SILVIS, Ill. — David Gossett earned a spot on the PGA Tour on Sunday, closing with a 5-under-par 66 for a one-stroke victory over Briny Baird in the John Deere Classic.
Gossett, the 1999 U.S. Amateur champion, is the first player to win using a sponsor exemption since Tiger Woods in the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational. The former University of Texas star earned $504,000 and gained a tour exemption through 2003.
Gossett finished with a 19-under 265 total on the TPC at Deere Run. The 22-year-old player is the seventh first-time winner this year. He played 12 Buy.com Tour events this year after failing to gain a PGA Tour card last winter despite shooting a 59 in the qualifying tournament.
Baird also shot a 66.
LPGA CLASSIC: At VIenna, Ohio, For the second year in a row, Dorothy Delasin overcame a four-stroke deficit and Se Ri Pak in the final round to win the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic on Sunday.
Delasin shot a 7-under 65 — the lowest round of the day on the Squaw Creek course — to pass both Pak and Tammie Green on the back nine and collect the first-place check of $150,000.
Pak has won eight of the 10 events she has led heading into the final round — with both losses coming to Delasin in the Giant Eagle.
Delasin finished at 13-under 203. Green (68) was a stroke back, and Pak (71) was third at 205.
Last year at Avalon Lakes, Dorothy Delasin won at age 19 to became the LPGA's youngest champion in 25 years. She beat Pat Hurst on second hole of a playoff.
SENIOR CLASSIC: At Hunt Valley, Md., In a duel between the top two money winners on the senior tour, Allen Doyle made a 4-foot par putt on the third playoff hole to beat Bruce Fleisher in the rain-soaked State Farm Senior Classic.
Doyle, the Ford Senior Players winner this month, shot a 5-under 67 to match Fleisher (69) at 11-under 205. Doyle earned $217,500 to move within $40,590 of Fleisher on the money list.
Playing in a driving rain, Fleisher and Doyle put their second shots into a bunker on the par-4 17th, the third hole of the playoff. Doyle blasted out to 4 feet before Fleisher hit his shot about 20 feet past. Fleisher, the U.S. Senior Open winner, two-putted and Doyle calmly dropped his putt.
SENIOR BRITISH OPEN: At Newcastle, Northern Ireland, Australia's Ian Stanley won the Senior British Open on the first hole of a playoff with two-time champion Bob Charles of New Zealand.
Stanley, who missed a 3-foot putt to win on the 72th hole, holed a 2-footer for par when they replayed the 18th in the playoff. Charles drove into a bunker and made a bogey.
Stanley shot a 69, and Charles closed with a 68 fir 6-under 278 totals. Jack Nicklaus, playing in the tournament for the first time, shot a 69 to tie for third, three strokes back.