CLEMMONS, N.C. -- Chalk another one up for this year's Senior PGA Tour qualifying class.
Little-known Fred Gibson became this season's fifth winner on the 50-and-over circuit to come out of the Q-school, shooting a final-round 64 Sunday to win the $1.5 million Vantage Championship by three shots."I didn't know what to expect when I came out here," said Gibson, who joined leading money winner Bruce Fleisher, Allen Doyle, Gary McCord and Tom McGinnis as Q-school champions in 1999. "I have watched all these great players and admired them. I am happy to just be a part of it."
The 52-year-old Gibson became the 11th first-time winner on the senior tour this season -- a record -- by making birdies on four of the final five holes to hold off Fleisher.
"In Zen they say the art of archery is to become the arrow, so I became the ball," Gibson joked about his final-round charge.
Gibson, who tied the course record with a 62 Saturday, entered the final round one shot behind leader Tom Jenkins, then shot the 64 to claim the $225,000 first-place prize -- by far the largest of his career. He won a measly $704 during his playing days on the regular PGA Tour.
BUICK CHALLENGE: Ralph Simpson and Marty Boehm won't see any of the $324,000 first-place check from the Buick Challenge, nor will their names be inscribed on the silver trophy that David Toms somehow managed to hold over his head.
But Toms knows better.
True, the 32-year-old from Louisiana swung the driver, nailed the irons and made all the right putts. But without the physical therapists from the PGA Tour's fitness trailer, Toms might not have even made it to the first tee, let alone the winner's circle.
His back hurt so much every morning that "my head felt like it weighed 50 pounds." He wasn't exactly walking on air when he left the trailer, but at least he was walking.
"They did a good job getting me ready to play," Toms said Sunday after his three-stroke victory at Callaway Gardens. "I owe them a lot."
Toms might want to give himself a pat on the back, too.
With only three strokes separating him from Stuart Appleby going into a final round ripe for low scores, Toms eliminated the suspense early with the kind of play that has quietly made him one of the most successful players on the PGA Tour this year.
He saved par from the rough. He made a couple of 12-foot birdie putts. He twice saved par from the bunker.
LPGA NEW ALBANY CLASSIC: Annika Sorenstam dreads playing the 12th hole at New Albany Country Club.
You would never know it by what happened Sunday with the $150,000 first-place check in the New Albany Golf Classic hanging in the balance.
Sorenstam drilled a 5-iron to the front of the green of the par-4 -- the ball coming to rest 21/2 feet from the cup -- to give her the birdie that gave her the lead for good in her second victory of the season.
"I almost get nervous thinking about it," she said of the 398-yard, dogleg right. "That hole scares me to death -- the way it sets up with the water on the right. Sometimes I hit my ball with a little fade. But I hit it up there and it rolled up by the pin. I told my caddie, 'Now I get revenge on that hole.' "
Sorenstam's birdie, followed later by three consecutive birdies, helped her to a 6-under 66 that left her at 19-under 269 for a three-stroke victory over Mardi Lunn in the inaugural event.
"It was one of those rounds you dream about having on Sunday," Sorenstam said.
Sorenstam had just three bogeys in the tournament and birdied four of the final seven holes.
"I felt I was in control this week," she said. "Every shot I hit, every move I made, I knew what I was doing."
Last year's player of the year parred six straight holes after building a three-stroke lead with a birdie at the par-3 5th. Lunn, playing in the same twosome, pulled even with three birdies over that span.
Sorenstam lipped out an 8-footer for birdie at No. 9, missed a 5-footer at 10 and a 4-footer at 11.
Sorenstam said she talked to herself during a 15-minute backup at the 12th tee.
"I thought, 'How close do I have to hit it? How am I going to score if I don't hit any putts?' " she said. "You expect to make those. There were a lot of players close to me on the leaderboard and they were all breathing down my neck."
Sorenstam wrapped up her 18th career victory with birdies at 14, 15 and 16. She hit a 14-footer at the 14th, coaxed in an uphill 4-footer at No. 15 and made a 4-footer at 16.