Furyk has emotional win at RBC Heritage

This was the 2003 US Open champion's first win in his last 100 starts, his first win since 2010.

Jim Furyk produced 11 birdies on the final day to win the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town. The final two of these birdies came in the play-off with Kevin Kisner.

Both players birdied the first extra hole, the 18th. Then Furyk took the RBC Heritage title by birding the second extra hole, the par-3 17th.

As his 12ft putt went in this normally reserved man dropped the putter and punched the air. “There was a lot of pent-up frustrations," he admitted afterwards. This was the 2003 US Open champion's first win in his last 100 starts, his first win since 2010.

That year had been his best off his career, with three victories. That year he had won the Tour Championship, the FedExCup - and the RBC Heritage.

Since then, until now, nothing, “I was starting to feel like this game is beating me up, and the losing hurts a lot more than winning feels good," Furyk said.

Furyk had been slow out of the blocks, with 18 putts on the first day, leaving him five shots off the lead. But eight birdies in a second round 64 was followed by a 68 on the Saturday.

Furyk made six birdies on the front nine of his final round, including making a 48ft putt on the par-4 8th that took him top of the leaderboard.

A bogey on the 11th dropped Furyk into a four-way tie for first, but he responded with birdies on three of the next four holes.

However Kisner, whose second-place here is his best result on tour, birdied the 14th and 15th to pull within a stroke. He then drew level with a birdie on the 72nd hole after hitting his approach to 7ft, for a final day 64 to Furyk’s 63.

Overnight leader Troy Merritt shot a 69 and finished third at 16 under. Three of his four rounds in this tournament had been 69. The other, on Friday, was a course-equalling 61.

But on the final day when he hit his tee shot on 12 out of bounds he fell away with a double bogey, He rallied with an eagle on 16, when he holed his 115-yard approach, but this only got him to 15 under, by then this was three shots behind Furyk and two behind Kisner.

RBC Heritage Harbour Town Golf Links, Hilton Head, South Carolina April 16-19, 2015 Purse: $5,900,000, Par: 71

1 Jim Furyk (USA) 71 64 68 63 266 $1,062,000 2 Kevin Kisner (USA) 68 67 67 64 266 $637,200 3 Troy Merritt (USA) 69 61 69 69 268 $401,200 4 Brendon Todd (USA) 73 66 63 67 269 $283,200 5 Matt Kuchar (USA) 68 66 68 68 270 $236,000 6 Sean O'Hair (USA) 70 67 70 64 271 $212,400 T7 Branden Grace (SA) 70 67 66 69 272 $190,275 T7 Louis Oosthuizen (SA) 69 67 69 67 272 $190,275 T9 Morgan Hoffmann (USA) 68 68 69 68 273 $165,200 T9 Bo Van Pelt 69 68 67 69 273 $165,200 Note: Player score in bold signifies Titleist ball usage