SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Tennessee left-hander Eric Axley won the Texas Open for his first PGA Tour title Sunday, closing with a 1-over 71 for a three-stroke victory.

The 32-year-old Axley had a stretch of 53 consecutive holes without a bogey or worse on the par-70 Resort Course at LaCantera Golf Club. The string ended with a double bogey on the 14th and he went on to finish at 15-under 265.

Three players finished at 12 under, including 21-year-old Anthony Kim. Playing in his first PGA Tour event with a sponsor’s exemption, Kim shot a 65 to tie for second with Dean Wilson (69) and first-round leader Justin Rose (68).

From La Quinta, Calif., Kim skipped his senior year at Oklahoma and played in two events on the Nationwide Tour with a best finish of 57th.

Axley earned $720,000 to push his season total to $924,029.

After winning on the Nationwide Tour last year, his best finishes this year had been a pair of 24th-place ties in Tucson and the B.C. Open.

Axley built a six-shot lead heading into the back nine. But the double bogey on 14 after he drove into the trees cut it briefly to two.

Wilson missed the 15th green and dumped his pitch shot short. His bogey put Axley up by three.

Axley bogeyed the par-3 17th for a two-stroke lead, but he sank a 4-footer for birdie to seal the win on the final hole.

Axley built an imposing lead on his fourth hole of the day. He went to the No. 4 tee with a three-shot lead and left the green with a six-shot margin.

He found his first fairway of the day with a tee shot to the left side of the 434-yard hole. He landed his approach on the green and was left with a 27-foot putt.

He waited while his closest competitor, Frank Lickliter II, blasted from a green-side bunker. But Lickliter hit to a part of the green that sloped back to the fairway, and his ball rolled at least 20 feet off the putting surface.

He double-bogeyed, and Axley made his 27-footer for a birdie and a commanding six-shot advantage.

If Lickliter’s troubles weren’t enough, Ted Purdy was in the same group and was four behind Axley starting the fourth hole. But he sent his tee shot into an unplayable lie on the way to a quadruple-bogey 8.

Chris Riley, a member of the U.S. team at the 2004 Ryder Cup, drew to four shots behind Axley after an 8-foot birdie at the fifth.

But Riley pulled his approach shot on the 370-yard eighth hole about 80 feet off the green, and it took him five shots to get in the hole for a triple bogey.

Lickliter dug himself a deeper hole when he went for the green on the par-4, 324-yard seventh hole. But he drove his tee shot through the fairway and out of play and fell to his second double bogey in four holes.

Copy the Story Link