Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 11, 1993 TAG: 9301110042
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CARLSBAD, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
LOVE REIGNS IN THE RAIN
HORRIBLE PLAYING conditions didn't prevent Davis Love III from opening the 1993 PGA Tour with a victory in the Tournament of Champions.\ Davis Love III opened up the 1993 pro golf season the same way he ended 1992.
Love, who won three of his last four starts late last year, held off Tom Kite's superb challenge and won by a single stroke Sunday in the season-opening Tournament of Champions.
Love won with a closing 69 and a 272 total, 16 under par. It was worth $144,000 from the $800,000 purse and came under extreme playing conditions that, at best, could be described as marginal.
The brunt of a severe winter storm, which threatened to cancel the final round, missed the Southern California course Sunday, but the playing conditions remained bad - chilly and with a drizzling rain punishing an already saturated La Costa Resort course.
"I love it," said Kite, who last year won the U.S. Open in howling winds about 400 miles up the coast in Pebble Beach. "Any time the weather turns bad, it's good for me."
And the weather was bad enough to prompt Kite to a tournament-best, 8-under-par 64 that lifted him to one stroke of the lead.
"I just started too late," he said after his birdie-birdie finish.
Al Geiberger won the separate but simultaneous competition for senior tour winners. Geiberger, who hadn't won since taking this title a year ago, pulled away from Jim Dent over the last five holes and scored a two-shot victory. He won $52,500 on a closing round of 71 and a 280 total.
Dent shot 73-282, and was trailed by Dave Stockton (73) and George Archer (73) at 285.
Paul Azinger, in a neck-and-neck race with Love until Love hit a 3-wood second shot to 15 feet and made the putt for eagle on the ninth hole, drifted back into a tie for third with Mark O'Meara at 275 in the regular tournament.
Ray Floyd, the first man to qualify for both sections of the tournament that brings together only the winners of 1992 titles, was unable to capitalize on his unique opportunity to double dip from two tournament purses in one.
He shot 73 and was one over par at 289, 17 behind Love and nine off Geiberger's pace. He had combined earnings from the two brackets of $30,825.