GOLF ROUNDUP : Love Makes It Two in a Row With Fast Finish

Davis Love III, realizing he was still within striking distance after three lackluster rounds, shot a course-record 62 Sunday to win the Greater Greensboro Open, his second consecutive tournament victory.

Before his 10-under-par final round, Love thought he was playing poorly at the $1 million event until he considered that he was within three shots of third-round leader Rocco Mediate. Love, who last week won the Heritage Golf Classic for the third time, caught the field by the 12th hole at Forest Oaks Country Club and went on to win by six shots and collect $225,000.

Love won the tournament after getting little sleep Saturday night.

“It’s not unusual for me to wake up in the night. But it’s unusual for me to wake up and be thinking about playing golf . . .” Love said. “I felt like I’m in position, if I can just do something good and get on a roll. I carried that with me all last night. Maybe it kept me waking up in the middle of the night. Something in my head was saying this is a great opportunity to win two in a row.”

Love’s final round broke the mark of 63 set by Sandy Lyle in 1988 and matched last year by Duffy Waldorf. It also marked the second time this season that Love has had the low 18--he shot an eight-under-par 63 at the Los Angeles Open, where he lost to Fred Couples in a playoff.

Love’s 16-under-par 272 total was one stroke shy of the tournament record of 271 shot by Lyle in 1988. It also was Love’s third victory in his last four tournament appearances, and it pushed him over the $1 million in winnings with nearly 30 PGA events left on the 1992 schedule.

On Sunday, Love opened with birdies on his first two holes, putting him within a shot of Mediate, who began his round birdie-birdie-par-bogey.

At the seventh hole, a par four, Love holed a 117-yard wedge shot for eagle. It moved him to 10-under-par for the tournament and started his victory run. He birdied the eighth hole to cap a front nine of 31.

On the back nine, Love rolled in a 15-foot putt at 11 and a 30-footer at 12, both for birdie. When he reached 15, Love dropped in a sand shot from about 40 feet for eagle, moving him to 15-under-par.

Love hit his second shot on the 16th hole within inches of the cup for his last birdie and the single-round record.

John Cook had a 68 to finish at 278. Chip Beck, pushed back into the pack by a two-stroke penalty late in the third round, finished with a 68 for 279.

Despite two bogeys on the front nine, defending champions Lee Trevino and Mike Hill held off all challengers to win the Legends of Golf at Austin, Tex.

The pair shot a seven-under-par final-round 65 to finish the two-man, better-ball tournament at a 37-under 251.

Jim Colbert eagled the par-four 12th hole to put him and partner Tommy Aaron within a shot of the leaders. But they parred the next five holes and finished second at 254.

Trevino and Hill began the final round of the $770,000 event with a four-shot lead after shooting a 60 on Saturday. But they bogeyed the 400-yard, par-four fourth hole and the 165-yard ninth.

When Colbert rolled in his eagle putt from the back fringe at the 270-yard, par-four 12th, Trevino and Hill appeared to be in jeopardy of dropping to second--as they had done last year before rebounding for a two-shot victory.

But Trevino and Hill birdied 13, 16 and 18 while Colbert and Aaron could had pars on 13 through 17.

In winning $140,000, Trevino and Hill became the third team to successfully defend a Legends of Golf title in the 15 years of the tournament that started the Senior PGA Tour. Don January-Gene Littler won in 1985-86, and Orville Moody-Bruce Crampton did it in 1987-88.

Trevino and Hill have won every senior event since March 15--Trevino three times and Hill once.

Arizona sophomore Annika Sorenstam, the defending NCAA champion, shot a two-under-par 70 to win the Pacific-10 Conference women’s golf championship.

Sorenstam finished the three-day tournament with a two-under 214 total on the 6,112-yard Karsten Course at Tempe, Ariz.

Arizona won its first Pac-10 team title, finishing 33 strokes ahead of runner-up Arizona State (908). Stanford was third (909) followed by UCLA (912), Oregon (916), USC (935), Washington (958), Oregon State (973) and Washington State (994).