Global Golf Post - September 19, 2011

Blake Survives
Korean Playoff
SONGDO, KOREA | It had been 20 years since
Jay Don Blake won a professional tournament.
He ended the drought in dramatic fashion by
winning a five-hole, four-man playoff to capture
the Songdo IBD Championship on the Champi-
ons Tour Sunday.
Blake’s victory was his first since winning
the Shearson Lehman Brothers Open in San
Diego on the PGA Tour in 1991. And his
$456,000 first-place check in Korea was his
biggest professional payday.
Blake had made 424 starts on the PGA Tour
and Champions Tour without a victory. The win
put Blake at $1,004,319 in earnings this year,
the first time in his career he has been over
the $1-million mark. He moves to 10th on the
Champions Tour money list and earns a two-
year exemption on Tour.
Blake, John Cook, Mark O’Meara and Peter
Senior all finished 54 holes at 13-under 203 at
the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Songdo.
Senior and O’Meara fell out of the playoff with
bogeys on the third extra hole. And Blake ended
things with a birdie on the fifth extra hole.
It was a bit of payback for Blake against
Cook, as Cook beat Blake in a playoff to win the
Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am earlier this year.
Blake and Cook started the day tied for
second, one shot back of Michael Allen, who
was 10-under after 36 holes with rounds of 68-
66 on the par-72 layout. Blake and Cook shot
identical rounds of 68-67-68 to reach 13 under.
But Blake had some momentum going into the
playoff, having finished his round with four bird-
ies in a five-hole stretch beginning at the 14th.
O’Meara also finished in a rush, with three
birdies in his last five holes for a 5-under 67.
But Peter Senior was the hottest player on
the course, shooting an 8-under 64 in the final
round, including 5-under 31 on the final nine.
Ironically, all four had a chance to win in
regulation with a par- 5 as the finishing hole. But
all the playoff participants made par at the 18th.
Tom Lehman, who leads the Charles Schwab
Cup standings, shot a 4-under 68 in the final
round and finished fifth at 11-under 205, two
shots out of the playoff. Allen could do no better
than 75 in the final round and tied for sixth, four
shots further back at 7-under 209. Allen was
joined at that number by Mark Calcavecchia
and David Peoples, who shared the first-round
lead with Allen at 66. Tom Pernice Jr. also fin-
ished at 7 under.