Sweden's Vincent Norrman said he was proud of how he battled after defeating England's Nathan Kimsey with a par on the first play-off hole to win his first PGA Tour and DP World Tour victory at the Barbasol Championship.
After a blistering six-under par front-nine, PGA Tour rookie Vincent Norrman added one more birdie at the 15th before a final-hole bogey dropped him back alongisde Kimsey to set up a sudden-death play-off.
England's Kimsey, who made his PGA TOUR debut in this co-sanctioned event, had carded a flawless 64 to post the clubhouse target 22 under and waited to see whether it would be good enough to catch Norrman or 54-hole leader Trevor Cone.
But Cone faltered at the par-three 16th, and was unable to do better than a double bogey five, which dropped him back to 21 under par and gave Norrman a one stroke lead. Then Norrman hit a wayward tee shot of his own at the last, and with 57 yards still to go with his third, he missed the green and managed to get up and down, holing an eight-footer for bogey to force the play-off.
In the play-off Norrman, who played one year at Florida State after four years at Division II Georgia Southwestern, again went left off the tee, while Kimsey found thick rough on the right, and the bunker with his second. As Kimsey failed to get up-and-down, Norrman managed to get up and down for his par, which was enough to win his first Tour title in his 23rd career start.
"I mean, it's been a crazy week and obviously today, the first nine was almost flawless," said Norrman.
"Yeah, how I finished the front nine I'm really proud of, then hung in there on the back. I'm happy to be sitting here
"That's where I started back home in Sweden, to be on the putting green and dreaming of having the putt to win a PGA TOUR event. Now I'm here at 25 and it's amazing."
The Swede credited his caddie for keeping him calm both in regulation and in the play-off.
"I mean, it's tough, but my caddie was really good in keeping me in the moment. He was always giving me good words of encouragement and that kind of helped me a lot. We talked a lot about stuff other than golf and it kept me calm.
"He flared his a little bit right. We saw it was up in the rough, so just hit a bad shot in regulation there and we knew what to do. I hit a really good tee shot I thought. I had a pretty tough lie, downhill left to right usually comes out left on me and that kind of flared right. That was a pretty tricky chip as well and I just put a good strike on it and hit it up there close."
Cone shot 68 and finished one shot shy of the playoff alongside Frenchmam Adrian Saddier (66), who plays on the DP World Tour.
Veteran Lucas Glover, who led after the first and second rounds, finished alone in fifth at 20 under, his third consecutive top 10. The 43-year-old Glover shot 68 and extended his streak of rounds in the 60s to 12, all since switching to a long putter.
