunday at the Greater Hartford Open. "I knew I had a chance to win today, and that was important giving what I've experienced this year. . . . All the time I worked out when I was ill. . . . I thought about having a chance like this. And I had it today."Weibring took advantage of the situation to win his fifth title - but more importantly - the first since his career was abruptly interrupted when he was diagnosed with Bell's palsy earlier this year.
He got more than a little encouragement from his 16-year-old son.
"You deserve to win this, you've been through a lot," Matt Weibring told his father, who held a one-stroke lead entering Sunday's final round.
Weibring was unrelenting and got stronger as the round progressed. After bogeying the first hole, he parred eight consecutive holes and got into a position to pull away at the turn.
Weibring, 43, admitted to being rubber-legged at times and not having full vision in his right eye during the GHO, his first tournament in three weeks. He said he drew a lot of motivation from his son.
"I kept telling him `I want to see you today. I want to talk to you.' And he met me and we walked together to the 10th tee," Weibring said.
He went on to get all four of his birdies on the back nine - the most challenging half of the course at the TPC at River Highlands - and finish with a 10-under 270 total.
"I've always prided myself on being able to perform my best down the stretch," Weibring said.
Tom Kite didn't do too badly, either, in finishing runner-up. He was one of the happiest losers the tour has seen in a while.
Although a win has eluded him since 1993, Kite said he knew he played like a winner even though finishing four strokes back of Weibring.
"I'm very, very confident right now. I feel great about my game," Kite said after shooting a 2-under 68. "When I get that win I know I'm back."
The 46-year-old Kite came back from being four strokes over par after the first nine holes of the tournament. But Kite knew that cold, blustery and wet conditions at the TPC at River Highlands course weren't conducive for making a strong run.
"D.A. played so well and starting out with a three-shot lead I know we were going to have to really, really go deep. The conditions that we had out there today really were not allowing," he said. "I had to have a little bit of help from the leaders."
Dicky Pride, Fuzzy Zoeller and Mark Calcavecchia were tied at 275 for third place in a tournament that saw its defending champion, Greg Norman, disqualified after two rounds for using a mislabeled ball.
The $270,000 first prize is nearly 10 times the amount Weibring had earned this year, pushing his total to $302,200. He had missed the cut in four of seven other tournaments and last won at the 1995 Quad City Classic.
Rain fell overnight and into the early afternoon, drenching the earliest groups of golfers and drastically changing the conditions of the course, as the greens and fairways rolled slower than the first three rounds.
Weibring had to take three months off after being diagnosed in February with Bell's palsy, a muscular condition that is caused by a virus and is marked by suddenly recurring paralysis on one side of the face.
After missing the cut at the Colonial and Memorial tournaments, he took another break to regain strength sapped by his illness.
Despite the side effects, Weibring stayed poised throughout the final round, even as several golfers put themselves in position to catch him.
One of the highlights was Weibring's birdie at No. 16, when he rolled an 18-footer into the cup. He got a good read after playing partner Kevin Sutherland putted from 20 feet back on the same line. The birdie putt put him at 9 under and three strokes ahead of Kite.