
DATE: Monday, July 14, 1997                 TAG: 9707140158

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   93 lines

MCKNIGHT TURNS OUT THE LIGHTS EASTERN AM WIN COULD LAND HIM A BERTH ON THE U.S. WALKER CUP TEAM.

Tom McKnight finally allowed himself to say what almost everyone connected with the Eastern Amateur was thinking all week:

``I was playing this week for a lot more than just the Eastern Amateur,'' said McKnight, following a round of 1-under-par 69 Sunday at Elizabeth Manor that gave him a 72-hole total of 270 and seven-stroke victory over two-time State Amateur champion John Rollins, eight shots better than the University of North Carolina's Donald Hill.

``It's a relief to have done this. There's been a lot of pressure on me lately, the most intense pressure I've felt since Tour School.''

That was back in the late 1970s, when McKnight made eight attempts at gaining his PGA Tour card without success. Sometime this week - perhaps today - McKnight will learn from the U.S. Golf Association whether he has reached the pinnacle of amateur golf, a berth on the United States Walker Cup Team.

That squad, which plays a combined team from Great Britain and Ireland in Scarsdale, N.Y., Aug. 9-10, has two slots still open, and six players with legitimate shots at filling them.

``I have played in four tournaments this year, knowing that in each one I was putting my reputation on the line,'' McKnight said. ``I knew if I had a bad tournament, I was finished as a candidate.''

McKnight, a 42-year-old oil distributor from Galax, finished seventh in the Sunnehanna in Pennsylvania, 10th in the Northeast Amateur in Rhode Island, and fifth at last week's Rice Planters in Charleston, S.C., before running away with his third Eastern Am title Sunday.

``I think my record is good enough to justify being on that team,'' McKnight said.

He certainly didn't have any trouble keeping the Eastern field at arm's length Sunday. He started with a six-shot lead over Rollins and Joey Maxon, a bulge that never was threatened.

He made birdie-3 on the first hole with a five-foot putt. Maxon matched him, then immediately shot himself out of contention with a triple-bogey-7 on No. 2.

Rollins made a birdie-4 on the third hole to cut the deficit back to six, but McKnight stretched the lead back to seven stokes with a birdie-3 on No. 4.

On the 143-yard, par-3 sixth, McKnight and Rollins combined to end what little suspense remained. McKnight hit his tee shot 13 feet from the flag and drained another birdie putt to go to 12-under. Rollins was a little strong with his tee shot, and his pitch back stopped eight feet away. His two-putt bogey dropped him to 4-under.

``The two-shot swing there was the key,'' said Rollins, who will turn pro in September and attend October's PGA Tour qualifying school. ``He just played good and solid all day. He doesn't beat himself too much. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.''

At 12-under, McKnight had equalled the all-time record low score held by Curtis Strange and Jon Hurst.

``I was aware of it and, to tell the truth, my goal at that point was to get to 15-under,'' McKnight said. ``But after my putt at 11, my attitude changed. It was, `Don't do anything stupid; don't let anyone back into the tournament.' ''

McKnight's tee shot on the 179-yard par-3 landed on the left quadrant of the green, 25 feet from the hole. His lag putt stopped just three feet from the cup, but he missed the par-saver for an uncharacteristic three-putt bogey.

``I don't think I was even concentrating at that point, my mind just went blank,'' McKnight said. ``I think I was as uncomfortable on the back nine as in any other tournament.

``You start thinking, `How can I lose this? Well, if I make five bogeys and they make four birdies, that would do it.' You start aiming away from trouble and, sometimes, you start giving away strokes.''

McKnight made bogey at Nos. 14 and 15 and saw his lead trimmed to six strokes. But he saved par on the 16th with a pitch-and-run from off the green to tap-in range, while the best Rollins could do on the par-3 hole was a tee shot in the trap, blast out and par-saving putt.

McKnight finished the victory, his third here in five years, in style. After a short drive down the middle of the par-5, he laid up with a mid-iron, pitched to 12 feet, then holed a birdie putt that danced around the entire rim of the cup before falling.

McKnight is entered in this week's State Open outside Richmond. But he won't travel to Richmond until late in the week, if at all, depending on the nature of his phone call from the USGA. Within 30 minutes of receiving his champion's watch, McKnight was in his car and headed for I-64 and the 5 1/2-hour trip to Galax.

``I'm sitting by the phone the next couple of days, I guess,'' he said, flashing what could only be described as a hopeful smile. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

TING-LI WANG/The Virginian Pilot

Tom McKnight rides a wave to an Eastern Amateur victory. ``It's a

relief to have done this.''

Photo

TING-LI WANG/The Virginian Pilot

John Rollins hits out a trap during final-round action. The two-time

State Amateur champion finished 7 strokes off the pace, settling for

second place.