Kemper Open

POTOMAC - Bob Burns finished a memorable week yesterday in the $3.6 million Kemper Insurance Open at the Tournament Players Club at Avenel. He finished third, his best result in a PGA Tour event. He made a hole-in-one to take a two-shot lead with seven holes to play. The only thing Burns didn't do was win. "Overall in the big scheme of things, I'm a little disappointed in not being able to take away the victory," Burns, 34, said after a 1-over par 72 left him at 9-under 275 and two shots behind Bob Estes.

POTOMAC -- Bob Estes doesn't show much emotion, on or off the golf course. The 36-year-old Texan looks like he could have been a sheriff in the Old West, turning chaos into calm. Estes played a similar role yesterday in the final round of the $3.6 million Kemper Insurance Open at the Tournament Players Club at Avenel. In fact, he played it all the way to the fourth victory of his PGA Tour career. While everyone else in contention seemed to have more flair for the dramatic -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- Estes made 17 pars and one birdie in a numbingly efficient round of a 1-under-par 70 to beat 1999 Kemper champion Rich Beem by one shot.

POTOMAC - Wherever Bob May has been since leaving Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., after the 2000 PGA Championship, he has heard the same words of encouragement. That happens when you nearly beat Tiger Woods in a major championship, then wind up losing in a three-hole playoff by one stroke. There were more kind words during yesterday's third round of the Kemper Insurance Open at Avenel. "I think they root for me because of what happened at Valhalla," May said after a 2-under-par 69 put him at 9-under 204 and one shot behind co-leaders Bob Estes and Bob Burns.

POTOMAC - The life of a golf tournament revolves around its leader board. The bigger the names, the more exciting the event. Given the field coming into this year's Kemper Insurance Open, you could hardly expect the TPC at Avenel to suddenly turn into Colonial or Sawgrass or Riviera, could you? It hasn't, at least not yet. But the $3.6 million tournament can claim something that no other PGA Tour event has counted on in quite a while - Greg Norman in contention. The two-time British Open champion, who at 47 has struggled with his game because of injuries and outside interests, has become a headliner here in the truest sense.

POTOMAC - Call it the tale of two aces. Russ Cochran and Neal Lancaster each made a hole-in-one yesterday in the second round of the Kemper Insurance Open at Avenel. While Cochran's helped put him on the periphery of the leader board, Lancaster's merely served as a parting gift - he missed the cut. Cochran's ace came on the par-3 ninth hole. After giving back his second birdie in the first six holes with a bogey at the par-4 seventh, he hit a bad drive on the par-4 eighth and was still a bit ticked when he reached the elevated tee at No. 9. With the cup back and the hole playing at a healthy 184 yards, Cochran took out some of his frustrations with an 8-iron.

POTOMAC - Playing in the Kemper Insurance Open is still a big deal for Woodholme assistant pro Wayne DeFrancesco. It's a chance for DeFrancesco to test his game against some of the world's best players, as he did yesterday with an opening round of 1-under-par 70 at the TPC at Avenel. But DeFrancesco is using this week's PGA Tour event, and next week's Buick Classic in Harrison, N.Y., to get ready for his biggest tournament of the year. That will take place in three weeks, when he defends his title in the PGA National Club Pro Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. "I kind of describe the National Club Pro Championship as the biggest tournament I have a reasonable chance of winning," said DeFrancesco, who won last year's tournament at the Sun River Resort in Bend, Ore. "It's by far the greatest thing I've ever done."

POTOMAC - When Frank Lickliter won his first PGA Tour event at last year's Kemper Insurance Open, most figured his career would take off. Though he wound up 19th on the money list and made nearly $2 million, Lickliter was not satisfied with what he considered erratic results. During the week of the Tour Championship in Houston, Lickliter started working with Randy Sonnier, an accomplished amateur player and teacher whose pupils include Rocco Mediate and whose mentors included golf legends Lloyd Mangrum, Claude Harmon and Jackie Burke.

POTOMAC - Until last fall, Jeff Julian was like any other golfer who would grouse about a seemingly perfect tee ball finding a divot in the fairway or about shooting a 75 when it should have been a 70. Until last fall, Julian was like scores of semi-obscure players trying to chase a dream in golf's major and minor leagues. He is still in pursuit, but his goal now is much different. He is merely fighting to stay alive. Julian, 40, was found in October to have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a deadly and incurable neuromuscular disease that attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord.

POTOMAC - This year's $3.5 million Kemper Insurance Open won't be remembered for the way J. J. Henry or Frank Lickliter or one of the other relative unknowns in contention here the past few days won his first PGA Tour event at the waterlogged Tournament Players Club at Avenel. Nor will it be remembered for the way Phil Mickelson or Justin Leonard saw their chances washed away when the rain-delayed third round was finally played. Ultimately, it will be recalled for the first Monday finish in the event's 34-year history.

POTOMAC - Fred Funk called it an unbelievably long day, When asked whether it had been frustrating, Donnie Hammond laughed and said, "You might say that." And that was the likely consensus of the others in the field of 65 who tried to get in 36 holes of golf on the final scheduled day of the Kemper Insurance Open at TPC-Avenel. Their efforts were thwarted by three weather-related interruptions. The final one, early last evening, resulted in a suspension of play, and all but six players who finished their rounds will return this morning to complete the program.