Bryson DeChambeau will be a full-fledged member of the PGA Tour next season.
DeChambeau, the 22-year from Clovis in California’s San Joaquin Valley, sank a three-foot par putt on the second playoff hole to defeat Andres Gonzales and win the DAP Championship at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, Ohio.
Nicholas Lindheim and Julian Etulain of Argentina were eliminated with pars on the first extra hole, where DeChambeau made a four-foot birdie putt and Gonzales sank an unlikely 29-foot birdie putt to stay alive in the first of four events in the Web.com Tour Finals.
DeChambeau, who tied for 15th in the Masters and tied for 21st in the U.S. Open this year on invitations because of his amateur victories last year, became the 15th player to win in his first start on the Web.com Tour and earned his card on the big tour for the 2016-17 season.
“Winning here is beyond my wildest dreams,” said DeChambeau, who last year joined Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore to win the U.S. Amateur and NCAA Championship in the same season. “It’s amazing. (Canterbury) is a major championship venue.
“I hit every fairway, but the greens got three days of rain and so many putts I hit and missed I kept telling myself, ‘You gotta be kidding me,’ but I made some clutch putts, ones I had to. This was a U.S. Open-type venue.”
DeChambeau, who played college golf at SMU, took the lead into the final round but closed with a 1-over-par 71 that allowed Gonzalez (68), Lindheim (66) and Etulain (67) to catch him at 7-under 273.
