San Antonio: J.J. Spaun of the US won his first PGA Tour event - and his first trip to the Masters - by firing a final-round 69 at the Valero Texas Open on Sunday.
In his 147th PGA Tour start, Spaun survived a double-bogey start to his round by recording five birdies with no bogeys to finish at 13-under at TPC San Antonio. It gave him a two-shot margin over Matt Kuchar (69) and Matt Jones (66).
Adam Hadwin (67), Beau Hossler (72), Charles Howell III (69) and Troy Merritt (69) tied for fourth at 10-under.
The 31-year-old Spaun closed with four straight pars, and no one could close in on him. His previous best finish on tour was runner-up in 2018 at the RSM Classic.
Spaun moves to No. 10 in the FedExCup standings and is the first winner to overcome a double bogey on the first hole of a final round since Tiger Woods at the 2008 US Open.
He becomes the ninth first-time winner of the season - the 31-year-old is the sixth player to record his first Tour title at the Texas Open since it moved to TPC San Antonio in 2010.
Lahiri finishes tied 13th
India’s Anirban Lahiri, meanwhile, finished his campaign tied-13th with four others. The 34-year-old Lahiri, who had finished runner-up at The Players Championship three weeks ago, shot a 70 in the final round for an overall 8-under-280 for the tournament, five strokes adrift of the winner.
On Saturday, after the third round, Lahiri had kept his hopes alive by making three birdies on his homeward nine to sit on six-under 210 after as he chased his maiden PGA Tour victory here.
Lahiri had entered the week hopeful of landing a first win following a memorable outing at The Players Championship where he had finished second to Cameron Smith of Australia and earned a career high USD2.18 million.
