ANOTHER JIMMY GUNN LAST ROUND SAG - FINISHES JT 42ND

• WHEATCROFT WINS BOISE OPEN PLAY-OFF

  • FROM THE WEB.COM TOUR WEBSITE
    By Joe Chemycz, PGATOUR.COM
• Steve Wheatcroft won the Albertsons Boise Open on Sunday. (Stan Badz/PGA TOUR)

BOISE, Idaho – Steve Wheatcroft rolled in 10-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to beat Steven Alker and win the 25th Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco. The pair battled back and forth during a pressure-packed Sunday at Hillcrest Country Club and wound up tied at 24-under par after regulation play.
Wheatcroft watched as Alker’s 30-foot birdie try stopped a couple feet short of the cup and then calmly stepped up and canned the putt to change his season, and perhaps his career, around.
“This is unbelievable. I’m just speechless,” said the 36-year old from Jacksonville, Florida, who won for the second time in his career. 
 “I’ve been playing so badly this year that I thought I might be done. I lost all belief.”
Wheatcroft, with his first child due next month, may have hit bottom earlier this summer and thought about quitting but rediscovered his game at last week’s Utah Championship where he finished T21 after opening with rounds of 65-66.
“There’s something about this place,” said Wheatcroft, runner-up to Luke Guthrie here in 2012. “It started to sink in a few weeks ago that if I didn’t start playing better I’d have to find something else to do. I knew I had to keep fighting and I had some good tournaments ahead of me. I really thought I was going to win this week.”
Wheatcroft started the final day two shots back of Alker, who broke the tournament’s 54-hole record with a 20-under 195 total.
The Indiana grad closed the gap quickly on his playing partner with a pair of birdies followed by a 50- to 60-foot eagle putt on the third hole to wrest control of the lead away from the transplanted New Zealander .
Alker, steady and methodical, regained a share of the lead with birdies at Nos. 9 and 10 and went two up when Wheatcroft chalked up back-to-back bogeys at 12 and 13.
“Had the lead and had a good-looking lead and I got ahead a little bit. Walking to 14 I way trying not to hang my head,” said Wheatcroft. “It was a good lesson going forward. I had to get back in the mindset to make birdies because out here nobody is going backwards.”
Rookie Justin Thomas put a charge on late and posted a 65 to reach 22-under, good for solo third place.
Indiana rookie Chase Wright (66), No. 2 money winner Andrew Putnam (66) and second-round co-leader Zack Sucher (70) all made their presence known but wound up tied for fourth, five off the pace.
That left the stage to the final duo of Wheatcroft and Alker as they punched and counter-punched.
Wheatcroft birdied 14 and 15 and regained the lead when Alker three-putted No. 15 for a bogey. Alker, winner of the Cleveland Open earlier this year, responded with a birdie at the par-5, 16th to tie for the lead again at 23-under.
The pair then traded birdie putts on the par-3, 17th – with Wheatcroft rolling his in from 12 feet and Alker responding with one of his own from 10 feet.
“He followed me right in there,” said Wheatcroft. “That’s the way it should be. It’s fun to be in a good battle like that.”
After missing lengthy birdie putts on the final hole the pair headed back to the 18th tee for the fifth playoff in tournament history and the second in as many years.
“It was a right edge putt and I wasn’t sure if I hit it hard enough,” said Wheatcroft of the winner. “I had a similar putt in regulation so that helped. I knew what it was going to do at the end.
The victory for Wheatcroft, his first since capturing the 2011 Melwood Prince George’s County Open by a Tour-record 12 strokes, was worth $144,000 and vaulted him from No. 89 to No. 11 on the money list and guaranteed him to return trip to the PGA TOUR in 2015.
“I’ve had an awful year and now I’ve had two good weeks and now it’s a good year,” said Wheatcroft. “With a baby on the way you worry about where the money is going to come from. That check is going to pay for a lot of diapers.”
Dornoch's Jimmy Gunn has lost the knack of stringing FOUR good rounds together. He keeps producing three but not the vital fourth one. 
While all the contenders and big money winners were shooting many under par in the Boise Open final round, Gunn could produce "only" a par-71. 
On the Web-com Tour, par rounds mean you lose ground, certainly on the final day.
Gunn finished joint 42nd on 13-under-par 271 after rounds of 67, 69, 67 and 71. He birdied the second, bogeyed the short eighth, birdied the 16th and, not for the first time, bogeyed the 18th.
Thirteen-under-par sounds a very good 72-hole total but the fact that Jimmy finished way down in a share of 42nd place, underlines the high standards on the Web.com Tour.
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 284 (4x71)
260 Steve Wheatcroft (USA) 64 66 65 65, Steven Alker (New Zealand) 62 66 65 67 (Wheatcroft won sudden-death playoff
262 Justin Thomas (USA) 68 65 64 65
SELECTED TOTAL
271 Jimmy Gunn (Scotland) 67 69 68 71 (T42).
 

FINAL ROUND NOTES:
• Sunday weather: Mostly sunny, partly cloudy by mid-afternoon. Wind: Calm in the morning, NE 5 mph in the afternoon. High of 97 degrees.

• Wheatcroft earns his second win in his 129th Web.com Tour start.
• Wheatcroft picks up a check for $144,000 to push his season total to $179,365. He jumps from No. 89 to No. 11 on the money list after 16 of 21 regular season events.
• Wheatcroft wins at the age of 36 years, 4 months and 29 days.
• Wheatcroft has made the cut in 7 of 15 starts on the Web.com Tour this year. This is his fourth top-25 finish but his first top-10.

• Wheatcroft played full time on the PGA TOUR in 2007, 2010 and 2012 and has made 29 cuts in 79 career starts. He has not made a start on TOUR this year and made only one in 2013 (T22/Shell Houston Open). His career-best finish is a T3 at the 2010 Puerto Rico Open.

• Wheatcroft posted scores of 64-66-65-65 this week, giving him 26 of 28 par-or-better scores at Hillcrest CC. His only two hiccups were 1-over 72’s in the final rounds in 2006 and 2009. Wheatcroft has posted scores in the 60s in his last 17 rounds at the Albertsons Boise Open.
• Wheatcroft and Steven Alker bettered the tournament’s 72-hole record of 23-under par, which was set by last year’s playoff participants Spencer Levin and champion Kevin Tway.
. • Runner-up Steven Alker collected a check for $86,400 and moved from No. 19 to No. 9 on the money list. Alker, now has earned $211,580 and will be returning to the PGA TOUR next year. The 42-year old Phoenix-area resident played the TOUR full-time in 2003 and has made 40 career starts. His best finish came at the 2003 Buick Invitational where he finished solo 17th. Alker qualified for The Open Championship in 2012 and finished T19.

• Wheatcroft led the field with 27 birdies.
• Alker finished T1 in total putts with 105 while Steve Wheatcroft was 3rd with 106.

•NEXT UP: The Web.com Tour heads to the Kansas City area for the Midwest Classic at Nicklaus GC at LionsGate July 21-27. 
Last year, Jamie Lovemark earned his second career win with a one-stroke victory. Lovemark posted an 18-under 266 total to top Mark Anderson and collect a first-place check for $108,000.