MEMPHIS (Tennessee), July 1: Len Mattiace fired a final-round seven-under-par 64 on Sunday to win the St. Jude Classic by one stroke after starting the day seven shots off the lead.
Mattiace, who won his first PGA Tour event at the Nissan Open last February, finished at 18-under-par 266 on the TPC at Southwinds course.
First round joint-leader Tim Petrovic closed with a 68 to finish alone in second place at 17-under 267, while Notah Begay III (69) finished third on 16-under.
The reigning PGA champion David Toms (68) finished fourth at 15-under.
Canada’s Glen Hnatiuk, who was seeking his first PGA Tour win and led after each of the first three rounds, shot a final-round 77 and finished tied for 14th at 12-under 272.
Mattiace began the day tied for ninth and went out in two-under 34, then birdied the 11th and 12th holes to pull within a shot of Hnatiuk, who was struggling.
The Canadian made four bogeys on the front nine, which was more than he had made the previous 54 holes.
Mattiace tied Hnatiuk for the lead with a birdie at the par-four 15th hole and then moved into the outright lead when Hnatiuk bogeyed the 13th hole.
Begay birdied the 14th to earn a share of the lead at 16-under, but Mattaice birdied the 16th as Begay bogeyed the 15th to open a two-shot margin.
Mattiace birdied the 17th, his fifth in a back-nine 30, and opened a three-shot cushion, although he maintains he was not looking at the leaderboard.
Final round scores
266 Len Mattiace 69 68 65 64
267 Tim Petrovic 65 68 66 68
268 Notah Begay III 66 65 68 69
269 David Toms 68 68 65 68
270 David Howser 66 70 70 64, Jim Carter 68 67 67 68, Tripp Isenhour 72 65 64 69, Matt Kuchar 66 66 67 71
271 Robert Allenby (Australia) 72 67 66 66, Robert Gamez 70 64 69 68, Justin Leonard 66 66 71 68, Neal Lancaster 70 67 64 70, Pat Bates 68 63 69 71
272 Tom Byrum 73 63 69 67, Jason Hill 68 66 70 68, Steve Pate 67 68 69 68, Loren Roberts 69 68 66 69, Glen Hnatiuk (Canada) 65 65 65 77.
Hansen grabs Irish Open
CORK (Ireland): Soren Hansen of Denmark won the Irish Open on Sunday at the fourth hole of a four-way sudden death play-off.
The Dane edged out South African Darren Fichardt, Sweden’s Niclas Fasth and Briton Richard Bland for his first European Tour triumph.
A 15-foot birdie putt gave Hansen his victory after the four men had finished the tournament tied on 14-under 270. Hansen and Fasth had shot closing round 68s while the other duo fired 67s.
Scot Colin Montgomerie closed with a 70 to be eight shots off the lead and then indicated he was doubtful for the British Open due to his continuning back problem.
Final round scores
270 Darren Fichardt (South Africa) 71 68 64 67, Richard Bland 69 71 63 67, Soren Hansen (Denmark) 69 69 64 68, Niclas Fasth (Sweden) 72 67 63 68 - (Soren Hansen won playoff at fourth extra hole)
272 Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) 71 68 63 70
274 Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 71 68 69 66, Eamonn Darcy (Ireland) 69 68 68 69, Stuart Little 68 71 66 69, Joakim Haeggman (Sweden) 66 69 69 70, Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark) 69 70 65 70, Alex Cejka (Germany) 69 65 69 71, Eduardo Romero (Argentina) 66 71 66 71
275 Peter O’Malley (Australia) 66 67 73 69, Paul Casey 69 69 68 69, Gary Evans 69 70 66 70.—Reuters