A Look Back: Oct. 29 1967: Jack Nicklaus wins the Sahara Invitational. 1972: Lanny Wadkins wins the Sahara Invitational by one stroke over Arnold Palmer. 1978: Mac McLendon defeats Mike Reid in a playoff to win the Pensacola Open. 1989: Tom Kite wins the Tour Championship in a playoff over Payne Stewart. 1995: Billy Mayfair wins the Tour Championship by three strokes over Steve Elkington and Corey Pavin.

People
The Senior PGA Tour's Allen Doyle donates his entire $1 million annuity for winning the Charles Schwab Cup to charity via the Schwab Fund For Charitable Giving.
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Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza promises New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani a custom-fit set of PING golf clubs should the Arizona Diamondbacks lose to the New York Yankees in the World Series. If the Diamondbacks win, Rimsza will get a year's membership at Van Cortlandt Golf Course in New York and a year's supply of cheesecake.
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Mizuno announces Bruce Riccio as Vice President of Sales, Golf Division. Riccio will report to Dick Lyons, who has been promoted to Vice President and General Manager, Golf Division.
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Architecture
The Marriott Group engages golf course architect Steve Smyers to tear up and completely rebuild International Golf Club in Orlando, which the company recently purchased. The new $6 million course will measure 6,900 yards and play to par-70, with five par-3s and three par-5s.
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Palmer Course Design Company president Arnold Palmer and Chief Operating Officer Ed Seay inspect construction on Frenchman's Reserve, a 6,850-yard, par-72 course in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Project architect Greg Stang accompanied the two around the 390-acre site, on which construction began last April.
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Technology
Heritage Golf Group selects Orlando-based software firm Epani to improve its reservation process and guest check-in at all its properties. Epani's software serves the golf, travel, resort and hospitality industries.
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Real Estate
Tennis, boating, hunting, and even a bass-fishing school are planned to accompany a championship 18-hole course in Blackwater at Lake Marion, a new community in South Carolina. The Clyde Johnston-designed course, when complete, will measure 6,898 yards and feature a driving range and practice greens.
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Facilities
Readers of The Sun News, the Knight-Ridder newspaper that serves the Myrtle Beach area, name Midway Driving Range "Best Driving Range And Par Three." Sister facility Cane Patch Driving Range was a finalist in the same category.
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People, Places & Things
Bob Gilder
Senior Tour Championship winner

An over-par round rarely wins a tournament these days, especially one as prestigious as the Senior PGA Tour Championship. But in windy conditions, Bob Gilder's 73 Sunday was good for the $440,000 winner's check.

It was a fitting end to a good season for the native Oregonian, who began his stint on the over-50 circuit by dominating the Senior PGA Tour qualifier field by eight shots, then scoring a victory at the Verizon Classic in only his third start in 2001.

With the win Sunday, coupled with his $1,684,986 in prize money and 13 top-10 finishes -- including a tie for second at the SBC Championship last week and a third at the Senior PGA Championship -- Gilder looks like a good pick for Rookie of the Year.

"After I won (Verizon) I started thinking I might get to be Rookie-of-the-Year and then (Bruce) Lietzke came along and played about eight tournaments and won two of them and he was -- he made $900,000 in nine events. I am thinking... to really have a good chance at winning, I'd have to win this week," Gilder said Sunday after his Tour Championship win.

"I think Rookie-of-the-Year is a great honor. I was trying not think about it," he said. "I was in denial, a lot of stuff, trying not think about any of those things and really concentrate on the job at-hand. So I don't know what is going to happen there. The players are going to vote on that, whatever they decide is up to them, I'd be honored if I got it and I'd be real happy."

Before his rejuvenation as a senior golfer, Gilder's last U.S. win was at the 1983 Phoenix Open -- his sixth win, including the 1976 Phoenix Open in only his second PGA Tour start. Also in '83, he played on the Jack Nicklaus-captained Ryder Cup team, which won by one point.

"That was probably the best experience of my career," Gilder told his hometown newspaper, the Corvallis Gazette-Times. "You're basically at the top of your career if you are doing that. You're representing yourself, your profession and the country."

He found some success in Japan as well, winning on that tour three times, most recently in 1990. But his game started to go sour in the mid-90s, until he dropped to 156th on the money list in 1996.

He returned to Qualifying School, an experience he hadn't dealt with since 1975.

He failed to get his card back, and instead played primarily on the now-Buy.com Tour, picking up what PGA Tour events he could. With official earnings of only a shade over $13,000, he headed back to Q-School, where he tied for ninth.

But he continued to struggle, making the cut only 12 times. Back to Q-School, where he still couldn't find his game. Repeat.

"I would say that my putting is the part that has let me down the last few years," Gilder said in 1999. "Over time you start to figure it out, but it changes from day to day."

Putting has been the very thing pushing Gilder into the limelight in 2001 -- his 1.742 putting average ranks him fifth on the Senior Tour. A 12-foot clutch putt on No. 16 Sunday meant the difference between the outright win and having to battle in a playoff.

But overall, the father of three credits accuracy with his irons as making the difference this year.

"My iron game has gotten better, the fact that Verizon was a very difficult tournament also obviously makes me feel good, all the best players were there," Gilder said. "You work hard and hopefully you are getting better and hopefully things turn out where you can win a few."