Kevin Tway birdied the first hole of the playoff to defeat Spencer Levin at the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft at the Hillcrest Country Club in Boise, ID on Sunday afternoon. Both Tway and Levin finished at 23-under for the tournament, breaking the tournament record for lowest winning score. The previous mark of 22-under was set last year by Luke Guthrie.
Levin played an almost flawless tournament and was the clubhouse leader at 22-under when he finished his round with a bogey-free eight-under 63. It was his second consecutive bogey-free round and third for the tournament. He shot a five-under 66 yesterday and his only bogey of the tournament came on his 12th hole on Friday, the Par-5 third, dropping at that moment to eight-under.
When he looks back, that lone bogey was the difference between winning and losing for him.
Tway was the most impressive when it counted, on Sunday. He also shot a bogey-free round today, a seven-under 64. But it was the birdie-eagle-birdie stretch during holes Nos. 15, 16 and 17 that matched him with Levin and allowed him with the par on 18th to go to a playoff.
During the weekend, Tway played a fantastic 15-under. On Saturday he had a tremendous round going, with nine birdies heading into the 18th hole. But he bogeyed the hole and finished with an eight-under 63. He started the day T-3rd while Levin was T-9th.
Three players finished T-3rd at 22-under: Web.com Tour money leader Michael Putnam, Australian Bronson La'Cassie and third-round leader Philip Pettitt Jr.
Putnam, a two-time winner this year who leads the money list, also had a bogey-free round, an eight-under 63 and was the clubhouse leader when he finished his round. La'Cassie made a rally with four consecutive birdies starting on the 14th hole but fell one short of the playoff, finishing with a bogey-free 65.
Pettitt Jr started on the lead, but knew he had to go low to have a chance to win today. He was even-par for the day after he made his second bogey of the day at the Par-4 11th. He would give a strong effort with four consecutive birdies from the 13th hole, but just like La'Cassie couldn’t make one more down the final holes and finished one short of the playoff.
A group of six players finished two shots behind at 20-under in a T-6th. The group included three winners on teh Tour this year, Ben Martin (United Leasing Championship), Jamie Lovemark (Midwest Classic) and Will Wilcox (South Georgia Classic) who shot the other 59 this season at the Utah Championship two weeks ago. Hunter Haas, Matt Bettencourt and Jason Allred also finished in that group T-6th.
Scotland’s Russell Knox, who shot a 59 on Friday to match the tour record, closed with a 69 to finish T-12th at 19 under.
Tway won the 2005 U.S. Junior Amateur and is the son of former PGA Tour and current Champions Tour player Bob Tway, who won eight times on the PGA, including the 1986 PGA Championship. He earned $139,500 for his win today and now moves into sixth position on the money list at the Web.com tour.
Other notable moves on the money list include Levin who is now in 46th place thanks to his second-place finish and La'Cassie, whose T-3rd places him just outside the Top 25 in 26th place.
Next up in the Web.com Tour is on Thursday the Mylan Classic from Southpointe Golf Club in Canonsburg, PA. It offers a purse of $675,000 with a winning Share of $121,500.