Associated Press
Sunday, July 9

COLUMBIA, Md. -- Leonard Thompson made a 2-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole Sunday to ruin a sensational comeback by Isao Aoki and win the State Farm Senior Classic.

	Leonard Thompson birdied the 18th hole all five times he played it during the week.

Aoki made up three shots over the final four holes to force the playoff. But after his 15-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole missed by an inch, Thompson sank an uphill putt for his second win in four years on the Senior Tour.

His other victory, at the 1998 Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic, was also in a playoff with Aoki.

Thompson, the co-leader after the second round, earned $202,500. He shot a 69 for an 11-under 205 total.

"I didn't putt great but got enough close to the hole to get some birdie chances," he said. "I never lost my focus, never thought I was not going to make a shot I needed to make."

Both playoff holes were held on the par-5, 541-yard 18th hole. After Thompson sank a 1-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole, Aoki matched that with a 12-footer.

Thompson birdied No. 18 all five times he played the hole over the three-day tournament.

Aoki, who started the day four shots back in a 10th-place tie, shot a bogey-free 7-under 65.

He trailed Thompson by three strokes before getting a birdie on the 15th. He then got within a shot of the leader when Thompson got his only bogey of the day on No. 16.

Aoki birdied the 17th and finished the run with a fist-pumping 15-foot birdie putt on 18. He then watched as Thompson barely missed a 30-footer on No. 18 for an eagle and the win.

Aoki, who had only one top-10 finish in 11 events this year, was vying for his ninth career win on the Senior Tour.

Needing a birdie on the 18th to tie for the lead, Larry Nelson bogeyed the hole to finished with a 69 for a 207, tied with second-round co-leader Dana Quigley, who shot a 71.

Hubert Green had a hole-in-one en route to a 70 and a three-way tie at 208 with Bruce Fleisher and Jim Albus.

Thompson started the day tied with Quigley and defending champion Christy O'Connor. Thompson distanced himself from the co-leaders on No. 3, when he made a 15-foot birdie putt from the fringe to go 9 under.

Quigley lighted a cigar at No. 6 and immediately ran into trouble. He chunked a chip from the behind the green and bogeyed the hole, as did O'Connor.

Quigley and O'Connor also bogeyed the par-3 eighth hole to fall four shots back. Quigley missed a 5-footer for par and O'Connor angrily hacked at the sand after his shot from the left bunker passed the hole by 30 feet. Thompson, meanwhile, sank a 6-foot birdie putt to move to 10-under.

Had he been luckier with his putter, Thompson could have pulled away on the front nine. He had putts at Nos. 1 and 4 lip the cup, and left a 15-foot birdie putt at No. 6 just an inch short of the hole.

Green made his 22nd career hole-in-one on the 152-foot, par-3 11th hole. Using a 7-iron, he hit a drive that bounced three times before rolling two feet into the cup.

He followed that with a birdie on No. 12 to move to 10-under, but fell out of contention with bogeys on 14 and 17.

O'Connor shot a 75 and finished at 211.