Couples Closes Fast to Win Memorial

Sometimes Fred Couples looks around and feels his age. At the Memorial Tournament, the reasons--young stars like Ernie Els, David Duval and Jim Furyk--were all around him.

But Couples, who twice this year--including at the Masters--came up short down the stretch, closed like a champion on Sunday to turn back all challengers at Dublin, Ohio, for a four-stroke victory.

“I think the guys around my age--[Mark] O’Meara, [John] Cook, [Tom] Lehman, they’re terrific players,� Couples said after he shot a 69 to finish at 17-under-par 271, with Andrew Magee at 275, Duval at 276 and Furyk at 277.

“I feel like I can play,� the 38-year-old Couples said. “Sometimes I feel tired and old, but other times like today . . . “

Duval, Els and Davis Love III all started the final round with a chance to make a move at Couples, but none could put together the kind of round that would apply serious pressure.

Couples viewed the gusty weather Sunday as a clear advantage.

“The wind blowing was a bonus,� he said. “I didn’t think that anyone could shoot a 66 or 67 out there.�

And he was right. No one in the top 20 shot below 68.

Only Furyk, who closed with a 68 to finish at 11 under, made a run.

Couples’ bad back twice had to endure severe-weather delays late in the final round, but he made three birdies on the back nine--the nine that had doomed him twice this year--to ease to victory.

“To win on Jack’s course, in Jack’s tournament, next to winning Augusta, this is it for me,� Couples said as he sat with tournament creator and course designer Jack Nicklaus at his side.

“I’m playing as well as I can play right now,� said Couples, who has battled a bad back and a series of personal tragedies--including the death of both his parents--since winning the Masters in 1992.

The victory was the second this year for Couples and helped ease the memory of a ball in the water on No. 13 that cost him at Augusta National and a water ball on No. 17 that sunk his chances at the Byron Nelson.

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Larry Nelson’s putter finally cooled off, but with the eight-stroke lead he took into the final round of the Pittsburgh Senior Classic at Bell Acres, Pa., it really didn’t matter.

Nelson’s final round of two-over-par 74 was good enough to leave him at 12-under for the tournament and gave him a five-stroke win over Bob Duval, who shot a final round of four-under 68.

The tournament was never close, thanks to the pair of 65s Nelson shot Friday and Saturday, twice tying the course record that stood since 1977.

But the big lead made it tough for Nelson to concentrate Sunday.

“The edge was gone,� Nelson said. “You feel deflated. When you lead by that much, it’s real easy to think that you can give away a stroke here or there, or think that you don’t really have to look real hard at a shot.�

After his opening-hole bogey on Friday, Nelson played 40 consecutive bogey-free holes, finally running into trouble Sunday at the par-four, No. 6.

Nelson also bogeyed back-to-back holes on the back nine, but followed those with a 15-foot birdie putt at the par-five No. 15. He played even-par the rest of the way, never letting Duval get closer than the five-stroke margin of victory.

Nelson, who joined the Senior Tour last September, won for the second time. He has finished in the top 10 in 10 of the 16 Senior Tour events he has played. The first-place check for $165,000 was the second-largest Nelson has collected in his career, and it pushed him over the $1-million mark for Senior Tour earnings.

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Hollis Stacy, a 17-time winner on the LPGA tour between 1977 and 1985, moved within two shots of leader Rosie Jones on Sunday before repeated rain delays postponed the Rochester International at Rochester, N.Y.

Play will resume today. About half the field, including a dozen leaders, had not completed the tournament at the Locust Hill course. Jones, who remained at nine-under-par, had opened a four-stroke lead in Saturday’s third round with an eight-under 64.

Stacy, 44, playing with a strained back, racked up four birdies and a bogey to move to seven-under after 10 holes. One shot back was Sherri Steinhauer and Juli Inkster.

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England’s Paul Broadhurst and Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke grabbed the third-round lead at the TPC of Europe as players battered the course with record low scores on a windless, sunny day at Alveslohe, Germany.

The two players led at 18-under 198 at the $1.9-million event, one shot ahead of Masters champion Mark O’Meara and England’s Lee Westwood. Westwood used nine birdies and an eagle to shoot an 11-under 61, breaking the course record of 63 held by England’s Russell Claydown.