Golf Roundup : Despite 11 Years to Polish Victory Speech, Words Fail Reid

Mike Reid waited 11 years for his moment and when it came, he was almost speechless.

Reid came from four strokes back with a 5-under-par 67 Sunday at Tucson to score the first victory of his PGA Tour career, winning the $600,000 Tucson Open by four strokes.

“Words can’t describe how grateful I feel,” said Reid, who could hardly get the words out, he was so choked with emotion. “I just can’t tell you what a thrill it is.

“You work so hard . . . such a privilege to play . . . to be as fortunate as I am.”

The victory was worth $108,000 and pushed Reid’s season’s earnings to a career-best $306,434. It also gave him a place in next week’s Nabisco Championships of Golf, which offers $3 million in prize money for golf’s touring pros.

Reid, 33, took advantage of Fuzzy Zoeller’s front-side troubles to gain a share of the top spot, then pulled away from Hal Sutton on the back side of the new TPC course at Star Pass.

The slender, soft-spoken Reid won his first title with a 268 total, 20 strokes under par.

Reid’s winning margin was four shots over Sutton, Zoeller, Mark Calcavecchia and Chip Beck. Zoeller finished bogey-bogey for a 75 and Sutton bogeyed two of the last three for a 73. Calcavecchia double-bogeyed the 17th for a final 69 and Beck a 71.

Corey Pavin (64), Dan Pohl (68) and Jay Haas (72) tied at 273.

Al Geiberger shot a course record 10-under-par 62 and won the $250,000 PGA Las Vegas Senior tournament by four strokes over Chi Chi Rodriguez at Las Vegas.

Geiberger, who holds the all-time PGA mark for 18 holes with a round of 59, had eight birdies and an eagle to better the Desert Inn Country Club course record by two shots. Geiberger shot 64 during Thursday’s pro-am, which tied Jack Nicklaus’ 1963 score at the Desert Inn and Paul Azinger’s round of last year. The senior golfers played the course at 6,810 yards, shorter than its usual championship length of 7,044.

Geiberger finished the 54-hole tournament with a 13-under-par 203 and picked up $37,500 for winning the title.

Geiberger, who turned 50 last month to qualify for the seniors tour, has won three of his last four tournaments, for earnings of $213,333.

Rodriguez closed with a 66 to finish at 207.

Huang Bie-shyun of Taiwan beat Japan’s Yuko Moriguchi on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff and won the rain-shortened Itsuki Olympic Staff tournament at Nishinomiya, Japan.

Huang received $48,000 for her first victory in Japan this season and sixth overall.

In the playoff, Huang rolled in a three-foot putt on the 180-yard, par-3 16th hole for her par, while Moriguchi missed a 6 1/2-footer to bogey the hole.

Huang and Moriguchi tied at 144 for two rounds after Huang fired her second consecutive 72 Sunday and Moriguchi shot a 74.