| Forsman
wins with 72nd hole eagle Dan
Forsman eagled the 18th hole Sunday at the SEI Pennsylvania Classic to capture
his first PGA Tour victory in a decade.
One day removed from his course-record-tying
64, Forsman sank a 22-foot putt on the final hole to finish a bogey-free 6-under-par
65 in the final round and 14-under for the tournament. "Instinctively,
when you look up, you judge the speed of the ball and think, OK, that looks good,"
he said. "I had a sense in my heart that it was going to be a good putt."
Forsman, who
hadn't won since the 1992 Buick Open, finished one stroke ahead of defending champion
Robert Allenby and Billy Andrade, who led after the first three rounds. Forsman
also recorded birdies on Nos. 3, 5, 10, and 15. "I
didn't look at the leaderboard," he said. "I knew I was keeping pace
with the leaders. I felt if I could knock it on the (18th) green, maybe something
crazy could happen." Andrade
needed to birdie the 18th hole for the fourth consecutive day to force a playoff,
but his drive into a fairway bunker forced him to lay-up. His third shot from
195 yards landed 25 feet from the cup. The left-to-right putt for the tie fell
just 2 feet short. He tapped in for a 69. Allenby
was in sole possession of first place before bogeying the par-5 14th. His tee
shot into the rough above the front bunker on No. 17 - the site of his hole-in-one
the previous day - cost him a shot at a repeat. "To
tell the truth, the only thing I was disappointed in was my shot, my club into
17," Allenby said. "I hit a perfect shot, but it came up short and I
had no second shot." Allenby
had an eagle putt on the final hole, but left it a few inches short. He tapped
in for birdie and a 6-under 65. Andrade
first surrendered the lead to Allenby after a double-bogey on the 10th hole dropped
him back to 13-under. He had birdied four holes in a row and appeared ready to
pull away from the pack. That
changed when his drive on No. 10 sailed into the heavy right rough. "We
got to the tee and that rainstorm came in," Andrade said. "It was howling
left-to-right and it was a hard tee shot. I wasn't in synch there. These are the
reasons you win tournaments and lose tournaments." John
Huston shot a 4-under 67 on Sunday. His birdie attempt to move 13-under on No.
18 lipped-out. He finished with a 12-under 272, one stroke better than Olin Browne
and Jeff Sluman. Forsman
opened with a 2-over 73 in Thursday's first round, but secured the victory by
shooting 16-under the rest of the way. He took home $594,000 of a $3.3 million
purse for his victory. Email
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