Golf Roundup : Couples 4-Putts 18th to Give Green the Win

Eventual winner Ken Green had only to watch as Fred Couples unraveled, going into final hole with a share of the lead and finishing with a 4-putt double bogey in the Dunlop Phoenix Open golf tournament Sunday at Miyazaki, Japan.

Couples, who led after each of the first three rounds, lipped out a 45-foot birdie putt on the 18th that would have given him the victory on the par-72, 6,993-yard Phoenix Country Club course. Couples then pushed his 6-foot par putt 2 feet past the hole and also missed the bogey putt, giving him a final-round 74 and 13-under-par 72-hole total of 275.

Green, who finished before Couples, had only one bogey and par-saving putts on the 15th, 16th and 17th holes to finish with a final-round 71 for a 273 total.

Lee Elder, 1 year after a serious heart attack, shot a final round of 6-under-par 65 to win the $300,000 Senior PGA Tour event at the Links of Key Biscayne, Fla.

Elder’s victory, his first since 1986, was by 5 shots over Al Geiberger, who closed with a course-record 63 on the 6,715-yard, par-71 layout that was rendered defenseless by the lack of wind.

Elder shot a 54-hole total of 202.

Sandy Lyle scored a 2 and 1 match-play victory over Greg Norman to clinch Britain’s 11 1/2-6 1/2 victory over Australia in a $325,000 international event at Port Douglas, Australia.

Australia won 4 of the 6 singles matches in the final round of the 3-day competition over the par-72, 6,887-yard Mirage Country Club course, but Britain had built a 9 1/2-2 1/2 lead the first 2 days.

Patti Rizzo, who began the final round 1 shot off the pace, fired an even-par 72 for a 2-stroke victory in the Daio Seishi Elleair Women’s Open at Saitacho, Japan.