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FARMINGTON (Pennsylvania), Sept 22: Tour veteran J.L. Lewis charged through the field with a final round 10-under-par 62 on Sunday to win the Pennsylvania Classic by two strokes.
The 43-year-old Kansas native with just one prior victory on the PGA Tour, finished on 22-under 266, a course record at Mystic Rock Golf Course.
Lewis began the third round tied for 12th, three strokes off the lead of Robert Damron and Beckman.
With a third-round 68, Lewis actually lost ground on the leaders, as several players shot 64s and 65s to move up the leaderboard.
Last week, Lewis held at least a share of the lead in each of the first three rounds of the John Deere before falling to Fiji’s Vijay Singh in the final round.
As the final round began, Lewis was tied for 11th and seven shots behind Beckman, now the sole leader.
But Beckman faded badly in the final round, as did many of the players who gained ground in the morning round.
With a eagle and two birdies in the first five holes, Lewis began moving toward the front.
He made one more birdie at the ninth to make the turn in five-under 31.
After a par on the 10th, Lewis birdied the next four holes. His birdie at the 14th gave him sole possession of the lead over Lickliter and Appleby, but Lewis then bogeyed the 15th to fall back into a three-way tie on 20-under.
At the par-five 16th, the former Texas club professional reached the green in two, just missed an eagle putt but holed out for birdie and the lead.
He played a safe tee shot at the 17th to avoid the water on the left, then hit his approach to about eight feet and drained the birdie putt for his first victory since the 1999 John Deere Classic.
Final round scores
266 J.L. Lewis 69 67 68 62
268 Frank Lickliter II 70 67 65 66, Stuart Appleby 69 68 64 67, Tim Petrovic 67 69 65 67
271 Rocco Mediate 68 70 67 66, Jesper Parnevik 68 66 70 67, Cameron Beckman 67 66 64 74
272 Craig Barlow 67 68 68 69, Robert Damron 67 66 66 73
273 Shigeki Maruyama 68 70 67 68, Rory Sabbatini 68 70 64 71, Chris DiMarco 70 65 67 71.—Reuters
