Golf Roundup : Kite Makes Up 9 Strokes, Then Wins Playoff

Tom Kite, nine shots behind at one point, sank a four-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole Sunday to win the Western Open in a four-man playoff at Oakbrook, Ill.

Kite leaped into the air, both hands reaching for the sky, when his winning putt dropped into the cup to give him the victory over Fred Couples and South Africans Nick Price and David Frost and to cap the biggest comeback on the PGA Tour this year.

Kite was seven strokes behind and tied for 26th when he started the final round over the Butler National Golf Club course.

He bogeyed the first two holes but pulled himself together to shoot the best round of the windy day, a four-under-par 68, and closed with a 286 total.

Having finished over two hours ahead of the other contenders, Kite chatted in a television tower for a while, watching while player after player attempt to pass him.

No one did. Only Frost, with birdies on the last two holes, Couples and Price could tie him. Frost and Couples each had a closing 75, and Price shot a 71.

Amy Alcott, able to coax only two birdies out of Lone Tree Country Club but going bogey-free, moved past the faltering leaders to win the $300,000 LPGA National Pro-Am by one stroke at Denver.

Alcott’s two-under-par 70 gave her a total of five-under 283.

The victory was worth $45,000 to Alcott, who has won 26 times in 12 years on the LPGA Tour.

Lee Elder shot a two-under-par 68 to defend his title in the $250,000 Merrill Lynch-Golf Digest Commemorative seniors tournament at Scarborough, N.Y.

He finished with a 54-hole tournament record of 11-under-par 199. The victory, worth $37,500, boosted Elder’s earnings on the Senior PGA Tour this year to $205,774.

In addition, Elder, 52, is the first player on the tour to defend a championship since Arnold Palmer won the senior tour’s Players Championship in 1984 and 1985.

Chi Chi Rodriguez, who started Sunday tied with Gene Littler at 135, four strokes behind Elder, birdied the par-4 final hole for a 66 to finish second, two strokes back.

Greg Turner birdied the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to score a come-from-behind victory over American Craig Stadler and win the $225,000 Scandinavian Open at Stockholm.

It was the first title in Europe for the 23-year-old New Zealander, a European tour rookie who honed his game playing college golf for four years at the University of Oklahoma.

Stadler, the gallery favorite among a record turnout of 20,502, led by three strokes going into the 16th hole and looked all set to win his first tournament since the Byron Nelson event in Dallas two years ago.

However, Stadler finished with three bogeys and a par on the sudden-death hole. Turner, who putted well all week and holed several long-range putts on the back nine Sunday, then sank a 30-footer to clinch it.

Both players finished the 72 holes at 270, 18-under-par.