For Sweden’s Carl Pettersson, Greensboro, North Carolina is his adopted hometown. Therefore, he had to win the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club.
That is what he told himself in order to get out of a rut and shoot two-under-par 68 in the final round to win the tournament by two strokes.
Pettersson led going into the 11th hole but a bogey, after dropping a shot on the 10th, saw him fall down to second place. He hit back strongly with three birdies in four holes to complete four days at 21-under 259 and his first PGA Tour title.
In second place was Scott McCarron, who also shot 68 but had to settle for 19 under. Former PGA Championship winner Rich Beem had his second straight 63 but it still only left him four strokes off the lead while J.J. Henry (62) and rookie Martin Laird (63) were a further stroke behind.
Pettersson admitted he had some strong words for himself after that bogey on the 11th. He said in an AP article:
“Not getting it up and down on 11 kind of ticked me off. I kind of told myself, ‘I’m letting the tournament get away from me again.’ That was where the tournament was won for me. I felt like I let the tournament slip away on 10 and 11.â€
Pettersson, who shot a tournament record 61 in the second round, won $918,000 for his efforts with the tournament marking the final event before the play-offs for the FedExCup.
His birdie on the 13th gave him back a one-stroke lead after McCarron had earlier dropped a shot. The Swede then went two up when he chalked up his first birdie on the par-five 15th, having had two bogeys and a par on previous rounds.
Pettersson wasn’t the only Swede who lifted a trophy over the weekend. On the other side of the ocean, in Stockholm, Peter Hanson became the first local player to win the SAS Masters in 10 years when he triumphed at the SAS Masters.
It was the 30-year-old’s second European Tour victory as he held off fellow Swede Pelle Edberg and England’s Nick Dougherty.
Hanson closed with 71 for a total of nine-under-par 271 with Edberg and Dougherty one stroke back. England’s Paul Broadhurst and Scot Gary Orr tied for fourth on 273.
The victory raised Hanson’s outside hopes of making Europe’s Ryder Cup team for their clash with the Americans next month.
He moves up to 17th place from 24th and had decided to player in this week’s KLM Open in the Netherlands rather than skip a week in order to press home his Ryder Cup claims.
Dougherty also enhances his Ryder Cup ambitions, holding on to 14th place. However, he almost didn’t finish the tournament after hurting his back after the third round.
In trying to fix himself in the gym, the Englishman only made his condition worse, as he said on the European Tour website:
“What a day. If my chiropractor had been here he might have told me to pull out, so I’m glad he wasn’t. After all I’ve been through I was going to finish no matter what.â€
On the LPGA Tour, Australian Katherine Hull won her maiden title with a one-stroke victory over Korean Pak Se-ri in the CN Canadian Women’s Open after overcoming a six-stroke deficit.
Her final round of three-under-par 69 comprised of four birdies and a bogey for a total of 10-under 277 while Pak closed with a 72 to finish on 278. Tseng Yani collapsed in the final round with 77 to finish third on 279.
World number one Lorena Ochoa, of Mexico, shot 73 to tie for fourth on seven-under 281 with Yoo Sun-young and Kim Song-hee.
