RUSSELL KNOX BEATEN IN HOOTERS TOUR PLAY-OFF

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

A bogey at the very last hole cost Russell Knox $5,400 - the difference between first and second prize in this week's NGA Hooters Tour winter series 54-hole competition at Deer Island Golf Club, Tavares in Florida.

The Inverness exile and former Scotland youth cap, who stayed on in Florida after four years at Jacksonville University, was two shots ahead of the field with only the 54th hole to play.

But Russell, pictured, bogeyed it and his nearest rival, Cliff Kresge from Kingsport, Tennessee, birdied it, meaning a two-stroke swing in the American's favour, which enabled him to tie on 13-under-par 203 with Knox.

Kresge then won a sudden-death play-off to pocket the $10,670 top prize while Knox was left to contemplate the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune - as William Shakespeare would have put it - as he drove home to Jaccksonville Beach with the runners-up cheque for $5,238.

Knox's rounds over the par-72, 7,029yd course, were 67, 66 and 70 - he had a double bogey 6 at the sixth in his closing round - while Kresge scored 67, 69 and 67.

England's Chris Paisley, a member of the 2009 Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team at Merion and now a professional, finished joint 11th on 211 (70-72-69) and earned $1,866.

Former Scotland boy international Robert McKnight, now based at Sunrise, Florida, missed the 36-hole cut by two shots with scores of 73 and 74 for 147.

LPGA Tour player Brittany Lincicome, the first female to play on the Hooters Tour, also missed the cut on 151 (74-77).
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3x72). Yardage 7,029.
203 Cliffe Kresge (Tennessee) 67 69 67, Russell Knox (Scotland) 67 66 70 (Kresge, $10,670), beat Knox, $5,238, in play-off).
204 Brian Harman (Georgia) 67 68 69 ($4,349).
Selected total:
211 Chris Paisley (England) 70 72 69 ($1,866).
MISSED CUT  (144 or better)
147 Robert McKnight (Scotland) 73 74.
151 Brittany Lincicome (US) 74 77.