David Duval closed with two scrambling pars to win his third consecutive tournament at the Tour Championship on Sunday, denying Davis Love III a chance to edge out Tiger Woods for the season money title.
Duval, who made a 40-foot eagle putt on No. 13 to move into a tie for the lead and then recovered from the rough on Nos. 17 and 18, became the first player to win three consecutive starts on the PGA Tour since Nick Price in 1993."Three victories in a year, no matter how they are spaced out, is a great year," said Duval, who became the first player to make his first three victories consecutive.
Duval, who will be 26 next week, had seven second-place finishes and was developing a nasty label as a guy unable to finish off tournaments. That label is long gone and he now seems drenched in confidence.
"After those putts in the playoffs at Kingsmill and then Disney, I just look forward to having those now," Duval said, referring to his two victories in October, the first two of his career.
"It is nowhere in my mind that I am going to miss it," he said, after closing with a 68 to finish at 11-under-par 273, one stroke ahead of Jim Furyk and two better than Love.
Love, who bogeyed the last hole knowing he needed a birdie to tie Duval, would have won the money title and possibly player of the year if he had won the season-ending event.
"I would have liked to have finished a little better," Love said. "But it was nice to make Tiger sweat a little bit on the back nine."
The money title went to Woods with a record $2,066,833 despite finishing 12th at Champions Golf Club, and he likely will be voted player of the year by PGA Tour members later this year.
Duval finished second on the money list with $1,885,308 and Love finished third with $1,635,953.
A 3-iron from 257 yards on the par-5 13th hole put Duval 40 feet from the hole and when the ball rolled from the shade into the sun and dropped into the hole to erase a two-stroke deficit, three victories in a row seemed possible.
"It got me right back in the ball game," Duval said.
He took the lead a short while later when Love drove into the rough on No. 14 and missed a 12-foot par-saving putt.
The big putt for Duval was a 12-footer to save par on No. 17 after he drove deep into the right rough.
"It was no more than 6 feet from OB," he said about the out-of-bounds fence and its two-stroke penalty.
He saved par on the final hole with a great chip from the rough behind the green to 18 inches.
"It just gives you the confidence to know you can do it," Duval said about how his recent wins helped him claim the $720,000 first prize.
"It gives you patience and teaches you not to force things," he said.
Love perhaps needed to force things more than he did down the stretch. Leading by two strokes, he was not crisp on the back nine and closed with a 37 for a 70 on the day.
Despite driving the ball better than Duval on the closing holes - and that was not saying much - Love was unable to get his irons close to the pin.
He could only get to 30 feet with a 9-iron from 140 yards on No. 15 and his 8-iron from 150 yards on No. 17 could do no better than get 35 feet from the hole.
Love did stay in the hunt, however, with a 22-foot par-saving putt on No. 16 just moments before Duval saved his par on No. 17.
Furyk finished several holes ahead of Duval and Love and nearly sneaked off with the victory with a closing round 67, the best round of the weekend from the elite field of the top 30 players on the money list.
While Woods was able to hold onto the money title, he was unable to claim the Vardon Trophy from the PGA of America for the lowest adjusted stroke average, finishing second to Nick Price.
"You don't fluke the Vardon Trophy," said Price, who also won it in 1993. "You've got to go out and play solid all year."
Woods won four times in 1997, including his sensational victory at the Masters, but closed the season without a victory since July 6.
"To end up like this does hurt," Woods said. "But it's been a good season overall. And being a 21-year-old it's not a bad first year on tour."
Asked if he though he would be voted player of the year, Woods said: "You've got to ask the other players that."
Divots: "I'm hear to watch the best player players in the world," former President George Bush said as he and his wife Barbara arrived at the course. "But don't tell Colin Montgomerie I said that." ... Tommy Tolles got the last-place check for $64,000. ... 18 players ended up winning more than $1 million of the PGA Tour, twice the previous record.