GREENSBORO, N.C. — Brian Harman made his strongest push yet for a victory on the PGA Tour, finishing tied for third Sunday at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club.
The Savannahian, in his second full season on the PGA Tour, was two strokes behind at 12 under par (67-66-69-66). He had a bogey-free round Sunday and birdied Nos. 3, 5, 6 and 12 in earning $307,400.
The previous best for Harman — a former star at Savannah Christian and the University of Georgia — was a tie for fifth almost exactly a year ago at The Barclays on Aug. 26, 2012. That tournament is next week in Jersey City, N.J.
Harman tied for 11th at his last tournament, the Reno-Tahoe Open on Aug. 4. He had tied for 10th at the Wells Fargo Championship on May 5 in Charlotte N.C. He had missed cuts at his only other Wyndham appearances in 2010 and ’12.
In the span of a couple of strokes, Patrick Reed went from almost certain disaster to his first PGA Tour victory.
Reed won the Wyndham Championship for his first title, beating Jordan Spieth with a most improbable birdie on the second hole of a playoff.
Reed recovered from a drive on the par-4 10th that came a few feet from going out of bounds and stopped in some pine needles in the woods near a television cable.
Reed pulled out his 7-iron, uncorked a baseball swing from an uphill lie and sent the ball under a tree branch — yet away from the tree trunk — to land his second shot 7 feet from the pin.
“It was the best shot of my life, that’s for sure,” said Reed, who was on two NCAA national championships teams at Augusta State (2010-11).
Spieth, who called it “one of the best shots I’ve ever witnessed,” had reached the green in two strokes, but his 10-foot birdie putt trickled wide of the cup.
Reed then sank his short birdie putt that “felt like it was 40” feet to end it.
“Just to get my first win means everything to me,” Reed said.
Reed, who had his third straight top-10 finish, earned $954,000 in prize money and 500 FedEx Cup points for winning the final tournament before the playoffs.
Reed and Spieth finished regulation at 14-under 266. Reed closed with a 4-under 66, and Spieth had a 65.
The 20-year-old Spieth, the John Deere winner in a playoff last month, was denied in his bid to become youngest two-time champion in the modern era of the PGA Tour.
John Huh (68) and Harman were two strokes behind. Matt Jones matched the tournament record for a final round with a 62 and finished at 11 under along with Matt Every (67) and Zach Johnson (68).
Reed — who let a three-stroke lead on the back nine slip away — missed a chance to win it on the first playoff hole, the par-4 18th.
Spieth recovered from a terrible drive and saved par with a snaking 25-foot putt.
Reed pushed his 7-foot birdie putt wide of the hole, sending it to a second extra hole.
“I don’t even know how I was still playing (the second playoff hole) after what happened on 18,” Spieth said.
Spieth and Huh both caught Reed at 14 under down the stretch in regulation.
At roughly the same time Reed bogeyed the par-3 16th, Spieth birdied the par-4 17th and closed with a par. Huh quickly slipped off the pace after finishing with two bogeys.
Reed, who led or shared the lead after the second and third rounds, also could have won it in regulation after landing his approach shot on the 18th in the center of the green.
But he left his approximately 20-foot birdie putt short and tapped in to force the playoff.
At the end of the day, the leaderboard looked much like it did at the start — tightly bunched. Eight players began the round within two strokes of the lead.
Reed compared the scenario to a Monday qualifier, and he knows plenty about those: he earned his spots in six tournaments last year by playing well in those 18-hole Monday rounds.
For the second straight day, organizers tried to beat the rain by starting the round early, sending players off in threesomes from the first and 10th tees. The skies were ominously overcast all day, but the saturated course didn’t receive any rain.
And unlike the third round — in which only 13 players broke par — scores were significantly lower on the water-logged Sedgefield course, and that turned the final 18 holes into a shootout.
Jones birdied five consecutive holes and six of seven during his best round of the year.
“Every golfer out here can go and shoot that,” Jones said.
Jones and Simpson, the 2011 winner who shot a 63, led the 52 players who shot better than even-par 70 during the final round.
