PANAMA CITY, Panama -- Tripp Isenhour spent a lot of time in the off-season working on shots that would hold up better in pressure situations. The 37-year-old's efforts paid off Sunday with a victory in the $550,000 Movistar Panama Championship, the season-opening event on the 2006 Nationwide Tour.

Isenhour shot a final-round 1-under-par 69 to finish at 11-under-par 269, three shots in front of third-round co-leader Brendan Pappas (72), Parker McLachlin (69) and Kevin Gessino-Kraft (68). Jason Allred (66) finished four back of Isenhour, who collected $99,000 for his third career victory.

Isenhour spent his time over the winter reworking a swing that failed him in the wind and down the stretch at the PGA TOUR's Qualifying Tournament last fall.

"I'm surprised that the changes are so far along this quickly and happy that they held up for four days," he said after shooting rounds of 63-67-70-69. "I have a lot more control over my golf ball and my misses are more predictable. You?re only as good as your misses and we took some big steps in making mine more playable."

The Georgia Tech grad began the last day tied with Pappas at 10-under par. When Pappas bogeyed the first hole and Isenhour countered with birdies at Nos. 3, 4 and 5, Sunday's showdown looked like it would not materialize.

"I got off to such a great start. That was huge," said Isenhour, who admitted that a missed 6-foot birdie putt on the second hole was his early wake-up call. "Right then I knew I was being too careful. I knew I had to go back to doing what got me to this point. I settled down and kept giving myself opportunities. I played solid after that with only a couple of hiccups."

Isenhour led by four over Pappas at the turn and saw his lead increase to six despite two straight bogeys. He three-putted the 10th from 35 despite hitting two putts "where I wanted to hit them." Pappas gave four shots back to par with a bogey, triple-bogey start on the inward nine. The rest of the field failed to take a serious run at Isenhour, who held the outright lead after both the first and second rounds.

Pappas refused to wilt in the 90-degree heat and rallied with a trio of birdies to get back within three shots after the 14th hole, where Isenhour pulled some magic out his hat by getting up and down after short-siding himself at the green. The Floridian made a 10-foot, par-saving putt to keep Pappas at bay.

"I didn't look at a leaderboard all day but I knew somebody was going to have to play well to catch me," said the winner. "Brendan told me walking down the next fairway that 14 (under) pretty much sealed the deal. I just gutted it up and got it done coming in."

Isenhour, while not spectacular, was steady down the stretch, closing with seven consecutive pars for his first win since the 2003 BMW Charity Pro-Am.

"My first two wins were more like lightning in a bottle. Those weeks I just played well and it was my turn to win," he said. "This win is so much sweeter because of all the work we did to get to this level. This one is better because I think I'm a more complete player now. I had ups and downs before but now I think I'm able to sustain my level of play. This one validates everything that my coach and I have been doing."

Final Round News & Notes: Roberto Coceres fired the day's best round, a 6-under-par 64 ... Brad Elder made a hole in one on the 198-yard sixth hole with a 5-iron. It was the second ace of the week ... Sunday's final-round scoring average was 70.667. The cumulative scoring average for the week was 71.040.