Rookie Kaufman's first Web.com Tour title
EWBURGH, Indiana -- Rookie Smylie Kaufman won the United Leasing Championship by five strokes Sunday for his first Web.com Tour title.
Kaufman,
the 23-year-old former Louisiana State University student rom Birmingham, Alabama, had two
double bogeys on the back nine in a closing 1-over 73 to finish at
10-under 278 at Victoria National.
He matched the course record with a 64 on Saturday to take a four-stroke lead into the final round.
"I'm
blown away. Shocked," Kaufman said. "I still can't comprehend it all,
but I'm so excited about getting the win. It wasn't perfect. I made
mistakes all week. I just stayed composed and believed in what I was
doing."
Kaufman earned $108,000 to jump from 28th to fourth on the
money list with $159,535. He was coming off consecutive fourth-place
ties in the Louisiana Open and Mexico Championship after missing the
cuts in his first three starts of the year.
He birdied Nos. 2-4 to take an eight-stroke lead at 14 under.
"When
I got on the sixth, I already felt like I had won," Kaufman said. "I
had to refocus. I looked at the leaderboard and knew I still had a lot
of holes to play. That's a big lead and the tendency is to tune out at
that point."
He had the double bogeys on the par-4 12th and par-3 16th.
"I
really didn't eat much for lunch and I was out of gas," Kaufman said.
"I was eating energy bars and drinking Gatorade for those holes. I
started getting my energy back and started hitting better golf shots."
Jonathan Randolph (69), Adam Long (73) and Ryan Spears (74) tied for second.
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