Piercy gets second win in three weeks at NE Pennsylvania Classic
MOSCOW, Pa. -- Scott Piercy figured he needed a 63 in Sunday's final round of the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic to reach the winner's circle. He was wrong. His 6-under 64 was good enough to make up a four-stroke deficit on the 54-hole leader and earn his second victory in three weeks.
| Inside the Numbers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Piercy's Final Stats | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Piercy, a 29-year old Las Vegas resident posted his 13-under-par 267 total and then waited a full hour to see if anyone would match it or better it. Nobody did. The former San Diego State standout pocketed $94,500, pushing him from No. 35 to No. 12 on the money list and locking up a spot on the 2009 PGA TOUR, where he'll be a rookie.
Cameron Percy (66) and Brendon de Jonge (68), last week's winner, tied for second place, two shots back. Jeff Gallagher (66), Rich Barcelo (68) and Canadian Brad Fritsch (67) tied for fourth, three behind.
Piercy becomes the Nationwide Tour's third multiple winner in 2008, joining Australian Jarrod Lyle and 2007 U.S. Amateur champion Colt Knost. A third win for any of the three will result in an instant promotion to the TOUR.
"It's been amazing," said Piercy, who won the Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open two weeks ago and finished tied for sixth at last week's Xerox Classic. "I felt it's been coming, even when I was 123 on the money list. I tweaked a couple of things, which is mainly taking the bogeys out. The last three weeks I've been taking the bogeys out of play. When you do that, along with making a lot of birdies, you've got a chance at winning.
Piercy didn't look like he had much of a chance Sunday. He bogeyed the par-3 ninth to turn the front nine at Elmhurst Country Club at even-par, and four strokes back of the leaders.
"The lead was 11 under and nobody was moving," he said. "There was only one or two guys at 11 and only guy at 10, and I was playing with him (Brad Fritsch).
Piercy snuck up the leaderboard, starting with a 15-foot eagle putt at the par-5 11th. He then quickly added four birdies in the next five holes, including a 40-footer at No. 15. And just like that, he was 13 under and in sole possession of the lead.
"The hole finally opened up for me. Going into today I was third in greens in regulation but I had seven three-putts," said Piercy, who actually had only three officially, though with an average of 30 putts for each of the first three rounds it may have seemed like more. "The course is a little quirky. It can bite you in spots where you don't think it can. It's a course where you have to be really patient. The putts have to start falling sometime. I was just waiting for it to open."
Piercy closed with a couple of pars and then waited out the tension-packed final day that saw a half-dozen share the lead at one point.
One by one the challengers failed. First it was the Australian Percy. Then Fritsch. Then Barcelo. And finally de Jonge, who was only one back after 11 holes but bogeyed No. 14 and settled for four pars to close his day. That left Piercy alone at the top.
Fourth-Round News & Notes: The Nationwide Tour will take a one-week break before moving to Salt Lake City for the Utah Championship Sept. 4-7. ... With his second-place finish this week, Brendon de Jonge takes over the No. 1 spot on the money list from Jarrod Lyle, who missed the cut. De Jonge leads Lye by $4,090. Lyle has held the top spot for a total 16 weeks this year. ... Sunday's scoring average was an even-par 70.000. The scoring average for the week was 70.230. ... Cameron Percy jumps from No. 89 to No. 52 with his tie for second.
Get the best deals on the best equipment all at the SHOP.PGATOUR.COM.
MOBILE
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network