Cotner gains two shot victory

Rookie Keoke Cotner posted a bogey-free, four-under 68 to win the Buy.com Oregon Classic at Shadow Hills Country Club on Sunday. Cotner's four-day total of 16-under-par 272 matched the 72-hole record for this event and left him two shots clear of Jody Bellflower and Tommy Biershenk.

Cotner, a native of Mexico who played his college golf at the University of North Texas, earned the winner's share of $72,000 and made the leap from 94th to 35th place on the season money list. The top-15 earners at the end of the season get to play on the 2001 PGA Tour.

The 29-year-old Cotner played bogey-free golf over each of the last three rounds and didn't drop a shot in 65 holes.

"I don't ever remember doing that," said Cotner, whose only bogey of the week came on his seventh hole of the opening round. "I think 18 holes is as far as I've gone before. They tell you to take it one shot at a time, one hole at a time. They're right. Looking back, I don't think I ever got ahead of myself all week."

Cotner became the 17th first-time winner on the Buy.com Tour this season and the fifth rookie to take home a trophy in 2000.

Bellflower, who began the day one shot behind Cotner, applied some early pressure on the leader with an eagle on the par-five fifth hole after Cotner birdied the second and third. Bellflower matched birdies with Cotner at the par-three eighth but could not make up any more ground as he went on to par the remaining 10 holes.

"I played solid and didn't make a bogey all day," said Bellflower, who carded a 69. "I did what I said I was going to do -- go for the middle of the greens, make no errors and wait on somebody to come to me. Keoke didn't miss a shot. You can't beat a man that can't be beat."

Cotner increased his edge to two shots when he sank a 12-footer for birdie at the par-four 17th.

Biershenk's final-round 66 saw him vault from 44th to 23rd on the money list with four events left on the schedule.

Jason Gore finished alone in fourth at 13-under, while Pat Perez and second-round leader Todd Barranger tied for fifth at minus-11.

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