Hooters Tour runner-up for second week in a row

DOUBLE BOGEY AT LAST

COSTS KNOX WIN IN US

A double-bogey 6 at the last hole saw Inverness exile Russell Knox finish runner-up today for the second week in a row on the NGA Hooters Tour golf circuit in the United States.
Knox, pictured by Cal Carson Golf Agency, led the field into the final round of the 72-hole F&S Asset Management Group Classic at Amelia National Golf & Country club at Fernandina Beach, Florida but a final round of 74 for a 10-under-par total of 278 saw him pipped by one shot for the $30,000 first prize by American Michael Welsh from Massachusetts.
Knox, who had bogeyed the third and fifth, regained his overnight one-stroke lead with birdies at the long seventh and 14th but a 6 at the par-4 18th - "I chunked it into the water," he said later - cost him dearly.
He had earlier rounds of 70, 66 and 68. He shared second place with Todd Bailey from Alabama and Philip Pettitt from Tennessee. Each earned $11,967.
In the first two weeks of the NGA Hooters regular season, Knox has now earned $25,174.
He finished the 2009 season as the third leading money-winner on the US satellite circuit with $95,252 to his credit.
Recently, Knox, who stayed on at Jacksonville Beach, Florida after four successful years on the US college golf circuit as a student at Jacksonville University, won the eGolf Tour's Palmetto Hall Championship, giving him his biggest single cheque ($34,306) as a pro golfer. He has won once on the Hooters Tour and reckons he has been second at least 10 times now.
Barring Glasgow's Martin Laird and Aberdeen-born Michael Sim on the US PGA Tour, Knox can claim to be the most successful Scot in American pro golf. And, in many ways, the standard of golf at the top of the tree on the Hooters Tour is as competitive as it gets.
Normally the winner of an event shoots around the 20 under par mark for a 54-hole event. This weekend's 11-under-par for 72 holes was abnormally low, suggesting the weather in Florida was not all that great for golf.
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72)
277 Michael Welsh (Massachusetts) 67 68 70 72 ($30,000).
278 Todd Bailey (Alabama) 71 67 73 67, Russell Knox (Scotland) 70 66 68 74, Philip Pettitt (Tennessee) 71 65 70 72 ($11,967 each).
281 Daniel Blades (Alabama) 69 71 70 71, Bruno Buccolo (Oklahoma) 69 69 71 72 ($7,275).