Jim Furyk won the Verizon Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina, beating England's Brian Davis at the first hole of a bizarre sudden-death playoff.
Playing with Furyk in the final round, the Englishman traded the lead with the American through the back nine. But, after bogeys at the 16th and 17th, Davis came to the 72nd hole trailing by one.
Davis fired a pin-point approach straight at the final flag and Furyk played safe, bailing out to the right of the green. The Englishman then rolled his birdie putt home leaving Furyk a testing four-foot putt to force extra holes. He duly sunk it and a playoff was required.
The pair returned to the 18th tee from where both found the fairway. Davis went first with his approach and lost it left. It ended on the beach alongside Calibogue Sound. Furyk sent his second long.
After Furyk had putted up reasonably close. Davis decided he had to take on the shot from amongst the reeds and grass in the hazard. He splashed out onto the green but immediately called over rules official Slugger White.
Davis felt he may have nudged a reed as he took his club back to play the shot and a quick look at the video replay confirmed this to be the case. Davis was penalised two strokes and he conceded the victory to Furyk.
"It was one of those things I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and I thought we'd check on TV and, indeed, there was movement," Davis said.
It was a strange finish to the tournament and Furyk was unsure how to react. "I want to react to the crowd and kind of wave and let them know, that 'Hey, I'm excited,' but I don't want it to take away from Brian," Furyk said. "It's obviously a tough loss for him and I respect and admire what he did."
Another Englishman Luke Donald finished tied for third with Bo Van Pelt.
Verizon Heritage Harbour Town Golf Links, South Carolina April 15-18, purse $5,700,000, par 71
1 Jim Furyk (USA) 67 68 67 69 271 $1,026,000 2 Brian Davis (Eng) 68 69 66 68 271 $615,600 T3 Luke Donald (Eng) 69 68 67 70 274 $330,600 T3 Bo Van Pelt (USA) 67 72 66 69 274 $330,600 T5 Ricky Barnes (USA) 69 69 66 71 275 $208,050 T5 Kris Blanks (USA) 70 68 69 68 275 $208,050 T5 Camilo Villegas (Col) 70 68 67 70 275 $208,050 T8 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 69 67 73 67 276 $159,600 T8 Rickie Fowler (USA) 68 72 69 67 276 $159,600 T8 Nick O'Hern (Aus) 69 72 64 71 276 $159,600 T8 Heath Slocum (USA) 70 67 67 72 276 $159,600
Note: Player scores in bold signifies Titleist ball usage only
