American Mark Wilson won his first PGA Tour title on Monday, sinking a 10-foot birdie on the third hole of a darkness-halted playoff to win the Honda Classic.
PALM BEACH GARDENS: American Mark Wilson won his first PGA Tour title on Monday, sinking a 10-foot birdie on the third hole of a darkness-halted playoff to win the Honda Classic.
Wilson, who has made 10 trips to the US PGA Qualifying School, took the top prize of 990,000 dollars by outlasting Argentina's Jose Coceres, Colombia's Camilo Villegas and US rookie Boo Weekley in a morning shootout.
Third-round leader Wilson, Villegas, Coceres and Weekley each started the playoff with a par at the par-5 18th Sunday evening before darkness delayed the finish until Monday morning.
The playoff resumed at the par-4 10th, where Weekley and Villegas bowed out with bogeys. Wilson two-putted from 20 feet for par, coming up two feet shy on his birdie bid, while Coceres matched him to extend the playoff to the par-3 17th.
Coceres smacked his tee shot 144 yards to land the ball nine feet from the cup, just inside Wilson, who answered by dropping his birdie putt. Coceres missed and Wilson nabbed his first tour triumph.
Wilson, 32, finished in a share of 29th at last year's PGA qualifying tournament to claim his place on tour this season. His best prior career finish was third at the 2005 Texas Open.
Coceres had enjoyed playoff success before, the first of his two US titles coming in a five-hole playoff at the 2001 WorldCom Classic.
Weekley had taken a bogey on the final hole of regulation play to fall into the four-man showdown at the PGA National Resort and Spa. Had Weekley made a par he would have had his first PGA Tour victory and a two-year tour exemption.
Weekley still achieved his career-best finish, eclipsing his sixth in Mexico a week ago.
Villegas, 25, missed a golden chance for his first US PGA triumph, instead adding another near-miss to his third at last year's Players Championship and runner-up finishes at the FBR Open and Ford Championship.
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