Carl Pettersson steadied his nerves and his swing down the stretch and scored an even-par 71 to win the Chrysler Championship for his first United States PGA Tour victory on Sunday.
Chad Campbell made five birdies on the back nine in a terrific charge, including a 12-foot putt that swirled into the cup on the 18th hole for a 67 that left Pettersson no room for error.
Leading by one shot, Pettersson found the middle of the fairway and hit his approach 20 feet by the cup. Trying to nestle the ball close to the hole, he ran it three feet by, but made that for par and the $954 000 prize.
Pettersson, born in Sweden and raised in the US, finished at nine-under 275.
The consolation prize for Campbell was a trip to the Tour Championship. He showed up at the Innisbrook course at number 43 on the US money list, but second-place earnings of $572 400 easily pushed him into the top 30.
Steve Lowery, who started the final round tied at nine under with Pettersson, lost his chance to win for the first time in five years on the par-three eighth hole. From an uphill lie in a front bunker, Lowery caught it clean and sent the ball over the green in the pine straw, with a branch behind his ball. It took him two chips to get to the green, and his triple bogey sent him tumbling out of the lead.
Davis Love III also struggled, making three straight bogeys around the turn and taking a triple bogey on the 16th hole when he hit into the water. Love closed with a 76.
Even more dynamic than the finish was the race to finish in the top 30 and get into the $6,5-million Tour Championship next week at East Lake.
And no one sweated it out quite like Charles Howell III and Tim Herron did.
Howell closed with 10 straight pars for an even-par 71, and then had to wait nearly two hours to see whether it was enough. He watched the tour’s scoring system, where the money is updated with every change on the leader board. Only when the last group was on the 18th did Howell realise he was in.
”It was on my mind, absolutely it was,” said Howell, who finished 33rd on the money list last year. ”I thought I had to shoot anything under par. I shot par, and that was enough. It’s a whole lot better slipping in than slipping out.”
Herron needed to make a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole, and pulled it badly.
Behind him, however, Tom Pernice Jnr took double bogey on the 17th hole, which moved Herron up the leader board. Lowery had a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th that would have cost Herron $40 000 and knocked him out of the top 30. But Lowery missed, and Lumpy was in.
”I kind of dogged that last putt,” Herron said as he drove to the airport, changing his flight from Mississippi to Atlanta. ”I knew I was close. The way my luck has been going, I figured I would miss.”
Herron missed two World Golf Championships by one spot in the rankings.
He closed with a 70 and tied for third, making enough money to finish 29th on the money list. Disney winner Lucas Glover held down the last spot, getting in by $13 092 over Geoff Ogilvy, who missed the cut. — Sapa-AP