Irwin romps home

Press, 30 August 1977, Page 36

Irwin romps home

NZPA-Reuter Pinehurst, North Carolina Hale Irwin won the 5U5250.000 Hall of Fame golf classic with a brilliant 2C-under par 264 on the famed No. 2 course at the Pinehurst Country Club yesterday. He won bv five shots and collected SUSSO,OOO.

Leonard Thompson fin-i •shed second with 15-under i 269. The first-year professional Jeff Mitchell, playing the finest golf of his life, was 12 under at 272. The previous lowest score on the course was a 10-under-par 274. set a year •go when Ray Floyd and Jerry McGee tied for the world open title. With his victory, Irwin qualified for next week’s prestigious . SUS3OO.OOO World Series of Golf at the Firestone] Country Club in Akron. Hei

was second to Jack Nicklaus in that event a year ago. Yesterday he shot 68.

Hubert Green, the United States open golf champion, added the Irish open championship to his list of titles in a thrilling finish at Portmarnock yesterday. Green sank a birdie putt at the final hole to beat fellow American Ben Crenshaw, the defending champion. by one stroke. The crucial putt, from three metres, gave Green I a 70 in his final round for a total of 283, five under par. Three players, Greg Norman (Australia), the British left-hander Peter Dawson and Ireland’s Jimmy Kinsella, shared third place two strokes behind the winner. Sixth with 286 was SevI eriano Ballesteros (Spain). I Bob Charles (N.Z.) finished well back on 73. 70, 77. 751295.