Hadley Bags First Tour Title


Chesson Hadley closed with a 4-under 68 to win the $3.5 million Puerto Rico Open for his first title on the PGA Tour. The 26-year-old rookie from Raleigh finished at 21-under 267 at Trump International Golf Club in Rio Grande.

Hadley held off a late charge by New Zealand's Danny Lee, who birdied the 13th, 15th and 16th holes to get within a stroke of the lead. But Hadley, a three-time All-American at Georgia Tech, closed with birdies on the final two holes to pull off the victory, earning $630,000 and 300 FedEx Cup points.

Hadley, who entered the final round with a two-stroke edge over Lee, said coping with the overnight lead wasn't easy. "I was so nervous," he said. "I did not eat well last night. I did not eat well this morning."

Despite the win, which will move him into the mid-60s in the new world golf ranking to be released Monday, Hadley isn't assured of a spot in the Masters. He still needs to move into the top-50 for that assurance and will have several chances to do that before the first major of the year starts in April.

But the victory did earn him an important two-year PGA Tour exemption and spots in the Players Championship, PGA Championship and Tournament of Champions

"It opens up a lot of doors. It guarantees me a major. I've never played in a major before," said Hadley.

Lee shot a 67 to take solo second at 19-under, The 2008 U.S. Amateur champion gave it his all but came up just short. "I really felt like I did my best. I gave it my best, but Chesson was just playing rock-solid," the 23-year-old said.

"He made a couple of good up-and-downs from bad tee shots. When he plays like that, it's just really hard to catch. He just didn't make any silly mistakes at all."

Ben Martin closed with a 66 to end up in third at 17-under, while another stroke back were Americans Wes Roach (67), Richard H. Lee 67), David Toms (69) and Jason Gore (70) and Sweden's Carl Pettersson (69).

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/puerto-rico-open-presented-by-seepuertorico-com/leaderboard.html.