Tewell holds off Wadkins to claim win

With the tournament on the line, Doug Tewell stood over the ball, waggled the driver a few times and cranked the ball high and straight.

It landed in the middle of the 18th fairway -- just another ho-hum tee shot to close out a stunningly steady weekend of golf.

Practically perfect off the tee box, and not bad on the rest of the course, either, Tewell won the Legends of Golf by one stroke over Bobby Wadkins on Sunday by hitting all 14 fairways, and 41 of 42 over the three rounds.

``I never really think about that stuff until I come in here,'' Tewell said in the interview room after the victory. ``I guess that's something people know me for now.''

Tewell shot 2-under 70 to finish the tournament at 11-under 205.

Wadkins made a late run with a 66 to finish in second, two strokes ahead of Stewart Ginn (72) and Bob Gilder (70).

The 52-year-old Tewell won for the second time this season to add to a resume that also includes two senior major championships.

He's doing so well in large part because he is the most accurate driver on the Senior PGA Tour (86 percent).

His only miss on the King & Bear Course at World Golf Village came Friday at No. 7, when he hooked a drive into the light rough, an error he termed ``No big deal.''

``My visualization, and my ability to look at the target, is so good with the driver right now,'' Tewell said. ``Sometimes my caddie wants me to putt with the driver, too.''

There was no need for that, though, especially on the par-5 13th hole.

Trailing Ginn by a stroke, Tewell pulled into a tie when he made a 10-footer for birdie. Moments later, he took the lead for good when Ginn missed from 8 feet to save par, a putt set up when he overcooked his approach on the second shot and had to make a tough shot to get on the green.

``I knew what I had to do to beat him,'' said Ginn, who played with Tewell on Saturday and Sunday. ``I went for it. I didn't back off. If he makes birdies, he makes birdies. You've got to go out there and golf your golf ball.''

Proving how much easier this game is when you're constantly playing from the fairway, Tewell also hit a well-above-average 47 of 54 greens in regulation over the three days.

``That's my golf game,'' he said. ``I try not to make a lot of mistakes. I don't make a lot of mistakes.''

Down the stretch, Tewell said he felt some butterflies in his stomach, ``but my caddie told me to make the butterflies fly in formation.''

So, on the par-3 14th, he put his tee shot 18 inches from the hole for birdie to go to 11 under and take a two-stroke lead.

Wadkins, playing three groups ahead, made birdie on No. 18 to pull within one, but Tewell finished with four straight pars. When he tapped in on No. 18 for the championship, he doffed his cap and waved to the small crowd to celebrate his sixth career victory on the senior tour.

Tewell earned $306,000, bringing his career earnings on the senior tour to $3.99 million.

``I knew Doug wasn't going to play a sloppy round, so I just went out and tried to improve my position,'' Wadkins said.

Also in the hunt was Gary McCord, who was one stroke behind the leaders until he knocked his second shot off the rocks and into the water on the par-4 15th. He made bogey on his way to a 70 and a fifth-place finish at 7 under.

``Greedy, greedy, greedy got me right there,'' McCord said of the shot on15. ``I hit it hard, but slid under it a little bit. It's just a bad shot.''

Divots

Hale Irwin blew his chance for a win with a double bogey on No. 12 that pushed him from three strokes of the lead to five. He finished tied for sixth, but kept the lead in the senior tour points race with 854, 113 ahead of Tewell. ... Hugh Baiocchi shot the day's best round, a 64, to move from 41st to a tie for ninth, a difference of about $40,000 in prize money. ... Proving golf isn't always pretty, Fuzzy Zoeller nearly fell on his backside after blasting out of a bunker from an awkward stance on the 10th hole. He got big applause from a curious gallery, which had to rubberneck to watch the shot from across the 12th fairway. ... Senior PGA Tour officials are considering several options that would relocate the Legends of Golf, the tournament credited with spawning the senior tour. This was the fourth straight year the tournament has been played at the World Golf Village, and attendance -- while not officially listed-- has been light.

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