ADA, Mich. -- Jim Thorpe finally won the Farmers Charity Classic title that had been so elusive.
Thorpe claimed a one-stroke victory for his first win of the season on Sunday.
Second-round co-leader Andy Bean passed out in the caddie tent and could not tee off. The 51-year-old Bean was taken by ambulance from the course to a Grand Rapids hospital with an allergic reaction after eating sausage and a muffin for breakfast. Bean was treated and released and returned to the course two hours later.
"We wanted Andy to play," said Thorpe, who was in the next-to-last group. "I tried to explain to Andy before we teed off that there are a lot more golf tournaments. We don't want you to go out there and have something very serious happen to you."
Thorpe closed with a 6-under-par 66 after starting the third round three strokes off the lead. He survived a double-bogey 6 on No. 18 to finish at 13-under 203, earning $240,000 from the $1.6 million tournament.
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"The golf course suits my type of play," said Thorpe, who had finished second, third and fourth in the tournament. "I like to play nice and aggressive ... and you have to play very, very smart.
"Golf is a funny game. We take turns out here every week beating one another. One thing that shocked me the last four or five years is how good the level of play still is out here with these guys."
Fred Gibson (66) finished second at 204. Gil Morgan, who had the day's best round of 65, Dave Stockton and second round co-leader Bob Gilder were two shots back. Hale Irwin and Mark McNulty were at 10 under, three strokes off the lead.
"It was nip and tuck for quite a while," Gibson said. "It was real difficult for me. I haven't been in contention for two years. I was very nervous (Saturday), but today I was calmer."
Thorpe, 55, earned his eighth Champions Tour win one week after missing the cut in the Senior PGA Championship. He's had at least one win in his five years on the Champions Tour.
Bean, the co-leader with Gilder at 10 under after 36 holes, was scheduled to start his round at 11:35 a.m. He was on the practice tee when he became ill and then passed out. He was treated by paramedics and Dr. Frank Belsito, who was at the tournament as a spectator, before going to Spectrum Health 6 miles away.
"I certainly didn't want to withdraw, but I didn't have much choice," Bean said. "I could play now. I might be crawling in, but I could play."
Bean, 6-foot-4 and 260 pounds, was seeking his first win since 1986.
"He wasn't complaining about anything," Belsito said. "Actually, he was quite insistent that he was going to make his tee time."
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Notes:
•Thorpe also earns 240 points in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race and increases his season total to 454 points and moves into the top 15. Hale Irwin remains in the lead with 1,608 points, followed by Gil Morgan with 1,114 and Craig Stadler with 928. Larry Nelson (748) and Bruce Fleisher (687) round out the top five.
•Thorpe also increases his 2004 earnings to $501,243 and he goes over $10 million in all-time earnings to $10,130,457, the 15th player on the Champions Tour to reach that milestone.
•Fred Gibson posted his best finish since finishing tied for second at the 2002 Napa Valley Championship in Napa, Calif. Gibson earned $140,800 on Sunday, his second biggest check on the Champions Tour. Gibson jumped from 81st on the current money list last week to 47th.
•Gil Morgan became the first player on the Champions Tour to go over the $1 million mark in season earnings when he finished tied for third and earned $96,000. Morgan now has $1,049,791. It marks the eighth consecutive year he has earned at least $1 million in a season, matching Hale Irwin's Champions Tour mark. However, Irwin should surpass the $1 million mark in his next start. He currently has $998,502 heading into next week's Bayer Advantage Celebrity Pro-Am.
•Jimmy Powell matched his age when he closed with a 3-under-par 69 on Sunday. Powell had an opportunity to better his age, but made bogey on the final hole. This is the second time he has matched his age. Powell had initially done it at age 66 at the 2001 The Instinet Classic. He also bettered his age in 2002 with a final-round 66 at the Lightpath Long Island Classic.
•The most difficult hole for the tournament was No. 11 with an average score of 4.137 (+.137), while the easiest was No. 17 with an average score of 4.712 (-.288). The course averaged 71.468 for the three days, a slight increase from last year's average of 71.103.
•Defending champion Doug Tewell finished tied for 38th. After an opening-round 77, Tewell closed with rounds of 68-69.
•Dave Stockton had his best finish in more than two years when he finished tied for third on Sunday. It was his best effort since having a similar finish at the Toshiba Senior Classic in March 2002. It should come as no surprise that Stockton has played well in Grand Rapids. In 13 previous appearances, Stockton has finished in the top 10 a total of nine times and has earned $656,524, the most by any player in tournament history.
-- Dave Senko, PGA TOUR
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