Herman wins maiden PGA title in Houston

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Jim Herman claimed his first PGA Tour title after surviving a final-round challenge from Henrik Stenson at the Houston Open.

Herman, who had never tasted success in 105 prior PGA events, shot a four-under 68 to finish one stroke clear of Stenson on 15-under.

The world number 191 was the joint overnight leader with Jamie Lovemark when he began his round, and got off to a solid start by posting two birdies in his opening four holes.

However, Stenson quickly emerged as a contender, briefly taking the outright lead with a birdie at the tenth before going toe-to-toe with Herman down the back nine.

It was Herman who struck the decisive blow, though, producing a chip-in birdy from off the 16th green to move ahead and then posting pars over the final two holes to secure victory.

“Never thought it was possible," admitted Herman, who has now qualified for next month’s Masters.

“My caddie, Matt, he was right there for me all day. We had a good game plan.

"Sorry for the tears but I’m pretty happy. Matt and I, we really did a good job keeping our game plan.

"We hit a lot of 3-woods, I’m sure you everyone was wondering about that but, you know, we wanted to give ourselves as many birdie chances as we could and keep it low stress and, jeeze, look what happened."

Dustin Johnson finished third, two strokes back after a closing 69, while Rafa Cabrera Bello climbed to fifth after a final round 65. World number two Jordan Spieth will head into the defence of his Masters title on the back of finishing in a tie for 13th.

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