Marc Leishman held off a final-round charge from Justin Rose before completing a wire-to-wire victory at the BMW Championship in Chicago.
The 33-year-old Australian led by five shots after 54 holes. and looked in complete control until his advantage was suddenly cut to two shots when he bogeyed the 13th, shortly after Rose had made his sixth birdie of the day at the same hole.
But the leader got back on track with a birdie at 15, and he then matched Rose’s three at the next and, after the Englishman’s bogey at the 17th, Leishman made his 29th birdie at the final hole to close out a 67 and a five-shot victory on 23 under par.
Leishman, who moved up to fourth place in the FedExCup standings ahead of next week’s season finale at the Tour Championship, said: “I feel awesome about this, it’s a long week when you lead every day. It takes energy out of you. You shouldn’t get beat with a five-shot lead, but it got pretty close around the turn. But when the pressure got put on by Rosie, I reacted with birdies. I just tried to keep doing my own thing, give myself chances, and managed to roll a couple in there at the end which was nice, walking up the last there with a bit of a buffer.”
With Rose and Rickie Fowler finishing tied second on 18 under, Leishman’s compatriot Jason Day claimed outright fourth on 16 under, after a 69 left him one ahead of Jon Rahm and Matt Kuchar. Day parred the first seven holes, and then carded three consecutive birdies, before finding water from the tee at the short 11th and running up a double-bogey five. The former world No.1 then took six at the 14th, after a wild approach, birdied the next two, and closed with another bogey-six at the last as he attempted to keep pace with Rickie Fowler and playing-partner Rose.
Rahm held onto to the all-important fifth place in the FedExCup standings ahead of Fowler, after the Spaniard birdied four of the last five holes to return a 67, while Jordan Spieth retained top spot following a flawless 65, which earned him a tie for seventh on 13 under.
Sergio Garcia recorded a 69 – his fourth sub-70 score of the tournament – to book his place in the 30-man field at East Lake next week, but Rory McIlroy will not be defending his title in Atlanta after closing with a 71, which left him outside the top 50 on two under par.