David Gossett left the Buy.com Tour behind with a big-league finish.
Gossett earned a spot on the PGA Tour through 2003 yesterday, closing with a 5-under-par 66 for a one-stroke victory over Briny Baird in the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill.
The 1999 U.S. Amateur champion is the first player to win playing under a sponsor exemption since Tiger Woods in the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational.
"Starting the week, I felt good about my golf game and got myself in good position," Gossett said.
Gossett finished with a 19-under 265 total on the TPC at Deere Run, and earned $504,000.
The 22-year-old 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.
"I missed a few putts and hung in there and made some good birdies when it counted," Gossett said. "It feels great to make that putt on the last hole to win."
Tour veteran Pete Jordan, who finished at 17-under, was third.
In other tournaments:
* At Hunt Valley, Md., 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.
* At Vienna, Ohio, Dorothy Delasin overcame a four-stroke deficit and Se Ri Pak in the final round to win the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic for the second consecutive year.
Delasin shot a 7-under 65 to finish at 13-under 203. Tammie Green (68) was a stroke back, and Pak (71) was third at 205.
* At Noordwijk, Netherlands, Germany's Bernhard Langer won the Dutch Open, defeating England's Warren Bennett on the first playoff hole for his first title in four years.
Langer, who finished at 15-under 259, earned $255,000.
* 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 shot a final-round 69, and Charles closed with a 68 for 6-under 278 totals. Jack Nicklaus, playing in the tournament for the first time, shot a 69 to tie for third, three strokes back.
In other news:
MASTERS: Course changes
Reports of changes to the Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club course - home of the Masters - appear to fall quite short of the actual transformation that has taken place.
As early as this week, Masters chairman Hootie Johnson is expected to announce details of the renovations being made to the course. But, an aerial survey of the golf course by The Augusta Chronicle on Wednesday revealed at least eight holes have undergone significant alterations, including new tee boxes on each that could increase the course length by an estimated 140 to 185 yards. The course measured 6,985 yards for the 2001 Masters.
Other visible alterations include the reshaping and repositioning of the fairway bunkers on three holes and the recontouring of the landing areas on four holes, the paper reported. *
