Troy Merritt’s three-year wait is over.
The 32-year-old Merritt shot 5-under-par 67 in the final round to claim his second PGA Tour victory, winning the weather-plagued Barbasol Championship by one stroke over Billy Horschel, Richy Werenski and Tom Lovelady in a Monday finish at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Ky.
The tournament was an opposite-field event for players who did not qualify for the 147th Open Championship over the weekend at Carnoustie in Scotland.
“This is special because I’ve struggled the last couple years and I was wondering if this was ever going to happen again,” said Merritt, whose only other victory came in the 2015 Quicken Loans National. “It’s feels so good to win again, get a two-year exemption on the Tour and play in the PGA Championship (next month).
“Every now and then you think, ‘Do I have what it takes to win anymore?’ I’ve won at every level I’ve played at since I was 8 years old. I know I can still play good golf. But when you don’t see it for long periods of time and you’re always trying to find it and the guys are getting better and better and better, doubts will kind of creep in there.
“ … We just tried to do our best on each shot and counted them up at the end and it was one shot in the positive for us.”
Merritt, who tied the course record with a first-round 62, holed his second shot from 133 yards for an eagle on the eighth hole in the final round. He added a tap-in birdie at No. 14 and a nine-footer for what proved to be the winning birdie on the next hole as he finished at 23-under 265.
Werenski had the best chance to force a playoff, missing a 19-foot birdie putt on the last hole and finishing at 66. Lovelady’s 48-footer for birdie ran past the hole and he closed with a 68, and Horschel’s chip stopped two feet away and he wound up at 67.
J.T. Poston birdied three of the last five holes for a 66 and was two shots back in fifth, followed one more down by Brian Gay, who collected four birdies on each nine in a 65.
Hunter Mahan, who had a share of the 54-hole lead in search of his seventh PGA Tour victory but the first since the 2014 Barclays, finished a 71 and was four strokes back in a tie for seventh with Cameron Percy of Australia, who had a 69, and Sam Ryder, who came in at 70.
Steve Wheatcroft made five birdies on the first eight hole before closing with 10 straight pars in a bogey-free 67 to end up five back in a tie for 10th with Robert Streb, who took three late bogeys to card a 70.
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