Roe Takes French Open

xSAINT QUENTIN, France -- Shooting a final round 6-under par 66, Mark Roe of Britain, captured the $825,000 French Open. With six birdies the final day -- Sunday -- Roe went 14-under at 274 to beat Sweden's Gabriel Hjerstedt by a shot. Roe, 31, had to struggle to win. He drove right into thick rough at the par-5 18th. He got back to the fairway, hit his approach to 9 meters and two-putted for par. "That drive was my only bad shot of the round," Roe said. "I played super golf today." Roe started Sunday three shots off the pace. "You have to attack the golf course in that situation," he said. Roe was fined $300 during this event last year for slinging a plate of pasta over a fellowEnglishman."I lost the French Open by one shot to Faldo in 1989 by missing a few putts. That missed me the Ryder Cup. That stayed with me. I feel I've stowed that skeleton away in the cupboard," Roe said. In another major weekend golf tournament, David Frost almost surrendered a late four-shot lead before hanging on for a one-shot victory over Greg Norman at the $1.2 million Greater Hartford Open golf tournament Sunday. Frost led by four strokes with just two holes to play, but he made a "bad swing" to push hit tee shot into the lake next to the 17th fairway for a bogey. When Norman, playing ahead, birdied the final two holes, Frost's cushion was only one stroke, but he made a regulation par at the final hole to finish with a course-record low score of 12-under-par 268 after a closing 69. The Australian Norman also carded 69 in his final tournament before he defends his British Open title at Turnberry next month. (AP, Reuters)