Quinn hangs on to win Panama Claro Championship

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Fran Quinn captured his fourth title on the Nationwide Tour at the Panama Claro Championship.

PANAMA CITY -- Fran Quinn needed only a 1-over 71 in the final round Sunday to walk away with the title at the Panama Claro Championship, his fourth career victory on the Nationwide Tour.

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Quinn broke the tournament scoring record by five strokes, finishing at 15-under 265, two shots in front of charging Brian Smock (67). Tommy Gainey (67) finished at 10-under 270 for solo third.

Five others -- Kevin Chappell (67), D.J. Brigman (69), Marco Dawson (70), Mark Anderson (72) and Argentina's Julio Zapata (73) tied for fourth, seven back of the winner.

"I made it interesting for everyone," said Quinn, who will turn 45 in two weeks.

The Massachusetts resident began the final day at the Panama Golf Club with a five-stroke lead and looked to have things in hand on a par-70 layout that started in like a lamb thanks to some unseasonal rains that hit the area and softened the course.

"I've never had a big lead like that before and I just put it on cruise control instead of trying to keep making birdies," he said.

The lamb turned into a lion on Sunday when the wind kicked up (10-20 mph) and birdies were suddenly harder to come by. The scoring average of 71.129 was the highest all week and more than 1.6 strokes higher than Saturday when Quinn set the course record with an eye-popping 8-under 62.

"I started out and just striped it. I played really well the first seven holes but missed four putts inside of six to eight feet," said Quinn. "I missed putts and duffed a chip on a par-5. I felt like I could have been 4-under at that point but was 2-over. I think I held onto the steering wheel a little too tight."

Quinn failed to make a birdie on the front and his 2-over 37 gave the rest of the field hope as the winds continued to put some teeth back into the course.

Smock was the only player in the final groups to put any real heat on Quinn during the day.

"When someone has a lead like that, the only thing you can do is to try and apply some pressure," said Smock, who collected the third runner-up finish of his career. "You can't make bogeys out here. If you do you just make it easier on him. I think I was four shots back starting the back nine and I thought if I could shoot 3-under I might have a chance."

That's exactly what happened. Smock birdied Nos. 11, 14 and 17 and had a chance for birdie at 18. Quinn, meantime, was struggling. The drives weren't as straight, the irons not as crisp and the birdie putts not in makeable range.

"It got windy and it was tough out there and you had to be careful," said Quinn. "I looked at the leaderboard on 14 to see where I was at. I think that dictated the way I played."

He was lingering at 14-under and clinging to a one-shot lead when his 2-iron off the tee at No. 16 caught a tree and left him with a difficult second shot. When he needed it most, Quinn found it.

"I had to hook a 6-iron between the two bunkers and I ran it up there to about 15 feet," he said. "I made that for birdie. That was phenomenal."

Add to that an up-and-down from behind the 17th green about the same time Smock was missing his putt at 18, and the Northwestern graduate had a two-shot lead with one to go.

"I think I started pushing and then things got tough. You had to be careful," he said. "It was a learning experience."

Quinn, who finished No. 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list last year, will take his educational lesson back to the PGA TOUR next week at The Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

The Nationwide Tour moves to Colombia next week for the first-ever PGA TOUR-sanctioned event in South America -- the Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open at Bogota Country Club.

Fourth-Round Notes:

• Sunday's final-round scoring average of 71.129 was the highest of the four days of the tournament. The average for the week was 70.071.

• Sunday's weather conditions: Variably cloudy. Winds N-NW 10-20 mph with a high of 91 degrees.

• Quinn's 1-over 71 was the first time a tournament winner posted an over-par score in the final round since Bill Lunde carded a 2-over 73 and won the 2008 Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational in Columbus, Ohio.

• Quinn collected a first-place check for $99,000, which puts him No. 3 on the money list.

• The top two money winners this season, Bobby Gates and Jim Herman, both missed the 36-hole cut.

• Tommy Gainey's 3-under 67 pushed him to 10-under 270, which matched the tournament's previous 72-hole record. Gainey wound up solo third, his career-best finish on the Nationwide Tour. His previous best was a T8 at the 2007 Cox Classic in Omaha.

• Georgia's Chris Kirk fired a 4-under 66 to match the low round of the day. Kirk started the day T43 but moved all the way up to a T9 finish thanks to his efforts.

• Former UCLA All-America Kevin Chappell is picking up where he left off in 2009. Chappell closed with a 67 today to go from T24 to T4, his second top-10 in three starts this year. Chappell started last season with no status on Tour but played his way on the Tour by making six cuts in nine starts, with four top-25 finishes and a pair of top-10s.

• Kirk and Kyle Reifers posted the lowest rounds of the day, 4-under 66s.

• Rookie Mark Anderson struggled to a 2-over 72 in the last round but still managed to register his first career top-10 with a T4. Anderson started his rookie campaign with a T23 at the Michael Hill New Zealand Open but missed the cut the following week at the Moonah Classic in Australia.