After blowing a two-stroke lead at No. 17, Billy Ray Brown went for the green - and the victory - on the final hole of the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic.
A gutsy 4-wood to the green on the 532-yard 18th hole Sunday set up a two-putt birdie, ending Brown's five-year drought on the PGA Tour. Twice earlier in the tournament, he came up short and found the water fronting the closing hole."When I hit the fairway on 18, I knew I had to go for it. I could go to sleep at night if I hit it in the water trying to win," Brown said. "I can't sleep if I lay up and lose in a playoff."
Brown's 5-foot birdie putt capped a closing 5-under-par 67 for a four-day total of 17-under 271, just one stroke better than former University of Houston teammate Mike Standly.
A double-bogey 6 at the 409-yard 17th dropped Brown back into a tie for the lead with Standly at 16 under. Brown's second shot at the 18th hole was about 70 feet right of the flag, but was dry and on the green.
Standly, who watched Brown's final shots, had birdied the same two holes for a closing 66.
"It was tough. I wanted to get in a playoff, but I was pulling for Billy Ray," said Standly, who watched Brown's final hole. "I knew he had struggled . . . and so have I in the past."
The victory was Brown's first since the GTE Byron Nelson Classic in 1992, before he had two wrist surgeries.
Brown had struggled since the wrist surgeries, which came after he won $485,151 and finished 29th on the money list in 1992. A 185th-place finish on the money list last year, his third straight year out of the top 125, cost him his PGA Tour exemption.
With the victory at the 7,157-yard Annandale Golf Club, Brown won a two-year tour exemption and $180,000, nearly triple the $67,203 he won last year.
Five birdies in his first seven holes got Brown to 17 under. The fast start broke him out of a quartet of players that began the day two strokes behind second- and third-round leader Steve Jurgensen.
Jurgensen, in the tournament on a sponsor's exemption after his only PGA top 10 finish at last year's event, started his final round with a double-bogey 6 and finished with a 72. His four-day total of 274 was among six players tied for fourth place. Mike Brisky had a 68 and was alone in third at 273.
A birdie at the 16th got Brown to 18 under, but his tee shot on the 17th went into rough behind a tree on a peninsula fronting the green. After a chip back to the fairway, his pitch shot backed up to the fringe. A three-putt there set up the decisive 18th.