Smith breaks duck, books win in Guam

GUAM (Agencies): America's Jerry Smith secured his first ever victory on the Omega Tour yesterday after closing with a two under par 70 in the final round of the Asian PGA's US$200,000 Guam Open at the Leo Palace Resort.

Smith carded five birdies and two bogeys for an impressive 16 under par 272 aggregate, and finished six shots clear of India's Arjun Atwal and South Africa's Chris Williams, who shared second place. Atwal and Williams carded 72 and 74 respectively.

"I've won a few two-day and three-day events before, but this is the first four-day victory I've had in Asia and a very significant result for me," said 34-year-old Smith, winner of the 36-hole Founder Open on the 1997 Volvo China Tour.

"I'm not as young as some of the players on this Tour, and would dearly love to use this victory as a springboard to the Nike or U.S. PGA Tour. It's also given me the confidence to try and qualify for the British Open in a couple of months time."

Two up at the start of the day, Smith was rarely in trouble over the challenging 6,609-yard Palmer-Nicklaus designed layout despite dropping shots at the first and ninth, the two holes which had posed him problems throughout the week.

The closest Williams or Atwal ever came to Smith was midway through the front line, but their American rival then moved up a gear to consolidate his advantage with consecutive birdies at the sixth and seventh. Though Smith dropped another shot at the ninth, he still managed to reach the turn with a four shot lead.

On the back side, Smith continued to dominate, firing birdies at the 10th, 12th and 17th. The American dropped another shot on the 13th after driving into the fluffy rough, but neither Williams or Atwal could take advantage of his mistake as they struggled with their own games.

"I've played well here all week, including the pro-am, and knew that if I continued to do the same today, then it would take a very special score to beat me," added Smith, after an emotional hug from his caddie-wife Jennifer.

"My strategy at the start of the day was to just concentrate on my own game. I didn't even look at the leaderboard until the 13th, and even though I could see how Chris (Williams) and Arjun (Atwal) were doing, I had no idea if anybody else had moved into contention.

"But when I saw that I was five ahead, I was pretty confident of winning - though my wife Jennifer said she was the most nervous when we were standing on the 18th green."

After setting a new course record 64 in the third round, Williams failed to find his touch on the greens and let a number of birdie opportunities slip by. "Chris (Williams) actually played pretty good from tee-to-green today, but just couldn't make the same birdie putts that he found so easy in the third round," added Smith.

Williams went out in 38 and returned in 36, while 25-year-old Atwal fired 38 on the front half and toured the back nine in 34. South Korea's Charlie Wi finished alone in fourth spot on eight under par after carding a final round 69.

Selected scores: 272 - Jerry Smith (USA) 69-67-68-70 278 - Arjun Atwal (Ind) 70-69-67-72, Chris Williams (Gbr) 73-67- 64-64 280 - Charlie Wi (Kor) 74-69-68-69 281 - Katsumuna Imai (Jpn) 68-73-71-71, Gerry Norquist (USA) 70- 68-71-72 283 - Vivek Bhandari (Ind) 69-73-69-72, Leith Wastle (Aus) 72-69- 70-73, Chung Joon (Kor) 67-74-67-75 284 - Hsieh Yu-shu (Tpe) 71-67-73-73 285 - Carlos Espinosa (Mex) 72-78-67-73, Lu Wen-tah (Tpe) 71-71- 70-73 286 - Ceser Paerez (Mex) 69-74-71-72 287 - Craig Kamps (Rsa) 77-70-71-69 288 - Justin Cooper (Aus) 74-72-73-69, Chou Hung-nan (Tpe) 76-71- 70-71, Scott Laycock (Aus) 70-71-73-74, Lin Chih-chea (Tpe) 70-70-73-75, Taku Sugaya (Jpn) 73-68-67-70