Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 11, 1994 TAG: 9404110108
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: AUGUSTA, GA. LENGTH: Medium
When all the measurements were in, Olazabal was the Masters champion, claiming a two-shot victory over Lehman and a three-shot win over 1987 champion Larry Mize.
"It's like a dream come true," Olazabal, 28, said. "I've worked hard the last few years toward this and at the end, I got it. I couldn't be a happier man."
His final-round 69 - including a door-opening bogey on No. 17 - gave him a 9-under 279, the highest winning score in five years, but good enough for $360,000. Lehman took home $216,000, and Mize picked up $136,000.
Tom Kite was alone in fourth at 283, followed by resident Jay Haas, Loren Roberts and Masters rookie Jim McGovern at 285.
Greg Norman, the favorite coming into the tournament, finished at 292, and defending champion Bernhard Langer finished at 293.
Langer offered Olazabal a "congratulations and welcome" as he helped him put on the green blazer that must have seemed a long-time coming after Olazabal finished runner-up by a stroke to Ian Woosnam in 1991.
Sunday was just as close.
Clinging to a one-shot lead, Olazabal drove the 500-yard No. 15 to within 208 yards from the front of the green. Then, he got lucky. Olazabal's 5-iron shot stopped one foot short of rolling off the fringe and onto the bank leading to the pond that fronts the green.
"I was thinking, `Clear the water,' " Olazabal said. "When I saw it bounce, I said to myself, `It can go in the water, but hopefully it will stay up.' "
The ball stayed up, and Olazabal rolled in a 30-foot putt to go 10-under. But the hole had a little more to say before sending the leaders on their way.
Lehman had a makable, 15-foot eagle putt of his own. The ball rolled a foot by, and Lehman dropped to his knees and slapped the green in frustration.
"It put my whole heart and soul into that putt, and it didn't go in," Lehman said.
Neither did his 5-foot birdie putt on the next hole.
"When you see things like that happen, you think maybe it's the right time for me to win the tournament," Olazabal said.
But Olazabal cut Lehman some slack with a bogey on No. 17, and there was only one stroke separating them as they came into the final hole.
With the pin on the front left of the green, Lehman thought he could hit a 1-iron to the top of the hill and a 9-iron to the green. Earlier in the week, he'd hit his driver into the bunker.
This time, he hit his 1-iron into the sand on left of the fairway.
"The ball ran like a little rabbit to the bunker," Lehman said.
He was unable to knock it on from there, his chip shot was well short of the hole and he two-putted for bogey.
Olazabal had a little trouble on the hole also, hitting his second shot into the gallery. He made a nice, uphill chip shot with his 9-iron and sank the 8-foot par putt.
"I feel like he won the tournament, but I also feel like I could have won," Lehman said. "I'm sure tonight it will be tough to sleep without thinking about lost opportunities."
Mize lost his opportunity with a bogey on No. 14 when he two-putted from 6 feet, then parred the next hole from the same distance.
"Those putts were the key," he said. "If I make those, I get the momentum and go to 9-under. But I missed them. I still felt like I had some momentum, but I never got anything going."
He bogeyed the final hole for a final round 71.
"The small picture is disappointment," Mize said. "The big picture is a lot of positives. My goal this year was to contend at a major. The disappointment will go away shortly, and I'll see how well I played. I felt very much at ease out there."
His playing partner, Kite, made a go of the leaderboard when he birdied the second hole to go 5-under. However, he bogeyed No. 5 to go 4-under, played Nos. 12 and 13 bogey-birdie and got back to 5-under with a birdie on No. 15 before parring his way in.
"He played fine," Mize said. "It was just a few putts here and there. . . . He didn't play that bad. Two bogeys and three birdies, that's easy to do out here. Tom's a super guy, a great player."
South African Ernie Els worked his way on to the leaderboard with a birdie on No. 1 and an eagle on No. 8 to reach 4-under. He birdied 12 to go 5-under, then collapsed with three bogeys on the way in.
But the afternoon belonged to Olazabal, who has long been considered the successor to Seve Ballesteros as Spain's king of golf.
Sunday morning, Ballesteros handed Olazabal a note. After it was all over, the new champion declined to reveal what the 1980 and '83 champion told him, only to say it was "very nice."
So was Olazabal's round, especially his putt - and his luck - on No. 15.
Keywords:
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by CNB