Billy Ray Brown, who lost his PGA Tour exemption last year, made a 5-foot birdie putt on his last hole Sunday to avoid a playoff at the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic and win his first tournament in five years.
After losing a two-stroke lead with a three-putt double-bogey at the 409-yard 17th, Brown reached the green at the par-5, 532-yard 18th in two before the two-putt birdie that have him a 5-under-par 67Brown finished at 17-under 271, a stroke ahead of his former University of Houston teammate Mike Standly, who birdied the same two holes in a closing 66.
Five birdies over his first seven holes got Brown to 17-under. The fast start broke him out of a quartet of players that began the day two strokes behind second- and third-round leader Steve Jurgensen.
Jurgensen, who was in the tournament on a sponsor's exemption after his only PGA top 10 finish at last year's event, started his final round with a double-bogey 6 and finished with a 72. His three-day total of 274 was among six players tied for fourth place. Mike Brisky had a 68 and was alone in third at 273.
Brown had not won on tour since the GTE Byron Nelson Classic in 1992, when he finished 29th on the money list with $485,151. He had two wrist surgeries at the end of that season, and had struggled ever since.
A 185th-place finish on the money list last year, his third straight year out of the top 125, cost him his PGA Tour exemption. He made just $67,203 last year.
With the victory at the 7,157-yard Annandale Golf Club, Brown won $180,000 and a two-year exemption.
Burnet Senior Classic
COON RAPIDS, Minn. - Hale Irwin won his fifth Senior PGA Tour event of the year Sunday, edging Lee Trevino by two strokes to capture the $1.35 million Burnet Senior Classic.
Irwin's long birdie putt on the par-3 17th at Bunker Hills Golf Course gave him the lead for good in the back-and-forth duel between two golfers who have won a combined nine major PGA championships.
It was the ninth career Senior PGA Tour win for Irwin, who leads the money list this year at $1,339,561 after taking Sunday's $202,500 first-place check.
The three-time U.S. Open winner had seven birdies and one bogey in round of 66 to finish with a tournament record 17-under total of 199. Trevino, who hasn't won on the Senior PGA Tour since last November, closed with a 67.
Irwin's record total was two strokes better than the mark set by Chi Chi Rodriguez in 1993 and match by Raymond Floyd in 1995.
LPGA JAL Big Apple
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - Michele Redman held off charges from two of the biggest names in women's golf and scored her first LPGA tour victory Sunday with a tournament record at the JAL Big Apple Classic.
Leading from the opening round, Redman, a 6-year veteran, dropped two shots over the first three holes but rallied with three birdies the rest of the way for a 1-under-par 70 and a 72-hole total of 272, breaking the tournament mark by a stroke.
On the par-5 18th, Redman put a 3-wood 15 yards in front of the green and chipped to a foot below the hole. As her final birdie putt dropped, she was embraced by her caddie, Hal McGann, and threw her arms in the air.
She had scored a three-stroke triumph over the intimidator of women's golf, playing the final round head-to-head with Annika Sorenstam, the winner of four tournaments this year and 10 overall. Also mounting a last-day challenge was Karrie Webb, a five-time winner in less than two years on the tour.
Both got within a stroke of Redman before faltering on the back nine. Sorenstam, coming back from disappointment at the U.S. Women's Open last week, bogeyed No. 10 when she three-putted from 15 feet, and Webb took a double-bogey 5 at the 16th when her tee shot sailed into rough at the back of the green and she three-putted after chipping on.