1991 Final Leader Board

1 Billy Andrade 263 (won playoff with birdie on first extra hole) 2 Jeff Sluman 263 3 Bill Britton 266 T4 Mark Brooks 267 T4 Greg Norman 267 T4 Hal Sutton 267 7 Scott Hoch 268 T8 Steve Jones 269 T8 Stan Utley 269 10 David Edwards 270 Complete Scores

By Ken Denlinger
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 3, 1991; Page B1

When Billy Andrade stepped onto the tee at the 70th hole of the Kemper Open yesterday, there seemed little chance he could win. About 45 minutes later, when he walked onto the green during the first playoff hole, there was no way he could lose.

Andrade made birdie on Nos. 16 and 17 at the TPC at Avenel and got up and down from a greenside bunker on 18 to catch Jeff Sluman on the 72nd hole of the tournament. On the par-3 17th again for the playoff, Andrade knocked another 6-iron to eight feet and watched with mixed emotions as his best friend on tour put his tee ball in the water.

That swing, only Sluman's second bad one of the final day, cost him. He returned to the tee and eventually made double-bogey 5. Which meant that the 27-year-old Andrade needed only three-putt from a distance slightly longer than his shadow to fulfill a good deal of the enormous promise forecast for him.

With no pressure, Andrade knocked the putt in — for his second 2 there in 25 minutes — and got his first victory in four years on the PGA Tour. He said: "I've won in junior golf; I've won in amateur golf. But I haven't won where it counts most — out here. Until you've won out here, you're not respected by your peers."

So the fifth Kemper at Avenel ended with Andrade's 21-under-par 263 breaking the four-round record by five strokes. It also featured the players probably favored most after the third round — Greg Norman and leader Hal Sutton — failing to break par yesterday.

Sluman left the course with at least a thin smile, partly because Andrade won and partly because he had shot 64-64-65 the final three rounds. But he missed about an eight-footer for birdie on the 72nd hole that almost surely would have won him the $180,000 first prize.

Andrade was deep enough in a fairway bunker and far enough away to be out of sight from fans near the 18th hole as Sluman stroked the putt that could have given him his third straight 7-under 64 and a one-shot lead. Only a miracle would have enabled Andrade to make the tying birdie from such sandy trouble.

Sluman was in a somewhat similar position about three months ago, needing a makable putt on the final hole to force a playoff, and missed.

As happened yesterday, Sluman had a chance during the Los Angeles Open to get his line from an opponent's putt moments earlier. Of yesterday's effort, which curled away at the last instant, he said: "I hit exactly what I wanted. I was surprised. I really thought I'd made it."

Sluman also admitted that his playing partner, Norman, had said in the scorer's tent: "Didn't you watch my putt?" Sluman said he had.

Lots of the 52,000 fans were surprised that Andrade not only made up the two strokes he trailed Sluman by but also maintained that tie by going from one bunker into another and then sinking a three-foot putt for par.

To draw even — and stay even — with Sluman, Andrade first had to birdie the decently tough 415-yard par-4 No. 16, which he did with a dandy approach from the right rough and about a 12-foot putt.

Andrade still had to birdie either the statistically toughest hole during the final round (the 195-yard No. 17) or the statistically second-toughest hole during the final round (the 444-yard No. 18).

At 17, Andrade cut a 6-iron to within 10 feet and stroked in the tying birdie. On 18, his swing and the wind conspired to push his tee ball into the bunker off the right side of the fairway.

"I've got to be one of the worst long bunker players on tour," he said. "I was kind of afraid but I said to myself: 'This is it. You can't make any excuses now. Make bogey and you're not going to win it. . . . Let's try not to fluff it out.' "

Andrade pulled a 6-iron, but being pin-high in the sand was not nearly the worst place to be. On tour this year, he is the 17th best at sand saves, blasting up and then draining the putt 60 percent of the time.

Taking very little time, Andrade flipped the ball from the sand to three feet. Turning his back on Sutton's par-saving putt — he'd remembered Sluman not getting the proper feel from watching Bruce Lietzke back in Los Angeles — Andrade stroked his putt in the left side of the cup.

The first-off-the-tee decision on the playoff hole went to Sluman, who chose to bat second. Confident from such a silky swing so recently, Andrade put the pressure on Sluman. Earlier, Sluman had pulled a 6-iron long and to the left at 17. He said the wind was harder in his face this time.

"I was very sad and very happy," Andrade said. "I almost wish he'd knocked it on and I'd holed the birdie. I couldn't believe it went in the water. I was shocked."

Sutton began the final round with a one-stroke lead, but could not do anything special on his favorite part of Avenel, the front nine. In the first three rounds, he had been 14 under over that stretch. Yesterday, he made birdie on the par-5 No. 6, but three-putted for bogey on the 165-yard No. 9.

By that time, Sutton was a shot out of the lead, the 5-foot-7 Sluman having made birdies on five of the first seven holes and gone from 15 to 20 under. A bogey on No. 9 dropped him from the lead to tied with Andrade and Norman.

Sutton shot himself out of victory with a watery double-bogey 6 at par-4 No. 12 that dropped him to minus-17.

Norman's return from a burnout break was spoiled in two situations he usually handles with ease. From the fairway on the 435-yard fourth hole, he pulled his approach and made bogey 5. From deep in the trees a day earlier, he had made par.

Playing out of character, which is to say safe, on the 301-yard No. 14, Norman hit his tee ball with an iron and put it in the creek near the fairway. That led to a bogey 5 and dropped him again to 17 under.

Andrade clinched the victory on the final holes, but actually won the tournament with some luck and fine shotmaking on the sixth hole. Off the tee, he tried to cut the ball down the right side of the fairway and cut it too close. The ball hit a tree and could have ended either in the water or some other place from which 6 or 7 would have been possible. Instead, it was where he could punch it onto the fairway and make birdie with about a 20-foot putt.

"That," he said, "is why I'm sitting here now."