Australian David Lutterus, who began the final round two strokes adrift of a job, fired an eight-under par 64 on Monday at PGA Tour qualifying tournament to book his spot on the circuit for next year.
“I was thinking 59 for a while there actually,” Lutterus said of matching the all-time low PGA round. “I enjoyed it out there.”
An emotional six-day, 108-hole battle over two courses to decide next year’s playing rights ended with American Troy Merritt setting the pace at 23-under 410, but everyone in the top 25 or level will achieve the goal of a tour spot next year.
PHOTO: AFP
Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge shared fifth on 415.
Six players from outside the US qualified on Monday, including de Jonge, South Africa’s Brenden Pappas and Andrew McLardy, Canadian rookie Graham Delaet and Australians Lutterus and Matt Jones.
Lutterus birdied four of the first six holes and closed the front nine with another to stake his claim to a tour berth. Birdies at the par-3 11th and 14th around an eagle at the 12th were more than enough to offset a lone bogey at 15.
Lutterus, who finished on 15-under 417, played the final round of the event in 2007 with Yang Yong-eun, last year’s PGA Championship winner, and felt the tension more than this year.
Jones, now set for a third season on the US PGA Tour, finished third on 413 after a final-round 66.
McLardy, born in Zimbabwe to Scottish parents, endured a nerve-wracking finish, but a last-hole bogey got him in on the number, sharing 23rd on 423 with Americans Spencer Levin and Brent Delahoussaye.
“I’ve been trying this for so long. To finally pull it off, I don’t know what to say. I still can’t even believe I made it,” Delahoussaye said.
Eight players were one stroke out of a tour spot, sharing 26th on 424, including Australian Bronson La’Cassie and Canada’s Julien Trudeau, a distant relative of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
■CHEVRON WORLD
AFP, THOUSAND OAKS, California
Jim Furyk rolled in a birdie putt at the final hole on Sunday to win the Chevron World Challenge by one shot from Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell.
Furyk, dressed in the red so often sported by tournament host Tiger Woods on Sundays, didn’t get a handshake from the world No. 1, who didn’t attend, citing injuries received in a car crash on Nov. 27.
Furyk fired a final round 67 at Sherwood Country Club for a 13-under total of 275.
However, he said his final-round attire of red shirt and dark trousers weren’t a nod to Woods, known for his red and black Sunday ensembles.
“They’re brown pants,” Furyk said. “I didn’t mean to make a statement.”
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