May unhappy with LVI finish

Monday, Oct. 19, 1998 | 11:28 a.m.

Bob May walked off the 18th green at the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin Sunday afternoon tied for 16th place in the Las Vegas Invitational and $31,000 richer than he was five days earlier.

Still, the 30-year-old Las Vegas resident knew that a bad bounce here and a mis-hit shot there on Sunday cost him a shot of a richer payday and an opportunity to play in next week's Walt Disney World Golf Classic.

May, granted a sponsor's exemption to play in the LVI, entered the final round tied for fourth place; a top-10 finish would have exempted May for next week's PGA Tour stop.

But May struggled to a 1-over-par 73 in the final round and finished at 14-under 346, 11 shots behind the winner, Jim Furyk.

"It's disappointing," May said of his finish. "On the other hand, I came out and did my best. It just wasn't good enough today.

"I hadn't played in a month and I would have liked to have done better -- but doesn't everybody?"

Although May said he didn't feel he was under pressure to perform well because of his sponsor's exemption, he did say he wanted to show the Las Vegas Founders' Club that it was justified in selecting him to play.

"I just wanted to come out and kind of show them that it was not a bad choice," said May, who played on the PGA Tour in 1994 and has spent the past three seasons on the European PGA Tour.

May got off to a rocky start Sunday, making bogey at Nos. 2 and 3, then taking a double-bogey 5 on the par-3 fifth hole.

"That kind of sets a bad tone to the day," May said.

May, who finished 72nd on the European Tour money list this season, said he will return to Europe next year to play. But he made it clear his goal is to return to the PGA Tour.

"Here (in the States), you're playing against the best players in the world," May said. "I'm not taking anything away from Colin Montgomery or Lee Westwood ... but the caliber of play is just a little bit better over here and this is the best tour to be on."

Rough day for Daly

John Daly started Sunday's final round tied for 16th place, 10 shots off the lead. He fell to 9 under par after 12 holes and lost any chance at making a decent paycheck when disaster struck on the par-5 13th hole.

After hitting his drive into the fairway, Daly hooked his second shot into the thick brush bordering the fairway. Not knowing if he would be able to find his ball, Daly hit a provisional shot -- which he also hooked into the brush.

Again not knowing if he would find his provisional ball, Daly dropped another ball and -- you guessed it -- hooked that one into the same hazard.

Daly never did find his first ball but did locate his two provisional balls -- resting side-by-side in the brush. Unfortunately for Daly, he was unable to tell which of the balls he had hit first, so he was forced to take a lost-ball penalty and played the hole out for a quintuple-bogey 10.

Daly finished with a 77 for a five-round total of 354, tied for 53rd place and earned $4,566.

Moving on up

With his first-place check of $360,000, LVI winner Jim Furyk improved his season earnings to $1,820,334 and moved into second place on the PGA Tour money list. Furyk trails the tour's leading money winner, David Duval, by $644,074.

Furyk also took over the lead in LVI earnings with $721,819 in five tournaments. Davis Love III, who led all pros in money won in Las Vegas coming into this year's tournament, earned $80,000 for fifth place and has won $716,522 in 13 LVIs.