Date: September 12, 2016
Author: Mark Hayes

Bryson salutes, but Aussies handy on Web.com

Bryson DeChambeau wasn't meant to take this route, but he has reached his destination just the same.

The former boom amateur won his first professional title today, surviving a four-way playoff to win the first Web.Com Tour finals series event in Ohio.

Victory ensures the American, already famous for his revolutionary Cobra clubs, will tee it up on the US PGA Tour next season.

Seven Australians began the four-week finals series with the same mission in mind – and only one has done damage to their hopes of a main tour card.

Emirates Australian Open champion Matt Jones withdrew after an opening 73, but the other six are all either in, or within reach of, the top 25 who will advance in addition to the 25 who've already earned their PGA playing rights.

Veteran Queenslander Rod Pampling closed with a pair of 68s to finish T10 and just three back from the playoff and alongside Victorian Cam Percy, who closed with a 70 today.

Stuart Appleby's weekend didn't plan out as he'd hoped, but a final-round 73 was still good enough for a T16 finish, while Brett Drewitt (70), Cam Smith (70) and Rhen Gibson (73) were all T28.

Five players above that mark have already earnt their 2016/17 cards, meaning the Aussies are all right in the hunt.

DeChambeau shot a final-round 71 to reach the playoff. He and Andres Gonzales moved onto a second sudden-death hole with birdies before DeChambeau won with a par on the next hole.

DeChambeau, who won the 2015 US Amateur and NCAA Championship, made a splash at this year's Masters, where he finished T-21. The following week, he finished T-4 in his first event as a pro at the RBC Heritage.

But the rest of the season didn't come so easy.

He missed four consecutive cuts after that and only had one more top-30 finish, a T-15 at the US Open.

Another big name, England's Andrew "Beef" Johnston still has work to do if he wants to grab one of the remaining cards after finishing T28.