Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 26, 1993 TAG: 9304260042
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
The eight-year tour veteran birdied the fourth playoff hole Sunday to beat Steve Elkington and win the $1.5 million Greater Greensboro Open.
"I'll be able to draw on this playoff for the rest of my career. That's what it's all about," said Mediate, whose other win came in a playoff in the 1991 Doral Open.
"This is a huge springboard. It's like a cannon."
Mediate, who led the GGO after three rounds last year, overcame a double bogey on the par-5 15th and then had to save pars on the second and third extra holes before sinking a 4-foot putt to finish it.
Mediate trailed 54-hole leaders Elkington and Mike Sullivan by four strokes, marking the biggest final-day move by a tournament winner this season. He closed with a 3-under-par 69 on Sunday for a four-day total of 281. Elkington matched that figure with a 1-over 73.
Elkington, the 1990 Greensboro Open winner, bogeyed Nos. 15 and 16 to fall a shot back, but made a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to force the playoff.
"I felt like I sort of lost the tournament earlier on when I drove it in the rough on 14, 15 and 16," Elkington said. "I had control of the tournament at that point."
With winds gusting to 30 mph, the players took turns scrambling to keep alive in the playoff. Elkington sank a 4-footer for par on the first playoff hole, and Mediate got up and down from the sand to save par on the second extra hole, a par-3.
Elkington had a great opportunity to end the match on the 18th hole, the third of the playoff, when he landed an approach shot within 10 feet of the pin. But Elkington missed the birdie putt, then halved the hole when Mediate, hitting out of a fairway bunker, chipped to 6 feet and made the par putt.
"When I made the putt on 18 to stay alive I felt really, really good. I was laughing," Mediate said.
They returned again to the 16th hole to continue the playoff, but this time Mediate won it.
Gil Morgan, Paul Azinger and Dudley Hart were tied at 282. Hart shot 71, Azinger 72 and Morgan 73.
Mediate, who started several groups ahead of the leaders, posted a 4-under-par 32 on the front side of the Forest Oaks Country Club course. He grabbed the lead at 9-under on the 11th hole with a birdie after hitting his 120-yard approach shot to within 4 feet.
"I was trying to bury everybody," he said about his fast start. "I was saying let's go deeper and deeper.
"This feels a lot better than the first [win] and that's not taking anything away from Doral. There was too much against me today, after 15. I was just in bad shape but I hung in there."
Keywords:
GOLF
by CNB