Henrik Stenson closes with 64 to win at Wyndham

GREENSBORO, N.C. » Henrik Stenson kept making birdies on the back nine Sunday at the Wyndham Championship. They added up to a tournament record — and his first victory of the year.

Stenson closed with a 6-under 64 for a one-stroke victory in the final event of the PGA Tour regular season.

The 2013 FedEx Cup champion finished at 22-under 258 at Sedgefield Country Club, breaking the course’s 72-hole record set by Carl Pettersson in 2008 and matched last year by Si Woo Kim.

The Swede earned $1,044,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points for his sixth win on tour and his first since the 2016 British Open.

“It’s certainly a good time to start firing,” Stenson said. “We know the kind of damage you can do in the playoffs . ... If you get hot and keep on playing well, you have a chance to challenge.”

Stenson said he left his driver in his locker all week — “he’s a little anxious to get out there and start getting some air time next week,” he quipped of the club — and certainly didn’t need it on the par-70 Sedgefield course.

For the second straight day, he had four birdies in a five-hole stretch of the back nine.

Ollie Schniederjans shot a 64 to finish second. Webb Simpson was 18 under after a 67.”

“I had to keep on making birdies,” Stenson said, “because Ollie was surely not backing down.

Stenson had three consecutive birdies on Nos. 15-17 — leaving a 20foot eagle putt on the 15th hole about a foot short — after he and Schniederjans were both at 19 under.

Stenson’s 30-foot birdie putt on No. 17 moved him to 22 under.

He needed it, because Schniederjans kept the pressure on him. The 24-year-old former Georgia Tech player made a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 17 and added another birdie on the par-4 18th hole after placing his second shot 2 feet from the pin.

“I thought I had a two-shot cushion ... and as I walked over (to the 18th hole and) looked around, ‘Oh, OK, (Schniederjans) birdied it as well,” Stenson said. “So I better scramble a par here to get the win.”

With Schniederjans watching the television broadcast and hoping for a tie, Stenson rolled a 35-foot birdie putt on No. 18 off the right edge of the cup, then made a 3-footer to end it.