“You really couldn’t tell that the greens got any rain,” Simpson said. “They were still as fast today as I’ve ever seen them.”
At one point early in the round, five players — Reed, Every, Harman, Huh and Johnson — shared the lead at 10 under and six others were within two strokes of them.
It wound up being a mostly fruitless week for the players on the playoff bubble who missed their last chance to push their way into The Barclays next week.
Nobody who started the week outside the top 125 managed to make it in. Each of the players at Nos. 126-132 missed the cut, and No. 133 Robert Streb finished at 3 under but could only jump to 126th.
Champions Tour
ENDICOTT, N.Y. — Bart Bryant has won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, becoming the 1,000th tournament champion on the Champions Tour.
Bryant, who shot a tournament record-tying 10-under 62 in the second round, completed his first victory on the senior tour with a closing 72 and finished at 16-under 200 to beat Russ Cochran and Corey Pavin by one shot.
Cochran closed with a 67, and Pavin shot 69.
Duffy Waldorf shot 69, and Savannah’s Gene Sauers had a 67 to finish in a tie for fourth, another shot back. Sauers (69-66-67, 14 under) had five birdies and no bogeys Sunday.
First-round leader Kenny Perry shot a 68 to tie for seventh at 12 under. He was one shot better than Bernhard Langer and extended his lead over Langer in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
Bryant’s four-stroke lead over Pavin after two rounds was the largest 36-hole margin in the tournament’s brief history and he needed it on an erratic day.
Solheim Cup
PARKER, Colo. — The Europeans wanted to make history by winning the Solheim Cup on American soil for the first time.
They did even better than that.
Caroline Hedwall became the first player in Solheim Cup history to win all five of her matches, the last one with a splendid shot to 4 feet for birdie on the 18th for a 1-up win over Michelle Wie that assured Europe of keeping the cup.
More than an hour later, Cristie Kerr and Karine Icher played all the way to the 18th green until conceding each other birdies. That half-point made it 18-10 in favor of Europe, the biggest blowout since the Solheim Cup began in 1990.
And the Europeans did it with six rookies on their team, who combined to go 12-5-2.
Europe still trails 8-5 in the competition, but this was the first time it has won back to back.
Catriona Matthew, at 43 the oldest player on the team, rallied to halve her match against Gerina Piller that gave Europe 14½ points and an outright win in America.
Charley Hull, the youngest player in Solheim Cup history at 17, capped off her amazing week by demolishing Paula Creamer in a match that set the tone for Europe. Carlota Ciganda handed Morgan Pressel her first lost in singles in four appearances to go 3-0 for the week.
Not even a one-hour delay due to lightning in the area could damper this European celebration. Suzann Pettersen was lining up her putt on the 16th hole when she heard the cheers from the 18th, got the news and began pumping her fist.
Europe won 17 holes during that three-hole stretch this week, compared with 10 for the Americans.
Web.com Tour
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Peter Malnati won the News Sentinel Open for his first Web.com Tour title, birdieing five of the last seven holes for a one-stroke victory.
Malnati, a former University of Missouri player from Dandridge, Tenn., closed with a 5-under 65 for a 16-under 268 total at Fox Den Country Club. He earned $99,000.
Savannah’s Mark Silvers tied for 30th at 7 under (69-70-69-69).
U.S. Amateur
BROOKLINE, Mass. — Matt Fitzpatrick has won the U.S. Amateur, beating Oliver Goss 4 and 3 in the 36-hole final to become the first English champion of the tournament since 1911.
Fitzpatrick won when Goss missed a par putt on No. 15 at The Country Club. The event came on the 100th anniversary of local caddie Francis Ouimet’s landmark U.S. Open victory over British pros Harry Vardon and Ted Ray.
With the victory, Fitzpatrick earns an exemption for the U.S. Open and British Open and a likely invitation to the Masters. Fitzpatrick was the low amateur at the British Open.
Fitzpatrick, who will be a freshman at Northwestern this fall, had 14-year-old brother Alex as his caddie. Goss used fellow Australian — and semifinal opponent — Brady Watt.