Golf Roundup : Nakajima Leads Japan to Championship

Tsuneyuki Nakajima shot a four-under-par 68 Sunday to win the individual title by two strokes and help Japan to the team championship in the $900,000 World Championship of Golf at Inagi, Japan.

Bernhard Langer of West Germany also shot a 68 and finished second with a 272 total to Nakajima’s 18-under-par 270, and Langer’s European team--an 8-4 loser to Japan in the team final--finished second.

The Australia-New Zealand team beat the United States, 11-1, for third place.

Nakajima, the leading money winner on the Japan PGA tour this season, had birdies on the first, sixth, 11th and 17th holes. He collected $25,000, raising his prize money this season to more than $500,000.

Japan’s Naomichi Ozaki finished third at 274 after a closing 67.

The Australia-New Zealand team’s 11 points came when Rodger Davis beat Bob Tway, 70-71; Ian Baker-Finch beat Dan Pohl, 67-71; Brian Jones beat Payne Stewart, 68-76; Graham Marsh beat John Mahaffey, 69-73; and Greg Norman beat Hal Sutton, 68-72; while Australian David Graham and Calvin Peete tied, 71-71.

Taiwan’s Tu Ai-yu beat Mary Beth Zimmerman, Becky Pearson and Cathy Kratzert in a sudden-death playoff and won the $300,000 Mazda Japan tournament at Yoshikawa, Japan.

Tu won the playoff when she bogeyed the 364-yard, par-4 17th hole, the fourth hole of the playoff, while Zimmerman double bogeyed it. Pearson and Kratzert were eliminated on the first playoff hole.

Tu, who started the final round with a three-stroke lead, was forced into the playoff after carding four bogeys on the last seven holes for a four-over-par 76 and a three-round total of 213.

Meanwhile, Zimmerman shot a 68, Pearson a 70 and Kratzert a 71 to move even.

Tu earned $45,000 for her eighth victory of the season--her first in three months--and the 52nd of her pro career.

Bruce Crampton became the first senior golfer to surpass $400,000 in earnings for one season by winning the inaugural $270,000 Senior tournament by two strokes at Las Vegas.

Crampton fired a final-round, four-under-par 68 for a 54-hole total of 206 to earn the $37,500 winner’s share, which raises his 1986 winnings to $424,299. Crampton’s total betters Peter Thomson’s mark of $386,724, set in 1985.

Dale Douglass finished second at 208, after a final-round 69.