Knox collects $16,671 for second

place finish on Hooters Tour

Inverness exile Russell Knox earned his biggest pay cheque yet on the Hooters Tour by finishing second on Sunday in the Dothan Classic at Highland Oaks Golf Club, Dothan in Alabama.

Jacksonville Beach-based Knox, who stayed on in Florida after four good years on the US college circuit as a student at Jacksonville University, shot rounds of 69, 71, 65 and 71 for a 12 under par total of 276 over a long course of some 7,591yd.

In a final round played in a rising wind, Knox closed within one shot of all-the-way leader Jim Rennie who scored 66, 70, 66 and 73 for 275 to win the $33,566 top prize.

The Scot started well enough on Sunday with birdies at the first and fifth but faltered with bogeys at the seventh, eighth and 10th before he found his touch again to birdie the 16th and 18th which lifted him back into second place.

Knox received $16,671 which boosted his Hooters Tour earnings for the season to $61,686 from 11 events in which he has missed only one cut

The pay-out topped the £12,455 he earned for finishing joint second in the Savannah Lakes Village Classic in April and the $11,013 he received for a third place finish in the more recent Texas Open.

Knox is now fourth in the Hooters Tour money table. He has been a steady earner since he turned pro on the American satellite tour.

LEADING TOTALS

Par 288 (4x72)

275 Jim Rennie 66 70 66 73 $33,566.

276 Russell Knox 69 71 65 71 $16,671.

277 Grant Leaver 72 71 67 67 $11,077.