Ted Tryba never looked nervous. Not when his three-shot lead dwindled to a shot on No. 16, not when he came to the final hole with his first-ever championship 435 yards away.
He was, of course. But on another brutally hot day on Kingsmill's River Course, Tryba stayed cool and shot 3-under 68 to win the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic Sunday by one stroke. With it comes a $198,000 paycheck, a two-year exemption and an invitation to next year's Masters."I'll tell you what: for me, what a great accomplishment," said Tryba, who finished 12-under at 272. "All the balls, all the hard work, all the stress, and all the pain, suffering, anguish, miserableness ... it makes all that worthwhile when something like this happens."
Tryba, who began the day a shot behind Jim Carter, took the lead for good when Curtis Strange bogeyed the eighth hole to fall out of a two-way tie. When Tryba birdied No. 11 to go 12-under, he owned a four-shot lead.
He played it safe the rest of the way, making par six times and a birdie on the par-5 15th to seal it. Late-charging Scott Simpson created some drama with a birdie on 17 that put him 11-under, but got no closer. Scott Hoch, Lennie Clements and Carter all finished 10-under.
Strange, who held a brief lead after making birdie on No. 7, finished tied for sixth with Marco Dawson at 9-under 275. Jim Gallagher Jr., the second-round leader and 1993 champion here, shot 4-over 75 Sunday to finish tied for 18th at 5-under. All along, the 28-year-old Tryba showed the poise of an established Tour veteran - which he isn't yet. The temperature reached triple digits again, but it looked like he barely broke a sweat. The humidity didn't push a hair on his head out of place. Later, Tryba admitted it: looks were deceiving.
"I felt nervous, but I've been there before," he said. "I don't know if it's justifiable to say this, but I feel it is: I won three tournaments on the (Ben) Hogan Tour and I've always had a knack of calming myself down.
"I was hitting good shots all day, so I kinda said, `I don't think I'm going to make a bad swing out here. I'm probably just going to make a bad decision."
Simpson didn't, and as it turned out, Tryba didn't make many bad decisions. His biggest moment of tension came on the 16th, where he teed off with a three-shot lead. But when he missed an 8-foot par putt, Tryba fell to 12-under. Seconds later, Simpson birdied 17 to go 11-under.