Rain Does Not Stop Bradley

After three miserable days, Michael Bradley won his first PGA Tour event Sunday with three beautiful shots.

Bradley, who has been on the tour since 1993, won a five-way playoff on the first hole, making a 12-foot birdie putt to win the rain-soaked Buick Challenge at Pine Mountain, Ga.

Rain washed out the third and fourth rounds, forcing a playoff among the second-round leaders, which included defending champion Fred Funk.

“It was one of those days where you didn’t know what was going to happen,� Bradley said. “Will we play nine? Will we come back tomorrow? It kind of kept us in limbo all day.�

The tournament was reduced to 36 holes when rain washed out most of Saturday’s round and Sunday’s after an hour of play. The rain lasted about two hours, leaving the Callaway Gardens course unplayable.

Since less than half the field had completed the round, PGA officials reverted to the second-round scores.

Bradley, Funk, Davis Love III, Len Mattiace and John Maginnes, all at 10-under-par 134, warmed up for about 15 minutes, then headed for the course for the first time since Friday. Meanwhile, players like Jay Haas, who had gotten within one shot of the leaders by playing 15 holes in seven-under par in the third round, saw their efforts erased from the books.

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Trish Johnson rallied from four strokes behind to win the Fieldcrest Cannon Classic at Cornelius, N.C.

Johnson, who trailed Dottie Pepper going into the final round, shot a career-low eight-under-par 64 and won the $500,000 event by three shots.

Johnson birdied two of her first three holes on the way to a bogey-free final round that was two strokes lower than her previous best score in nine years on the LPGA tour.

Kim Saiki shot a four-under 68 to finish second. Pepper, bidding for her fifth victory in her last nine LPGA tour events, had three birdies and two bogeys in a 71 that left her alone in third at 274.

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Jim Colbert made several clutch putts over the final five holes to win his third Senior Tour Vantage Championship in six years at Clemmons, N.C.

Colbert, who won $225,000 to close the gap on money leader Hale Irwin, shot a two-under final-round 69. That was good enough for a 54-hole total of nine-under 204 and a one-shot victory over Irwin, Kermit Zarley and Gary Player in the $1.5-million event--second richest on tour.

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Ellen Port of St. Louis, who is 3 1/2 months pregnant with her first child, successfully defended her title in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, beating Kerry Postillion of Burr Ridge, Ill., 2 and 1, at Rancho Mirage.