Tim Herron sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to defeat Sweden's Richard S. Johnson and give the American his fourth career PGA title on Sunday at the Colonial Tournament.
Herron, who had not won a US event since the 1999 Bay Hill Invitational, nearly squandered a lead with three back-nine bogeys in the final round, the last at the 16th hole. But Herron sank tension-packed par putts of 12 feet at 17 and nine feet at the 18th to force the playoff, matching Johnson after 72 holes at 12-under par 268, two strokes ahead of Rod Pampling after the Australian ended with a bogey.
Johnson and Herron each parred the first playoff hole in a replay of the 18th hole. Herron put his tee shot on the last playoff hole, 17, in the fairway and dropped a sand wedge 10 feet from the cup to set up the winning putt.
"This winning thing isn't that easy," Herron said.
While Herron struggled to the finish and Pampling blew up with a double bogey at 15 and a concluding tap-in par miss, Johnson recovered his form after a three-putt bogey at the 16th with birdies at 17 and 18.
"When I three-putted 16 I was out of it," Johnson said. "When I walked onto the green at 18 I had no idea what was going on behind me. I'm very pleased."
FINAL ROUND SCORES (USA unless noted, Herron wins playoff with birdie on second playoff hole):
-- 268 - Richard S. Johnson (SWE) 68-65-68-67, Tim Herron 67-65-68-
-- 270 - Rod Pampling (AUS) 67-63-70-70
-- 271 - Stephen Ames (CAN) 65-66-77-63, Ben Crane 71-65-71-64, Brett Quigley
-- 68-70-67-66, Arron Oberholser 65-68-71-67, Stewart Cink 64-67-72-68, Peter Lonard (AUS) 66-66-69-70, Nathan Green (AUS) 67-67-67-70
-- 272 - Corey Pavin 71-67-68-66
-- 273 - Brian Gay 67-67-73-66, Jerry Kelly 69-68-67-69, Dean Wilson 67-65-71-70, Nick O'Hern (AUS) 66-69-68-70, Bo Van Pelt 67-68-67-71
-- 274 - KJ Choi (KOR) 70-69-72-63, Fredrik Jacobson (SWE) 71-62-70-71, Robert --- Allenby (AUS) 71-67-66-70
-- 275 - Shigeki Maruyama (JPN) 69-68-70-68
-- 278 - Daniel Chopra (SWE) 70-64-72-72, Mike Weir (CAN) 66-73-72-67, Henrik Bjornstad (NOR) 69-64-69-76
-- 279 - John Senden (AUS) 69-70-69-71, Justin Rose (GBR) 68-69-71-71, Camilo Villegas (COL) 68-69-73-69
-- 280 - David Frost (RSA) 73-67-73-67
-- 281 - Rory Sabbatini (RSA) 72-69-70
-- 286 - Mathias Gronberg (SWE) 67-71-73-75.
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