LOS ANGELES OPEN : After 10 Years and Two Rain Delays, Beck Wins

After a 10-year wait, Chip Beck’s first PGA victory was especially gratifying.

“I’m glad it took me this long,” Beck said Sunday after he mastered the rain-soaked Riviera Country Club course with a 3-under-par 68 to win the $750,000 Los Angeles Open.

“I wouldn’t be the player I am today if I had won in my first year,” he said.

“In this game, you have to get to a point where you don’t worry about the money and that happened to me a few years ago.

“It’s more important to develop one’s talent and concentrate on winning.

“When you have confidence in yourself and that strength within, you can accomplish anything,” Beck said.

“It’s satisfying to finally get a victory and move forward.”

He finished at 17-under-par 267 at Riviera, regarded as one of the tour’s tougher courses, to finish four shots in front of Bill Sander and Mac O’Grady.

Sander, who had never finished higher than fourth in an event since joining the tour in 1978, chipped in from off the green on the final hole to finish tied for second.

Sander said rains, which twice delayed play for a total of more than two hours, made concentration difficult.

“I played very solid,” he said. “It was hard to play today because we didn’t know if we’d be able to keep playing or not.

“You’d hit a couple and have to wait. It was hard to concentrate.”

Beck, seven times a runner-up but never a winner in his previous nine years on the PGA Tour, opened a comfortable lead when he birdied the last three holes on the front nine.

Beck began the round at 14-under-par, good for a three-shot lead on Jay Haas, Ed Fiori and Steve Elkington of Australia.

Haas pulled to within one stroke of the lead with a birdie on the fifth hole to go to 12-under.

But Beck, who had slipped to 13-under with a bogey on No. 3, reeled off birdies on the seventh, eighth and ninth holes to close out the front nine with a 2-under-par 33 that moved him to 16-under for the tournament.

He padded his lead by one more shot with a 1-under 35 on the back nine, and picked up the $135,000 winner’s check.

Sander, who had finished no higher than fourth in a tournament since joining the tour in 1978, knocked in a chip shot from off the green for a birdie on the final hole to finish with a 66.

O’Grady, close to the lead throughout the tournament, shot a closing 68.

Haas had a 71 to finish six strokes behind the winner. Mike Reid, with a 69, and Fiori, with a 71, also finished at 272. Elkington had a closing 73 to finish eight shots behind Beck.

Although the 31-year-old Beck had never won a tournament before, he had done well financially on the tour.

In his first big-money year, 1983, he collected $149,909. Last year, he earned $523,003 without the benefit of a victory. Since he joined the PGA Tour in 1978, he has earned nearly $1.5 million.

Beck’s list of second-place finishes includes the 1986 U.S. Open, the Championships of Golf and the Tucson Open--the final two events of 1987.

A former University of Georgia golf star, Beck erased his own doubts of ever winning with rounds of 65-69-65-68 at Riviera.

He shared the lead with Haas and two others after the opening round, dropped a shot back of co-leaders Haas and Ben Crenshaw the second day, then opened up a three-stroke lead after three rounds.