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Will Zalatoris has won the FedEx St Jude Championship for his first PGA Tour success, beating Sepp Straka on the third playoff hole in Memphis.
American Will Zalatoris has finally shed his tag as golf's nearly man with a tense victory at the FedEx St Jude Championship as Cameron Smith's bid to become world No.1 ended in heartbreak.
Needing to win to supplant Scottie Scheffler from the top of the rankings, Smith never recovered after receiving a retrospective two-stroke penalty at the PGA Tour's opening playoff event in Memphis.
Smith ultimately finished in a tie for 13th at nine under par, six strokes behind Zalatoris, who denied Austrian Sepp Straka on the third hole of a wild sudden-death playoff at TPC Southwind.
After runner-up finishes in three major championships over the past 16 months, plus two playoff defeats already this season, Zalatoris is no longer the best on the PGA Tour without a victory.
"It's hard to say, 'About time,' when it's your second year on tour, but it's about time," Zalatoris said.
"Considering all those close finishes, it means a lot."
He could have been referring to his runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in the Masters last year, playoff losses at Torrey Pines and at Southern Hills in the PGA Championship, and most recently the putt that burned the edge of the cup that kept him from a US Open playoff.
This one could have gone either way, a playoff that featured three penalty drops in three holes, neither player making birdie and Zalatoris winning on the par-3 11th with a bogey after both finished regulation play at 15 under.
Nothing was more wild than the final hole.
His tee shot hit the bank and then bounced seven times on the rocks before coming to rest. Straka followed with a shot that hit the bank, took one bounce off the rocks and went into the water.
Straka went to the drop zone and his wedge went into the back bunker. He played his fourth shot out to four feet as Zalatoris was still going over his options.
He went to the drop zone, hit to seven feet and let his raised hands drop over his head in relief when he made the winning putt to move into the world's top 10 for the first time and taking the No.1 spot in the FedExCup, assuring him a reasonable shot at the $US18 million ($A25m) prize in two weeks.
Smith's hopes were all but scuppered even before he teed off on Sunday, after officials docked him two strokes for playing a ball from the wrong place on the fourth hole in round three.
After finding the water on the par three, the world No.2 took a drop and incorrectly played his third shot with his ball touching a hazard line.
Officials handed Smith the penalty after the recently crowned British Open champion admitted to being unaware he wasn't allowed to play the ball with it touching the red line.
Instead of starting Sunday two shots off the lead, Smith began four strokes back at nine under in a tie for 14th and never looked like bridging the gap.
Countryman Adam Scott carded a fine final-round four-under 66 to finish tied fifth at 11 under and vault from 77th to 45th in the FedExCup race to seal his place in the second playoff event.
Fellow Australians Cam Davis (51st), Lucas Herbert (54th) and Marc Leishman (68th) also made the 70-man cut for the BMW Championship.
But Jason Day's season is over after the former world No.1 missed the halfway cut in Memphis.
With AP.
