Michael Bradley's first PGA Tour victory didn't catch him by surprise. Only the way he won it did.
After two straight days of drenching rains, the Buick Challenge finally raised a white flag to the dark skies and decided the 36-hole tournament with a five-way playoff.Bradley and his four rivals had not played since Friday when the clouds began rolling in over the pine-covered hills of west Georgia. Saturday's round was washed out and so, eventually, was Sunday's.
Course workers, using pumps and sponges, managed to get the 18th hole at Callaway Gardens in some semblance of playing condition and the co-leaders returned to the course late Sunday afternoon for a playoff.
"I've got to be honest. I envisioned myself coming out and winning a 72-hole event," said Bradley, who birdied the first playoff hole to beat defending champion Fred Funk, Davis Love III, Len Mattiace and John Maginnes.
"But that doesn't lessen what I did this week."
Or this year, for that matter. The 30-year-old already was in the midst of a breakthrough season, ranking 26th on the money list with $576,100 - more than he had earned in his previous three years combined. He was sure that a victory was just a matter of time, but he didn't expect it under such unusual circumstances.
It was the first time since 1994 that a 36-hole event was decided in a playoff, and it was only the sixth five-man playoff in PGA Tour history.
The tournament was reduced to 36 holes when showers struck again Sunday after an hour of play. The rain lasted for about two hours, reducing the course to a swamp-like condition.
Then there were players like rookie Stewart Cink, whose two-round, 8-under score left him in a tie for ninth - and earned him a spot in the Las Vegas Invitational this week.
"I was going to go home and rest," said Cink, a regular on the Nike Tour. "But I'm not that tired."
He couldn't help poking fun at Tiger Woods, who dropped out of the Buick Challenge a day before it began, saying he was mentally exhausted.
"I've been resting all weekend," Cink said. "Tiger should have stayed."
Colbert takes Vantage title
Professional golfers are often asked the nagging question, "What's your favorite course?"
While most hesitate and can't narrow it down to a single course, Jim Colbert doesn't have any problem coming up with an answer - Tanglewood.
"They ask where it is. They ask why. And I say, `Check the money list,"' said Colbert, who won the Vantage Championship in Clemmons, N.C., for the third time in six years Sunday and once again pocketed a nice piece of change by doing so.
His $225,000 first-place check moved his earnings to $708,664 in six Senior Tour events at the public course outside Winston-Salem that hosted the PGA Championship in 1974.
The win moved Colbert, 55, ahead of Isao Aoki and into second place on the money list with $1,245,395, less than $200,000 behind Hale Irwin with six tournaments left.
Colbert, the first-round leader with a 65, was plodding along at six under for the tournament and two shots behind Player through 13 holes. Then, after coming up short on an approach shot at No. 14, he chipped in out of heavy Bermuda rough for the first of his three straight back nine birdies.
He made 8-foot birdie putts on the next two holes, breaking out of a four-way tie at eight under with his 3 at No. 16.
Johnson's 64 claims LPGA event
At Cornelius, N.C., Trish Johnson settled some scores at the 1996 Fieldcrest Cannon Classic.
Johnson showed up to play in last year's inaugural event, only to learn she had failed to formally enter. It was too late to get in as an alternate, and as a result she wound up with one too few tournament appearances to retain her exempt status for the 1996 LPGA tour.
This time, Johnson made certain she signed up properly and played well enough to be within three shots of the lead heading into Sunday's final round. She closed with a career-low 8-under-par 64, giving her a three-shot victory in the $500,000 event.
Pepper, bidding for her fifth victory in her last nine LPGA tour events, led the Fieldcrest Cannon field after three rounds but shot a 71 Sunday to finish third, four shots behind Johnson.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Grand opening
The Entrada at Snow Canyon Golf Course near St. George, designed by Johnny Miller, is now open. Golf writer Mike Sorensen was at the grand opening and gives his impressions of the course in Tuesday's Deseret News.