NFL CLASSIC NOTES

The way Walter Hall sees it, he merely ran out of holes yesterday.

Hall made an impressive charge up the Cadillac/NFL Classic leaderboard yesterday, nearly stealing his first Senior Tour victory.

The third-year Senior Tour player began the day at 6-under, five shots off the lead and an afterthought with the likes of eventual-winner Lee Trevino and defending champion Allen Doyle playing in the final group.

But, as Hall kept carding birdies and Trevino stumbled with a couple of late bogeys, suddenly as Trevino was playing the 18th and final hole, he was holding a scant one shot lead on Hall, who was watching from the clubhouse.

“If I saved a shot or two it might have been different,” Hall said. “But Lee really played great and deserved to win.”

It was Hall’s second consecutive runner-up finish, and his fourth Top-10 finish in his last five starts.

“I played well all week, and have been playing well for the last four weeks,” Hall said. “Playing the Senior Tour is better than I dreamed. Three years ago I was pretty nervous playing with a Lee Trevino. He’s got all the shots, all the credentials and all the money. It’s taken a while for me to feel comfortable.”

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Senior Tour rookie Rex Cald-

well, who shot an 8-over-par 80 in Saturday’s second round, remarkably carded a tournament-record 8-under-par 64 yesterday. He finished tied for 23rd and won $10,780.

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Tom Watson increased his streak of par-or-better rounds to 15 yesterday when he closed the tournament with a 5-under 67. He’s now five rounds behind the Senior Tour record for 2000, shared by Hale Irwin and Vicente Fernandez.

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Trevino’s 54-hole total of 202 tied the tournament record set by Bob Murphy in 1996 … Trevino became the ninth player 60 or older to win a Senior Tour event. He’s only the second to do it at this tournament, joining Bruce Crampton, who won in 1997 … Walter Morgan, with a 10th place tie, had his best finish since 1998.