Date: April 21, 2008
Author:

Lyle tied for seventh

American Robert Damron has stormed home to take out the Athens Regional Foundation Classic after beating Englishman Greg Owen in a playoff. Damron started the fourth round of the Nationwide Tour event in a tie for 11th position on five-under and five shots adrift of leaders Owen and countryman Brendon Todd. However, Damron proceeded to rattle off six birdies and record a scintillating six-under-par final round of 66 in a faultless display and ended up level with Owen on 11-under at the completion of the final day after he could only manage a one-under-par fourth round. Todd self-destructed on the fourth day as he registered a diabolical eight-over round of 80 which consisted of a staggering seven bogeys and a double-bogey to finish tied for 25th position on two-under. Jarrod Lyle was the best-placed Australian at the end of the tournament in a share of seventh spot on seven-under. Another American, Casey Wittenberg, ended up in outright third position on 10-under. Wittenberg also started the day in equal 11th spot with Damron and managed to score an impressive five-under fourth round. Final Round Scores from the Athens Classic Nationwide -11: Robert Damron* 70 69 72 66, Greg Owen 66 71 69 71 -10: Casey Wittenberg 69 72 70 67 -9: Roger Tambellini 75 69 68 67, Vance Veazey 72 72 67 68 -8: Bubba Dickerson 72 67 69 72 -7: Michael Putnam 66 71 72 72, Jarrod Lyle (Australia) 70 71 68 72 -6: Tom Johnson 68 74 68 72, Henrik Bjornstad 71 69 70 72, Joe Daley 70 69 70 73, Darron Stiles 68 73 67 74 -5: Ryan Palmer 70 73 71 69, Chad Ginn 73 71 69 70, Greg Chalmers (Australia) 73 68 71 71, Jason Schultz 70 70 71 72, Tom Gillis 74 69 68 72 -4: Sonny Skinner 73 70 75 66, Chris Smith 72 71 69 72 Also: -3: Phil Tataurangi (New Zealand) 70 72 72 71 -2: Paul Gow (Australia) 69 74 71 72 -1: Kim Felton (Australia) 73 71 74 69 +2: David McKenzie (Australia) 69 74 72 75 +9: Steven Bowditch (Australia) 68 71 78 80 +20: Ewan Porter (Australia) 73 69 77 89 Missed Cut: Marc Leishman (Australia), Andrew Buckle (Australia), Andrew Bonhomme (Australia), Aron Price (Australia), Won Joon Lee (Australia), Bradley Hughes (Australia), Scott Gardiner (Australia), Grant Waite (New Zealand) * won on a playoff