Golf can be a cruel and capricious game, one where there are no guarantees and potential often can go unrewarded.

There was a time in 2003 when down-on-his-luck journeyman Chris Couch was ready to give up the chase. He was broke after missing the first four cuts of the Nationwide Tour season when a call to Brendan Pappas netted a $3,000 loan.

“I think I would have gone out and gotten a job,’’ Couch said, admitting he wondered if a day like Sunday would ever arrive, a day when he would accomplish something that seemed like a golf prodigy’s birthright, a victory on the PGA TOUR.

Couch reeled off finishes of 25th, second and fifth and never gave up for one simple reason.

“I always thought I could win out here,’’ he said.

A win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a TOUR stop noted as a breeding ground for first-timers, seemed like an afterthought when Couch, ranked 368th in the Official World Ranking, made the 36-hole cut on the 4-under-par number. The tournament apparently would represent his 66th TOUR start and his 66th failure in his third chance in The Big Show.

Then something strange happened over the weekend in post-Katrina New Orleans. A golf tournament helped a storm-battered city’s rebuilding and healing process and it allowed its champion, Chris Couch, to realize a dream and reconstruct a career. With a playoff looming, Couch displayed uncommon courage and perfect timing by doing with a finishing of a one-putt bogey on the 17th and a chip-in par on the 18th for a one-stroke over Fred Funk and Charles Howell III.

“That’s unbelievable,’’ Funk, who matched the English Turn Golf and Country Club course record with a final-round 62, said of the champion’s finish. “But that’s what you have to do to win out here.’’

On Saturday Couch shot an 8-under 64 in extremely difficult conditions, a round that caused fourth-place finisher Stuart Appleby to muse, “I don’t know if he was playing the same course as us.’’ Couch, who made just two of nine cuts in 2006 as he headed to the Crescent City, improbably went from worst to first at 12-under.

Few expected Couch to withstand the wilting pressure in the final round. He almost didn’t. He blinked, twice in fact. But he never flinched.

For 16 holes, Howell said Couch, who had rung up eight birdies and no bogies, didn’t “miss a shot’’ and played with the cool, calm and precision of a man who has been under the gun before.

“He didn’t look like a guy trying to win his first TOUR event,’’ said Howell, who caddied for Couch in a collegiate event in his native Augusta, Ga., when he was 12 and Couch was at the University of Florida.

Couch’s final round of 65, which gave him a 72-hole total of 19-under 269, was made that much sweeter considering the way he played the final two holes. He needed a 12-foot on the 17th to save bogey after blading his second from a greenside bunker. Then after airmailing his approach to the 18th and barely escaping a bunker, he gathered himself and chipped in for the victory.

“I remember thinking to myself this will always be remembered if I chip this in,’’ Couch said.

Then he did just that, carving his niche in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans memory vault with a pitching wedge, holing the shot from 54 feet, one inch.

“This means so much,’’ Couch said. “It’s something from a guy who came from nothing and now I have a million dollars.’’

The curious thing about Couch, who celebrates his 33rd Monday, is he represents so many things. He qualified – and made the cut in The Honda Classic – when he was 16.

“That gave me a taste,’’ said Couch, who gave up baseball to concentrate on golf.

But until Sunday, he had absolutely nothing to show for two-plus seasons on the PGA TOUR, qualifying twice through the Nationwide Tour and crashing and burning afterward. But Couch became the king of the Nationwide Tour. In fact he is the career money leader on the PGA TOUR'S satellite circuit.

Until Sunday he was just the average guy, struggling to scratch out a living. Now he’s more than a professional golfer who chips cross-handed. He’s a PGA TOUR champion. The thing about Sunday is, it did not come without a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Chris Couch saved par with his chip-in at No. 18. (Shamus/ WireImage)

At the beginning of 2006 Couch said he was better equipped to cope with the ultra-competitive existence on the PGA TOUR and that the third time truly could be a charm.

“I’m wasn’t going to take being on the TOUR for granted this time,’’ Couch said. “It’s a lot of hard work and there are so many good players out there. You have to be on top of your game every week just to compete. Everything has to be there."

Couch, the 15th player to score a breakthrough victory, was missing an ingredient or two in his first nine events. But he was determined to remain patient because he knew he was playing better than his results indicated.

“I knew it all would come together at some point,’’ he said.

But on Saturday morning few would have imagined this would be Couch’s week.

“It just goes to show you you’re never out of it,’’ said Couch, who apparently never was.