HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- Peter Lonard survived an up-and-down day and ended up capturing his first PGA TOUR title Sunday at the MCI Heritage.

Lonard, who entered the round with a one-stroke lead but dropped four shots behind Darren Clarke after the first five holes, was tied with Clarke entering the final hole.

The drama ended quickly, though, with Clarke losing his ball after pulling his approach shot into the thatchy beach area next to the green en route to a double bogey.

Lonard sweated through a final-round 75 to finish at 7-under 277, while Clarke had four bogeys and three double bogeys in a 76 that left him tied for second with five-time Harbour Town winner Davis Love III (71), Jim Furyk (69) and Billy Andrade (68).

"It's obviously a great honor," Lonard said. "It's something I'll never forget."

On the 18th, Clarke eventually walked back to the fairway to finish off his double bogey while Lonard, safely on the green in two, chomped a granola bar waiting out his landmark win.

It was hard to keep things straight at Harbour Town Golf Links without a scorecard. Lonard was down by four, then led by one after the eighth hole. He again fell behind Clarke by two shots after a bogey on the 12th hole. But three holes later, Lonard was ahead by a stroke and clung to the victory.

Clarke birdied four of the first five holes to get to 14 under and threatened to turn a tight match into a blowout. Then came bogeys on the sixth and seventh holes and a double bogey on the eighth after a drive into a pond on the left.

Things got more bizarre for the native of Northern Ireland on the back nine. It appeared as though he had steadied himself when a birdie on the 12th hole gave him a two-stroke lead.

However, Clarke followed with a double-bogey 6, landing in a trap close to the wood facing in front of the 13th green, then failing to get out when he hit architect Pete Dye's famous planks.

On the next hole, the par-3 14th, Clarke's tee shot went behind the green and his approach rolled past the cup and appeared certain to land with a splash in the pond that surrounds the green. However, his ball stuck on the last split in the weathered wood. He finished the hole with a bogey.

"Things happen out here that you don't think are going to happen," Clarke said. "I didn't think I was going to shoot whatever I shot today."

Lonard, who won the Australian Open and Australian PGA in consecutive weeks late last year, had an equally strange finish. After opening with a career-best 62 on Thursday, he fell six shots behind Clarke with a 74 in the second round. Lonard rebounded on Saturday with a 66.

Peter Lonard shot a career-best 62 in the opening round. (Marc Feldman/PGA TOUR /WireImage)

On Sunday, Lonard's 75 was the highest final round by an MCI Heritage winner, surpassing the 74 put by Arnold Palmer in the inaugural event in 1969.

Furyk, the former U.S. Open champion recovering from last year's wrist surgery, was eight strokes behind and tied for eighth when the round began. But he closed with his best finish of the season.

Love, who has had 37 rounds under 70 since he first started coming here in 1986, also looked like a possible candidate to join the mix. In the end, he was unable to mount a charge similar to the one that helped him to his last MCI Heritage crown in 2003 when he came from five shots down to take the title in a playoff.

Even on the final hole this time, Love faced an 8-foot birdie putt that would bring him to a shot of Clarke. Love missed it left, but still had his 11th top-10 finish in 20 appearances at Harbour Town.

Divots: Four of the five Champions Tour players entered -- Jay Haas, Peter Jacobsen, Craig Stadler and Doug Tewell -- made it through Sunday. Of the group, all but Jacobsen will play in the Champion Tour's Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf event in nearby Savannah, Ga., next week. ... Ian Poulter, playing alone as the first one out, finished 18 holes in a tidy 2 hours, 21 minutes. Poulter closed with a 74 for a 16-over 300 total.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.