Global Golf Post - October 3, 2011

MIDLAND, TEXAS I With the 2011 Nationwide Tour making the turn for home, players near the top of the money list come October probably have done what they’ve needed to do to earn a PGA Tour card for next year.

But those, say, near the final 10 of The 25? They know a big weekend can make things a whole lot more comfortable down the stretch.

It took extra work, but Danny Lee now has that extra breathing room. Lee beat rookie Harris English on the first playoff hole Sunday to win the WNB Golf Classic in Midland, Tex.

The former U.S. Amateur winner from

New Zealand was the No. 14 Nationwide Tour money-earner coming in, having recorded six top- 10 finishes. His first U.S. professional title puts him near the middle of the top 10 in winnings, and with four tournaments remaining this season, his PGA Tour card for 2012 looks much more secure.

A 62 Saturday at Midland Country Club
thrust English into contention, and he and
way to Danny Lee, seen here at the Chiquita Classic, picked up his first U.S. win at he WNB Golf Classic.

finish at 270 and force the playoff.

The players returned to No. 18, where English had made birdie on Saturday and Lee carded four pars. Another par for Lee won it when English made bogey.

The victory comes after Lee’s shortened weekend nine days earlier at the Nationwide Tour’s Soboba Golf Classic in California. He stopped playing halfway through his second round because of a wrist injury and was disqualified for not notifying event officials before leaving the course.

Lee’s U.S. Amateur win came in 2008, when – at 18 years, one month – he broke Tiger Woods’ record to become the youngest player to hold the title. His 5-and- 4 defeat of Drew Kittleson in the final at Pinehurst earned Lee a spot in The Masters in 2009, where he did not make the cut.

English, a 22-year-old University of Georgia product, was playing in his second tournament as a professional.

In July, as an amateur, he won the Nationwide’s Children’s Hospital Invitational in Columbus, Ohio. And in September he won both of his singles matches for the United States team at the 2011 Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland.

South African Garth Mulroy began the day tied for 28th place, but used an final-day, 8-un- der 64 to jump to third place at 16-under 272.

B.J. Staten held the 54-hole lead. But he bogeyed four holes (Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 9) on the front nine Sunday to fall from contention. Two more bogeys on the back nine left him in a four-player tie for 10th place.