McCarthy earns big bonuses with Web.com win
ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. — Denny McCarthy won the season-ending Web.com Tour Championship on Sunday to earn fully exempt PGA Tour status for the 2018-19 season and a spot in The Players Championship next year.
McCarthy closed with a 6-under-par 65 for a four-stroke victory over Lucas Glover at Atlantic Beach Country Club. The 25-year-old former University of Virginia golfer earned $180,000 to top the 25 PGA Tour card-earners with $255,793 in the four-event Web.com Tour Finals.
“It’s been quite a journey this year,” McCarthy said. “The PGA Tour was tough to start out the year. I stuck through it and got my game. I raised my level and have been playing some really good golf. Just feels incredible to finish off these finals. So much work behind the scenes that nobody really sees.”
McCarthy finished at 23-under 261.
Glover, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, closed with a 69. He made $108,000 to finish seventh with $125,212 in the series for the top 75 players from the Web. com regular-season money list,
Nos. 126-200 in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings, and nonmembers with enough money to have placed in the top 200.
Jim Knous earned the 25th and final card from the fourevent money list with $41,931, edging Justin Lower by $500. Knous made a 5-foot par save on the final hole for a 71 that left him tied for 57th. Lower missed an eight-footer for birdie, settling for a 69 and a tie for 21st.
The top 25 finishers on the
Web.com Tour’s regular-season money list competed against each other for tour priority, with regular-season earnings counting in their totals. Sungjae Im topped the list to earn the No. 1 priority spot of the 50 total cards.
Chattanooga’s Stephan Jaeger (64) tied for eighth at 17 under.
Stricker wins again
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Steve
Stricker won the inaugural Sanford International for his third PGA Tour Champions title of the year, closing with a 3-under 67 for a four-stroke victory.
The 51-year-old Stricker led wire-to-wire at Minnehaha Country Club. He birdied three of the first four holes in the final round and offset bogeys on 13 and 18 with birdies on 15 and 16. He shared the lead after each of the first two rounds.
Stricker also won in Arizona and Mississippi in consecutive starts in May for his first senior tour victories. This week in France, he will be one of U.S. Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk’s assistants.
Stricker finished at 13-under 197, and he matched Paul Broadhurst for the tour victories lead.
Tim Petrovic (65) and Jerry Smith (70) tied for second. Brandt Jobe, tied for the second-round lead, had a 72 to drop into a tie for fourth with Kevin Sutherland (67) at 8 under.
It’s Lewis by three
VILAMOURA, Portugal — Tom Lewis won the Portugal Masters for a second time, shooting a 5-under 66 for a three-stroke victory over fellow Englishman Eddie Pepperell and Australia’s Lucas Herbert.
Lewis finished at 22-under 262, following an opening 72 with rounds of 63 and 61 to get into contention. He won the 2011 tournament for his only other European Tour title.
Pepperell closed with a 67 and Herbert a 71.
Preparing for the Ryder Cup, Spanish star Sergio Garcia closed with a 65 to finish seven strokes back.