1989 Final Leader Board

1 Tom Byrum 268 T2 Tommy Armour 273 T2 B.R. Brown 273 T2 Jim Thorpe 273 5 Gil Morgan 275 T6 Andrew Magee 276 T6 Mark McCumber 276 T8 Jay Don Blake 277 T8 Lon Hinkle 277 T8 Mike Hulbert 277 Complete Scores

By Sally Jenkins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 5, 1989; Page C1

Tom Byrum, a young player of fragile confidence but a determined temperament, made the Kemper Open his first PGA Tour victory yesterday. His final round of 68 was for the most part accomplished early on the TPC course at Avenel, and established a tournament record at 16-under-par 268, winning by five shots.

Byrum held a two-stroke lead to begin the day before a crowd of 50,000, and birdied the fourth, fifth and sixth holes to expand his margin. He suffered only brief threats or moments of nervousness thereafter, including an ill-fated charge by Jim Thorpe, to collect the $162,000 first prize.

His total broke the 72-hole record of 270 set by Bob Menne in 1974 when the tournament was played at Quail Hollow in North Carolina and tied by Tom Kite in 1987, when the Kemper moved to Avenel from Congressional.

Byrum, a slight 28-year-old from Dallas who has been on the tour for three years, had missed nine cuts and was only 84th on this year's money list. Yesterday he proved himself a stylish, consistent player in the mode of tour money leader Kite. He wisely negotiated the pitfalls of an Avenel made more difficult than it had been all week by breezes and sun-hardened greens.

"I knew I just had to aim away from trouble and swing," he said.

Thorpe's 67 was the most serious challenge of the afternoon as he pulled within three strokes with a birdie on the 15th hole. But the relentless one-time East Potomac Park public links player, who is just now recovering from wrist surgery two years ago, bogeyed the 18th and ended in a tie at 11 under with Billy Ray Brown (67) and Tommy Armour III (71). The trio of runners-up collected $67,200 each.

Byrum's round of five birdies and two bogeys was elegant and judicious. He is not a long player, relying instead on good positioning and decision-making. Once he made his three consecutive birdies, all he needed to do was play consistently and avoid a serious blunder.

"I really took ahold of my own destiny in the first few holes," he said. "I got to where I wanted, so I wouldn't have to work so hard on the last few holes."

On the fourth, a 435-yard par-4, he lofted a 5-iron from the light rough that spun to 10 feet from the cup. On the 359-yard fifth, he used a 3-wood off the tee and needed only a sand wedge that slid to 15 feet to set up his 3. At the sixth, the short dogleg par-5 with Rock Run laced through the fairway, he laid up and hit "an easy wedge" safely on 25 feet away. That putt curled in for an unlooked-for birdie.

"That really put me in the driver's seat," he said. "After I birdied four and five I knew I was playing well, and after the birdie at six I knew it was mine to win or lose."

The rest of the field found themselves at least five strokes back, the closest being Armour and Thorpe. On an afternoon when scoring proved difficult after three days when the course record of 64 was tied four times, it was enough of a margin to hold up, despite Thorpe's valiant attempts.

Armour, grandson of the legendary Scottish pro, bogeyed his first hole and would struggle the rest of the day to maintain his round of even par.

Brown, the 1982 NCAA champion, birdied his first three holes to move to 10-under, but he remained right there until the par-4 No. 16, when he nearly holed out his approach for a final birdie.

Somehow they never seemed in contention, not with Byrum's fast getaway and unshakable manner, and Thorpe's constantly electrifying progress across the course.

Thorpe made putts from everywhere, and for awhile anything seemed possible. He lagged them in, jammed them in and curled them in. Playing two holes ahead of Byrum, Thorpe and Don Pooley decided that if they could get within two or three shots, they might be able to scare the nonwinner.

"We thought if we could get to 12 or 13 under, there might be a chance to steal the golf tournament," Thorpe said.

He birdied the first hole, which began a 4-under-par 32 on the front nine, when he slapped a 6-iron to 10 feet and made it. He eagled the sixth, a 479-yarder, reaching it in two with a colossal drive and a 7-iron to 20 feet. The putt moved him to 10 under.

At the eighth, a leaning par-4, he sank a 25-footer that gently drifted to the lip and in. When Byrum bogeyed the seventh, with an adrenaline-driven 6-iron that flew the green, Thorpe trailed by only four strokes.

But Byrum birdied the par-4 eighth with another "easy" wedge that spun to one foot, to get back to 16 under, and Thorpe spent the next several holes struggling just to stay in contention. He suffered a minor setback at the 147-yard 11th where he landed short and in a deep bunker. He popped his sand shot to the back edge and made bogey. But he made birdie 3 on the 12th with another longish putt, a 15-footer.

His momentum slipped away, however, with a 25-minute wait on the tee of the 13th, a reachable 524-yarder downhill that everybody seemed to be going for in two.

By the time Thorpe stepped up he had put his driver away and chosen to play safe with a 3-wood. He hit that fat, and hit his 3-wood again from the fairway, to 10 feet. That putt he misread slightly.

He missed another birdie opportunity at the 14th, the 301-yard par 4, where his short wedge checked up in the fringe.

"I thought if I could get to 12- or 13-under I could put some pressure on him, change the way he played," Thorpe said. ". . . But he was playing very, very steady."

Thorpe finally made a move on Byrum at the 15th hole, a 467-yard uphill par-4 with a slight dogleg left, that became the site of a two-stroke swing.

Thorpe's putter turned to gold again, as he sank a 20-footer to go to 12-under. A few minutes later Byrum stepped up and hit an arcing hook into the trees.

"Just a bad swing," Byrum said. "Really my only one of the day."

He punched a 5-iron under some branches into the fairway 75 yards from the green. He hit his approach wedge to eight feet, but the putt slipped by the hole, for a bogey.

"That was kind of a scary spot," he said. "I just accepted the bogey."

It left Byrum only a three-stroke lead with three to play. But on the 16th, a par-4 of 415 yards, he hit a smooth, sweeping 7-iron from a downhill lie to 15 feet from the pin, and stroked in the putt to go back to 16-under.

"I just composed myself and told myself I had the ability to go ahead and win," he said.