Gay triumphs as Stallings crumbles

Last updated: 21st January 2013

Brian Gay notched up his fourth PGA Tour title when he won the Humana Challenge in a play-off.

Scot Stallings headed into the final round of the tournament with a five-shot lead, but a late capitulation saw him finish on 24-under, one shot behind the trio of Gay, David Lingmerth and Charles Howell III who contested the play-off.

All three men found the fairway on the first play-off hole, the 18th, but while Gay and Howell III managed pars, Lingmerth dropped out of contention after finding the water with his second shot.

Gay was solid on the second play-off hole, the par four 10th, finding the green in two while his opponent first found the rough and then the greenside bunker. As a result, Howell III was unable to make his par while Gay notched up a birdie to take the title.

For much of the early running it appeared that Stallings would see off the challenge of the trio as he produced three straight birdies from the second to the fourth. A bogey at the seventh saw him take the turn in 34 but two further birdies followed on ten and eleven.

However, it all fell apart for the American who first bogeyed the 16th and then the final hole to see him miss out on the play-off after the chasing pack had posted a clubhouse score of 25-under.

Gay (63), Lingmerth (62) and Howell III (64) all notched up some of the low rounds of the day in order to catapult themselves into contention.

"I'm still in a little bit of shock," Gay told the official PGA Tour website. "It kind of happened so fast there at the end the way things went down. Last year was a struggle. It was a long year, a lot of work. I just wanted to come out this year kind of refocused, recharged, and believing in myself."