Sweden's Carl Pettersson captured his first US PGA Tour title, firing a final-round level par 71 here on Sunday to win the 5.3 million- dollar US PGA Chrysler Championship by one stroke.
Petterson fired 16 pars with only one birdie to finish on nine-under par 275 and defeat American Chad Campbell by one stroke. Pettersson's best prior finish on the US PGA Tour was second at the 2003 Buick Invitational.
"It feels fantastic," Pettersson said. "It hasn't quite set in yet, but unbelievable. Just a real special day. I'm just thrilled. I don't really know what to say right now."
Pettersson took his only European Tour triumph at the 2002 Portugal Open in a playoff after missing a short putt on the last hole of an event shortened to 36 holes due to bad weather.
He pondered that miss as he stood over another three-footer for a title, then dropped the putt home.
"I said, 'Oh no, not again.' But I managed to get it in," he said.
Pettersson, 28, became the third Swede to win a US PGA Tour event, joining Jesper Parnevik, the most recent Swedish US PGA winner in 2001, and Gabriel Hjertstedt.
"It's nice to win a four-round event," Pettersson said. "It was important to myself to win (a US event) even if I didn't do it this week. Next year or the year after - eventually one early in your career to get the monkey off your back."
Pettersson made his only bogey of the day on the par-4 second hole and his lone birdie on the par-5 14th but made several clutch par putts down the stretch to stay on top after starting the day tied for the lead.
"I didn't hit it great from tee to green but I chipped and putted fantastic," Pettersson said.
His 4-iron tee shot on the par-3 15th hole found the rough, but chipped out of the tall grass and sank a short par putt. He sank a key 10-foot putt from the fringe at the 16th to keep his one-stroke edge.
"I made a great 10-footer for par there," he said. "That was great."
Pettersson, who shared fourth at September's Deutsche Bank Championship, became the 11th different winner in the past 11 US PGA events.
Japan's Hidemichi Tanaka shared third on 279 with Americans Stewart Cink, Bo Van Pelt, Tag Ridings, Tim Herron, Tom Pernice and Steve Lowery, who shared the lead but faded with a final-round 75 thanks to a triple-bogey eighth hole.
"The key to the round was I made about a 20-, 25-footer for a par on No 8 and Lowery made a triple," Pettersson said. "I knew that was my chance. I thought, 'Well, this is obviously a sign here. Let's try to feed off that.'"
His feast was just enough to edge Campbell, who began the day five strokes back but birdied the 18th to fire a final-round 67 that assured him a berth in Atlanta for next week's US PGA Tour Championship, which he won in 2003.
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