CROMWELL, Conn. -- Carl Pettersson could be the PGA TOUR's Mr. International, having been born in Sweden and reared in England and North Carolina.

"I'm a blend of everything," Pettersson said during the Buick Championship. "I'm a meat-and-potatoes mutt."

And the monikers don't stop there. Countryman J esper Parnevik once dubbed Pettersson a Swedish redneck. He also could be called one of the TOUR's most revived up-and-comers.

Ten months ago, Pettersson was in TOUR purgatory, outside the top 150 on the money list and wondering where his career was headed. In his first 26 starts in 2005, he missed 14 cuts and didn't finish better than a tie for 15th in The International.

Perhaps fittingly, on Labor Day weekend, Pettersson tied for fourth in the Deutsche Bank Championship, where he shared the third-round before settling for the first of six top-20 finishes in his last eight starts. They included his first TOUR victory in the Chrysler Championship, where he joined Parnevik and Gabriel Hjertstedt as the only Swedes to win on the PGA TOUR. Then in the regular season finale, he tied for second in the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, enabling him to win the Fall Finish Presented by PricewaterhouseCoopers and its $500,000 bonus.

"After I won the Chrysler Championship, I said, 'O.K. I can do it, so let's do it again,' " Pettersson said.

The Swede/Englishman/American finished 31st on the money list with $1,993,853. After a so-so start to 2006 with only three top-10s in 14 tournaments, ending with his only missed cut to that point in the Bank of America Colonial, Pettersson won the rain-plagued Memorial Tournament and got a congratulatory handshake on the 18th green from host Jack Nicklaus.

Jack Nicklaus congratulates Carl Pettersson on his Memorial Tournament win. (Martin/WireImage)

"He was just Steady Eddie. He did everything right," Nicklaus said.

"It was surreal," Pettersson said. "Jack Nicklaus was shaking my hand. I asked him a few questions, but I have no idea what they were I was so in awe. Winning Jack's tournament and meeting him. I'll remember that the rest of my life."

Besides getting the golden shake and a check for $1,035,000, Pettersson could skip a 36-hole qualifier the next day and qualified for the British Open by virtue of leaping into the top 50 in the world rankings.

Pettersson, 28, missed the cut in the Barclays Classic and U.S. Open, then was one shot out of the lead after the first round of the Buick Championship before finishing in a tie for 31st thanks to a closing, 3-under-par 67 Sunday. He's now 16th on the money list with $2,014,077.

"I turned pro in 2000, so I've got a few years under my belt and kind of learned from my mistakes," Pettersson said. "I carried over a lot of confidence from winning last year. I'm obviously playing better, but I'm playing better because I'm not stressing out if I hit a bad shot or have a bad day on the course. If I shoot a bad round, I feel like I'm going to play good the next day. And if I don't, no big deal. I know my game is there and I feel I'll play good the next day.

"I'm more patient, and I think that's part of growing up, getting older, getting more experience playing on the TOUR and not getting stressed out if you hit a bad shot. It's a snowball effect where if you win, you get more confidence and then you win again."

Pettersson grew up playing golf, tennis, soccer, rugby and cricket and began his trek toward the PGA TOUR in Sweden. He moved to England at 10 years old when his father, an executive in Volvo's trucks division who taught Carl to play, was transferred. Another move when Pettersson was 16 landed the family in North Carolina, where he won a high school state championship.

"I enjoyed all the sports and was decent at all of them," Pettersson said. "Then around 14, I started concentrating on golf because I enjoyed it being an individual sport where I could play and practice on my own."

Pettersson went to Central Alabama Community College, where he was a two-time national junior college individual champion (1997-98) and began to use a long putter his sophomore year. He then transferred to North Carolina State, where he won four tournaments, including the NCAA East Regional by four shots but was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard.

"I was going to go to N.C. State out of high school, but my grades weren't quite good enough," he said with a smile.

In 2000, Pettersson won the European Amateur Championship and represented Sweden in the Eisenhower Trophy before turning pro in September. He spent most of his four full years as a pro on the PGA TOUR, although he played some in Europe, winning the Algarve Open De Portugal in 2002. And he has succeeded without a swing guru or sports psychologist, preferring to spent more time with his wife, DeAnna, and 22-month-old daughter, Carlie.

"I'm kind of old school, really," he said. "I'm pretty much self-taught. I haven't had a coach in years. I kind of try to figure out my own game. Sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad. I just kind of play along and try to work on stuff I'm not very good at and try to get better at it.

"But to win, it comes down to chipping and putting. You've obviously got to hit it fairly good, but if you can get it up-and-down, most of the time you're going to have a chance, and I was able to do that in my two wins. I got up-and-down nearly every time."

Despite his background, Pettersson likes grits, drives a Chevy pickup truck and listens to country music. But he's not into skiing, NASCAR or hockey, though he watched some Carolina Hurricanes games as they won their first Stanley Cup in June.

"I never got into hockey because no one in my family played," he said.

Now they're more interested in watching Carl try to beat the best golfers in the world.