1996 Final Leader Board

1 Steve Stricker 270 T2 Brad Faxon 273 T2 Scott Hoch 273 T2 Mark O'Mera 273 T2 Grant Waite 273 6 David Toms 274 7 Brad Fabel 275 T8 Larry Mize 276 T8 Mike Sullivan 276 T10 John Daly 277 T10 Corey Pavin 277 T10 Payne Stewart 277 Complete Scores

By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 27 1996; Page C1

Jay Williamson finally succumbed yesterday to all those demons he talked about avoiding over the first three rounds of the Kemper Open. However, nothing haunted his playing partner, Steve Stricker, in the last twosome of the tournament's rain-soaked final round at TPC at Avenel.

With a magnificent eagle at the always pivotal 520-yard sixth hole launching him to an early three-stroke lead, Stricker overcame his own nerves and a gaggle of late-charging veterans to win his first tournament on the PGA Tour. Even better, his wife and longtime caddie, Nicki, was with him every step of the way.

"This is a dream come true for the both of us," Stricker told the spectators who stayed to see him accept the winner's check of $270,000 following his closing 3-under par 68. His fourth straight round in the sixties left the Wisconsin native at 14-under 270, three shots clear of Brad Faxon, Mark O'Meara, Scott Hoch and 1993 Kemper champion Grant Waite, all of whom tied for second.

Williamson, who held a share of the lead after the first round and had a one-shot advantage after 54 holes, quickly faded from contention. He had talked every day about being thrilled to have avoided past pratfalls while in the lead. Yesterday, though, he was visibly nervous warming up, occasionally biting his nails while on the practice putting green. He was 3-over after four holes with a messy double-bogey at the fourth and soared to a dispiriting 79, a 4-under 280 and a tie for 23rd.

"It was really disappointing," Williamson said. "On one hand, I just never want to play the game again. On the other hand, I can't wait to get back at it. Monday morning I'll be hitting balls again trying to figure it out. It was a great experience for me though. It's a learning process. Unfortunately, sometimes the process is difficult, but you've got to deal with it."

Stricker, 29 and in his third year on the PGA Tour, demonstrated yesterday that he was much further along in the process, becoming the tour's fifth first-time winner this season. He said he sympathized with Williamson's plunge down the leader board because he'd taken that fall several times. He also insisted it helped him learn how to play — and win — in a final round.

"It was kind of an emotional day," Stricker said. "It always creeps into your mind about winning, and you have to fight it off. But we handled it pretty good down the stretch. . . . We played smart and made a lot of pars. It was a good solid round under pressure. It was a great win for us both."

The tournament turned in Stricker's favor shortly before CBS turned on its cameras during a stretch of three pivotal front-nine holes. At the 359-yard 5th, he was 84 yards from the pin and stuck a lob wedge to within three inches for a tap-in birdie that put him at 12-under and a shot ahead of David Toms, playing one group ahead. Stricker never trailed again; Toms tied for fifth at 10-under 274.

The slightly dog-legged right sixth hole is always a spectator's delight for the drama that seems to unfold every year as players make the choice of laying up short on their second shots or boldly aiming for the green. On Saturday, Nicki Stricker talked her husband into a tricky slicing shot he managed to pull off. They walked away with a two-putt birdie.

Yesterday, no discussion was necessary. Stricker hit another big drive and had 180 yards to the pin. He pulled a 6-iron from his bag and hit a soaring shot that easily cleared the tall tree line along the right side and plunked perfectly on the putting surface, stopping two feet from the hole.

He made that putt to go 14-under, and suddenly had a three-shot edge over Faxon, Hoch, Toms and Brad Fabel. For one frightening moment on the seventh tee, that lead looked tenuous when Stricker pushed his drive to the right. The ball hit a cart path, kicked even farther right, but took a fortuitous bounce off a tree. It ricocheted back toward the fairway instead of heading into double-bogey territory.

Stricker's ball stopped about three inches from the cart path on a patch of mud. He could have chosen to take a drop at that point, but after removing several pieces of gravel, he decided he liked his lie. Nicki handed him a 4-iron, and he sent the ball rocketing toward the green. The shot stopped just short of the putting surface. He then chipped to four feet, leaving him a putt made even tougher by the annoying blast of a car alarm going off in a nearby parking lot as Stricker stood over his ball.

But he buried the putt, and made all the right shots coming home, save for a botched chip at the ninth that cost him his only bogey. He had another glorious break when his 8-iron off the tee at the 165-yard 11th held up in high grass behind the green rather than rolling into a creek bubbling only a yard from where his ball stopped. Stricker was barely able to get his stance, then made a saving pitch to three feet and made that par putt, too.

"A momentum builder," he called it. A round-saver would have been more appropriate.

Waite and O'Meara each managed to get within a shot of the lead when each birdied the par-5 13th ahead of Stricker. But O'Meara hit a poor bunker shot at the 15th and fell back to 11-under, and Waite couldn't salvage par from the sand at 16.

Hoch and Faxon also missed several makeable birdie putts down the stretch on sopping greens almost impossible to read. None of the four runners-up managed a birdie on any of the last three holes.

Stricker did. At the 415-yard 16th, his 7-iron from 152 yards landed 10 feet from the pin above the hole. The birdie putt broke slightly right to left, and when Stricker struck it, he thought he'd missed. But the ball just did stay on line, hung for a breathtaking moment, and disappeared for a three that took him to 14-under and ended most of the suspense.

He finished with a pair of play-it-safe pars with second shots aimed to the middle of both greens. His victory march up the 18th included a few lifts of his Arnold Palmer umbrella and a pumped fist, and when his final putt rolled in for par, he and Nicki hugged and kissed.

He'd won the Kemper Open, his first tournament championship. Better yet, they'd won it together, every step of the way.