GOLF: Justin Leonard fired a five-under par 67 yesterday to capture the five $5million PGA Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida by one stroke over fellow Americans Chad Campbell and Davis Love.
Leonard, the 1997 British Open champion, began the day with a birdie, followed with birdies on the par-three sixth and eighth holes and seized command with birdies at the par-five ninth and par-4 11th.
A birdie at the par-five 15th allowed Leonard a two-stroke cushion for the 18th hole, where he settled for bogey but still won the eighth title of his career with a 72-hole total of 24-under par 264.
Love, the 1997 PGA Championship winner, fired a final-round 69 to settle for a share of second with Campbell, who finished with a 65.
Tim Herron was fourth at 266, one stroke ahead of fellow Americans Billy Mayfair, Jim Furyk and Notah Begay.
Love began the final round one stroke ahead of Leonard and led by two strokes after five holes. But Leonard hung tough, seized the lead with his birdie at the 15th and Love's bogey at the par-three 16th.
Leonard won his first title since last year at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and made this the fourth year in a row he will have won at least one US tour crown. His only titles in 2000 and 2001 came at the Texas Open.
Leonard won $900,000 jumped into the top five on the US PGA money list with nearly $1.2 million.
HONDA CLASSIC
(Palm Beach Gardens, Forida)
FINAL TOTALS (U.S. unless stated)
264 - J Leonard 63 70 64 67;
265 - C Campbell 69 65 66 65, D Love III 66 65 65 69;
266 - T Herron 69 63 70 64;
267 - J Furyk 64 69 69 65, N Begay III 63 67 69 68, B Mayfair 70 65 64 68;
268 - C DiMarco 69 68 65 66, J Rollins 71 65 65 67, B Gay 67 67 67 67, B Quigley 68 66 66 68, J Kelly 70 62 67 69, W Austin 66 70 63 69;
269 - M Calcavecchia 69 66 69 65, B Estes 66 67 70 66, G Ogilvy (Aust) 70 64 69 66, C Pettersson (Swe) 70 67 65 67, T Byrum 67 64 68 70, C Franco (Par) 67 67 65 70, C Riley 65 68 65 71
Other international players: 272 - E Toledo (Mex) 64 67 71 70, H Tanaka (Jap) 68 66 68 70 273 - B Langer (Ger) 68 65 71 69, R Allenby (Aust) 71 67 69 66 274 - J Senden (Australia) 64 70 71 69, P Johansson (Swe) 68 70 68 68 275 - J Rose (Eng) 70 65 71 69, A Sadakata (Jap) 67 68 71 69, R Pampling (Australia) 71 67 68 69, A Baddeley (Aust) 66 69 74 66.
276 - A Scott (Aust) 71 67 76 62 277 - J Parnevik (Swe) 68 67 71 71; 278 - M Goggin (Aust) 73 65 71 69; 281 - G Hnatiuk (Can) 70 68 72 71.
• Heavy rain forced the postponement of Saturday's second round of the Champions Tour SBC Classic, at Velencia Golf Club, Los Angeles, reducing the tournament to 36 holes.
It is the first time since the TD Waterhouse last May that a Champions Tour event has been shortened to 36 holes due to weather.
Two-time champion Gil Morgan holds a one-stroke lead over John Schroeder after an opening round of seven-under-par 65.
Des Smyth opened with a two under par 70 and was tied for 10th place, and was still at two under par after nine holes of the final round.
Smyth starting at the 10th in the first round went to the turn in 33 but lost his momentum with one over par 37 on the back nine.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)