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Kite defeats Fergus
Tom Kite hit two spectators and the cartpath three separate times during the one-hole playoff to win the Boeing Greater Seattle Classic on Sunday.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 10:36 AM IST
Read Time:3 min
Snoqualmie:
Tom Kite hit two spectators and the cartpath three separate times during the one-hole playoff to win the Boeing Greater Seattle Classic on Sunday. He began the day three behind second-round leader Don Pooley and shot a six-under 66 to finish with a three-day score of 15-under 201. Keith Fergus started five shots behind Pooley and reached 15-under with a 64. Kite birdied the first playoff hole, the par-five, 554-yard No 18, while Fergus bogeyed. It was Kite's ninth career US PGA Champions Tour victory, third in a playoff, and a $240,000 first-place cheque. Missed opportunity Pooley had a chance to join the playoff but missed a 14-foot birdie try on 18. He finished with a 70, one back in a group with Scott Simpson (69), Wayne Levi (66), David Edwards (66) and Tom Jenkins - who had an 11-under 61, his career low. Jenkins' nine-birdie, one-eagle round matched the course record set Saturday by Simpson. With five holes to play, seven players were tied at 14-under on the TPC at Snoqualmie Ridge course. Kite then broke from the pack with a birdie on No 15. At the same time, Fergus was finishing his round with a birdie on 18, just missing an eagle. "I knew I had to keep rolling in birdies," Kite said. Straight birdie With his approach on No 16 just 8 feet from the pin, Kite rolled in his third straight birdie to take the lead again at 16-under. But he three-putted from 67 feet on the par-three 17th for a bogey, falling back to 15-under. He closed with a par, getting a break when given relief on his second shot because his backswing was affected by a tree stake. He missed his birdie try by three inches. "Going into the playoff, I felt like I was at a disadvantage because Fergie is one of the longest hitters on the Tour," Kite said. Losing rhythm  Fergus had finished nearly an hour earlier and might have lost his rhythm. "Anytime you sit around for an hour or so, it's out of the norm," Fergus said. "But I tell you what, you give me that chance anytime. I would have sat around for two hours". Both players' playoff drives were within 235 yards from the green. But Fergus, using a three-iron on his second shot, pulled out of it. It hit the cartpath and caromed into the right-side grandstands. A spectator, with a drink in one hand and his cap in another, caught it in his cap then quickly dropped it on the hill. "I wish he would have let it go because it was so slick over there that it probably would have rolled into a better position than it was," Fergus said. "That's just a reaction. He might have thought it would have helped me". Fergus had to drop on the steep hill then chunked his chip against the cartpath curb. It bounced up the hill again, hitting a fan's leg then rolled back onto the cartpath. Kite hit his second shot in the back bunker then blasted to within 3 feet of the pin. (AP)Topics mentioned in this article
Golf Tom Kite
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