Piercy squeezes home in Reno

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Scott Piercy had to survive a drama-laden final round to capture his first US PGA Tour title at the Reno-Tahoe Open.

Scott Piercy had to survive a drama-laden final round to capture his first US PGA Tour title at the Reno-Tahoe Open in Nevada on Sunday.

And then it was only by a solitary stroke for which he had to make a seven-foot par putt on the last.

The overnight leader held his nerve and drained the putt to finish his round with a 2-under 70 and a 15-under 273 total that was just enough to keep him in front of fellow American Pat Perez, who had earlier fired a 4-under 68 to put pressure on Piercy.

Americans Steve Flesch and Blake Adams finished two shots behind the leader at 13-under 275 to tie for third.

Piercy’s finish was anything but cool, calm and collected, his tee shot on the 18th flying far right and finishing up against a cart path on the 616-yard par five.

The Nevada native was nevertheless able to reach the green in three shots, but then, not only missed his birdie, but set up that seven-foot testing putt he needed to seal victory.

“Having to two-putt is not easy,” Piercy told media after learning that his victory had earned him a spot in this week’s PGA Championship in Atlanta.

“We had vacation plans next week but I’ll happily have to cancel. I’m so excited.”

Piercy had a two-stroke lead over fellow American Josh Teater going into Sunday’s final round and while he birdied his first hole he was never able to break away from the chasing pack.

In the group ahead, Perez made back-to-back birdies at the 12th and 13th and found himself tied atop the leaderboard at 15-under when Piercy bogeyed the 14th.

But Perez also stumbled, hitting a poor second shot to bogey the 17th and leave the door open for Piercy to win with a closing par when he failed to get back into the race with a birdie at the last.

TOP 10 LEADERBOARD
273 Scott Piercy (USA) 72 70 61 70
274 Pat Perez (USA) 73 68 65 68
275 Steve Flesch (USA) 68 69 70 68, Blake Adams (USA) 67 72 67 69
276 Jim Renner (USA) 74 69 65 68
277 Matt McQuillan (Can) 71 69 71 66, Ben Martin (USA) 68 72 68 69, Steve Elkington (Aus) 73 65 68 71., Nick O’Hern (Aus) 65 72 69 71
278 Billy Horschel (USA) 71 70 70 67, Bryce Molder (USA) 72 71 68 67 (USA) Hunter Haas 70 67 72 69, Michael Letzig (USA) 70 69 70 69, Josh Teater (USA) 72 67 66 73

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