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By Brett Avery
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

It rained hard 20 years ago at Colonial Country Club, but by Sunday night it was as if a thunderbolt had hit the place.

Keith Clearwater shot 64-64 to win the 1987 Colonial National Invitation. He won later that year at the Centel Classic. (WireImage)

Four inches of rain shoved the second round of the Colonial National

Invitation back to Saturday and so discombobulated the schedule that players making the cut faced a 36-hole finale.

With each of the 63 remaining players within seven shots of the lead, that meant anything could happen.

And it did.

Keith Clearwater, aptly named considering the muddy appearance of the course¹s streams and lakes, shot 64 in the morning third round at vaunted Colonial to jump within a shot of Ben Crenshaw.

As if that battering one of the PGA TOUR¹s toughest layouts wasn¹t enough, Clearwater went out and posted an identical number in the afternoon.

Back then 12 under par, was the kind of number that turned heads after 72 holes at Colonial.

Clearwater achieved it in 36 thanks to the waterlogged conditions and competing away from the glare of the midway leaders, who started their split-tee rounds on the opposite nine.

"The front side we finished on was easier, I think," Clearwater said after edging Davis Love III by three shots. "The finishing holes are certainly less demanding than the last nine¹s. I tried to stay patient and play my game and just compete against myself.

"It was tough to maintain concentration over the nine hours we were out there. But it also is hard to lapse once you get into contention, and under some heat."

What made his victory even more remarkable was that Clearwater was a TOUR rookie after struggling for five years to earn his playing card. Colonial was the 21st official start of his career, although he was far wiser than those years.

Clearwater was one of the most accomplished of the young men of the 1970s and early 1980s who steered to Brigham Young University and played under its legendary coach Karl Tucker.

Clearwater had a stellar junior season in which he was Western Athletic Conference Player of the Yar, a first-team all-America and leader of the eam that won the 1981 NCAA title at Stanford.

The following year he was a second-team all-America and defeated Jay Sigel, then a career amateur and Walker Cup power, 2 up in the 36-hole final of the North and South Amateur at Pinehurst¹s No. 2 course.

Turning pro out of college, however, Clearwater struggled on the Asian circuit and U.S. mini-tours before finally tying for 13th in the 1986 TOUR Qualifying Tournament.

Although seasoned, Clearwater had difficulty finding a rhythm in the first five months of 1987. He missed half of his first 14 cuts but did tie for fourth in the USF&G Classic (now known as the Zurich Classic of New Orleans) after a third-round 65. He was just as likely to shoot final-round 75, however, as he had at Greensboro and Houston.

He began 67-71 at Colonial, unremarkable in a week with 133 rounds below par and 36 competitors cracking par for the week.

At the midpoint, Clearwater was five behind Chip Beck, Steve Elkington and Scott Simpson and relegated to starting on the 10th tee.

Davis Love III (WireImage)

But a brief conversation Sunday morning set a target number in his mind.

"Bob Tway and I were talking on the practice tee about getting to five under after the morning round to have a chance and that was a goal," Clearwater recalled. "I had no apprehension, I was relaxed.

³After that [morning] 64 I knew I had a shot at it. Then those quick birds in the afternoon convinced me and I just tried to keep the ball in play."

Clearwater birdied the 10th from a bunker, made a 12-footer at the 12th to take a share of the lead and another 12-footer at the 13th, where he¹d holed a putt of nearly 100 feet in the morning.

He ripped a 5-iron and dropped another 12-footer, at the 15th, then lipped out at the 18th green for 30. Thoroughly in charge of the proceedings at that point, he dropped a 25-footer at the first green and posted pars until a culminating 10-footer at the seventh.

Love, who had won the first of five career Heritage Classics earlier that season, attempted to make a charge, and kept Clearwater waiting nervously as the long day dragged toward its conclusion.

Also starting at the 10th, he made the turn and birdied the first through third but bogeyed the 466-yard fifth, the last of the terrifying Horseshoe holes, and fell three back.

Incredibly, Love shot the third-lowest total in Colonial history, 269, and fell well short.

Clearwater would call the day "the greatest experience of my life, at least on a golf course."

It also wound up as his greatest year: he shot 64 in the third round of the U.S. Open at Olympic Country Club, where a closing 79 put him in a tie for 31st, and he won the Centel Classic at the beginning of November. He collected $320,007 for his efforts and ranked 31st on the earnings list.

The biggest check, though, was that $108,000 at Colonial.

"I¹ll pay off the house and the car and have a little so there won¹t be that financial pressure out here," Clearwater said.

The extra Clearwater set aside? Why it was for a rainy day, of course.