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cSAN ANTONIO, Texas: American Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, fired a final-round six-under par 64 Sunday to win the US PGA Texas Open by two strokes.
Johnson sank an eight-foot birdie putt on the 19th hole to finish 72 holes on 19-under par 261 with South Korea's Charlie Wi, American Mark Wilson and New Zealand's Tim Wilkinson sharing second on 263.
"This one was important. I haven't had the best of years," Johnson said. "I putted pretty well this week. That's why my name is on the top. I put in a lot of work in the past six weeks and it paid off."
It was the fourth career title for Johnson, who won in 2004 at Atlanta and last year at Augusta and Atlanta. This year, Johnson's best prior finish had been ninth at the World Golf Championships event at Doral.
Johnson dedicated the victory to his flood-ravaged home state of Iowa, whose residents battled high water earlier this year and taught Johnson about what is truly important.
"It makes things easier to put things in perspective. I'm playing golf. I'm chasing a little ball," Johnson said. "I have a lot of family and friends back there. This was for the state."
Wilkinson had a 10-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole that would have matched Johnson for the lead but missed left of the cup. Moments later, Johnson set his approach eight feet from the pin and holed the putt to double his win margin.
"A couple of putts, I was probably a little but conservative, wanted to cosy up to the hole and have them drop in," Wilkinson said. "I got a little bit conservative.
Wilkinson's best career finish on the US PGA Tour put him into the top 90 on the season money list, almost certainly assuring him of a place on next year's tour.
"It's nice not to have to worry about it," he said.
Johnson birdied the first hole before suffering his lone bogey of the last day at the second, giving him only two bogeys in the last three rounds.
Johnson birdied the sixth, seventh, eighth and 10th holes to grab a share of the lead and birdied the par-5 14th to seize the lead for good.
American Jeff Overton was fifth on 265, two strokes better than compatriot Chris Stroud and Canada's Stephen Ames, who fired a final-round 62.
Wi and Australian Steve Elkington each fired final-round 61s.
Wi birdied the second and fifth holes and concluded the front nine with back-to-back birdies. He began a run of five birdies in six holes at the 11th and needed only to birdie 17 and 18 to match the tour record of 59.
But Wi settled for back-to-back pars to end his comeback and settled for a share of second.
Elkington, who finished on 272, birdied seven of the last eight holes to complete his magical round, firing a seven-under 28 on the back nine. His 10 birdies on the day were one more than he managed total in the first three rounds.
- AFP/yb
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