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Outsider Slocum seizes opportunity for Barclays win

Heath Slocum made the most of opportunity on Sunday, holding off Tiger Woods, Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els to win US$1.35 million with a one-stroke victory at the Barclays Classic.

The 197th-ranked Slocum, who last week did not know if he would qualify for the FedExCup playoffs, now ranks third on the points list in the chase for a US$10 million grand prize.

Slocum won for the first time in four years when he saved par with a 21-foot putt to clinch victory on the last hole at Liberty National and avoid a five-man, sudden-death playoff.

“I was just lucky to come out on top,” the diminutive Slocum said. “A lot of good players.”

Slocum was 124th on the list of qualifying players for the Barclays, though that status was in doubt last week when he missed the cut at the Wyndham Championship and had to wait to see if he had made the 125-man cutoff.

After returning home to Georgia, he said he spent a little time practicing at his local course just in case.

“My wife was pretty diligent on the computer looking at it,” Slocum said. “At one point when I got home from the course, I guess I dropped to 126. I took my daughter downstairs and played.”

“My wife came down and said, ‘I think I’ve got some good news. I think you finished 124,’” he said. “At that moment, [I] kind of geared up for this week knowing I had to play well. Unbelievable. Just that quick, it really was. My fate was not in my own hands.”

That changed on Sunday at Liberty National when he shot a final-round 67 for his third PGA Tour title.

Slocum won for the first time in 2004 in Tucson.

“My second win was in Jackson, Mississippi, where I’d kind of grown up. My dad was caddying for me,” he said. “Now you take this, a playoff event, this caliber of field, all the people that finished one shot behind. It’s incredible. I’m going to use this experience hopefully for the rest of my life, knowing that I can come down the stretch and play, if you want, with the big boys.”



■JOHNNIE WALKER

REUTERS, GLENEAGLES, SCOTLAND

Peter Hedblom of Sweden made immediate amends for a playoff defeat the previous week by winning the Johnnie Walker Championship on Sunday.

Hedblom held off a charge by Martin Erlandsson to win by a stroke from his compatriot with a closing five-under-par 67 for a 13-under aggregate of 275.

Like the week before in the Netherlands, Hedblom led going into the final round, but this time finished the job after being put under pressure by Erlandsson’s spectacular finale, a 62.

Beginning the day a stroke ahead of the field, four successive birdies from the seventh proved the key to the 39-year-old’s third European Tour victory and a US$380,000 prize.

Erlandsson’s US$256,000 prize will enable him to climb from 135th on the money-list to virtually ensure a card for next season.

Last year’s winner Gregory Havret (67) of France and first and second round leader Paul Lawrie of Britain (69) tied for third place, three shots behind Hedblom.
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