Veteran Lewis storms to rare victory

TOUR VETERAN JL Lewis charged through the field with a final round 10-under-par 62 on Sunday to win the Pennsylvania Classic by two strokes.

The 43-year-old Kansas native with just one prior victory on the PGA Tour, finished on 22-under 266, a course record at Mystic Rock Golf Course.

Frank Lickliter II, Tim Petrovic and Australia’s Stuart Appleby finished tied for second on 268 with Rocco Mediate, Sweden’s Jesper Parnevik and third-round leader Cameron Beckman sharing fifth place on 271.

Heavy rain from the remains of Hurricane Isabel washed out play on Friday and the field completed the second round a day later before playing the final 36 holes on Sunday.

“When I started this tournament, I had aspirations of doing well, but I didn’t know it was going to be this good,” Lewis said. “I’m sure glad we came. I had fun out there.”

Lewis began the third round tied for 12th, three strokes off the lead of Robert Damron and Beckman. With a third-round 68, Lewis actually lost ground on the leaders, as several players shot 64s and 65s to move up the leaderboard.

Last week, Lewis held at least a share of the lead in each of the first three rounds of the John Deere before falling to Fiji’s Vijay Singh in the final round.

“I learned a lot last week,” Lewis said. “In the fourth round, I didn’t play as well as I’m capable, but I learned a lot. I watched Vijay and he won that thing easy.

“Nobody put any heat on him, but what I noticed the most was he didn’t put any heat on himself.”

Lewis put his education from the world’s number three golfer to good use. “So today, I was behind and I just wanted to keep getting into the flow of the game,” he said. “I just tried to keep my wits about me and go ahead and get it done.”

As the final round began, Lewis was tied for 11th and seven shots behind Beckman, now the sole leader. But Beckman faded badly in the final round, as did many of the players who gained ground in the morning round.

With an eagle and three birdies on the front nine holes, Lewis made the turn in five-under 31, birdied the next four but then bogeyed the 15th to fall back into a three-way tie on 20-under.

Another birdie at 16 saw him play a safe tee shot at the 17th to avoid water followed by an approach to about eight feet from where he drained the birdie putt for his first victory since the 1999 John Deere Classic.

“I’ve learned not to get down out here,” Lewis said.

“You can get pretty beat up if you play a lot and you don’t win a lot. So I just try to learn from the other players and from my own mistakes.

“I just kind of keep doing my own thing and I try to be best I can be. That’s how it goes.”