CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- Dean Wilson remembered the naysayers from his past in his native Hawaii, the ones who laughed when he talked about making it someday to the PGA TOUR and winning.

On Sunday he gave them his answer.

Wilson knocked home a 6-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole, Castle Pines Golf Club's ninth, to beat U.S. Ryder Cup team captain Tom Lehman and win The INTERNATIONAL.

Both golfers finished regulation with 34 points, Wilson with a final round of 12 points and Lehman a final round of 10. After both two-putted for par on the first playoff hole at No. 18, both golfers hit the fairway with their tee shots.

Lehman's 8-iron from 178 yards barely cleared the greenside bunker, leaving him a 30-foot putt for birdie. Wilson's 8-iron from 160 yards stopped six feet right of the cup. After Lehman's putt slipped agonizingly past the hole, Wilson stepped over his putt and stroked it into the cup.

"I had a good feel with my putter this week and it was a relatively simple putt," Wilson said. "I just kind of looked it over, and once Tom made par, I thought this is as good a chance as any. Pick that line, pick the speed you want to hit it, be confident and just roll it in. I tell you I was excited when that thing went in."

Finally, the 36-year-old Wilson can look past all the struggles to get to this moment: walking on the Brighan Young University-Hawaii team as a freshman and playing well enough to receive a scholarship to BYU on the mainland, where he was a teammate of Mike Weir's; turning pro and playing in Australia, Canada, Asia and Japan, where he won six times; getting his PGA TOUR card in 2002, losing it and regaining it in 2004.

With his victory Sunday, Wilson becomes the first Hawaiian-born player to win on the PGA TOUR since David Ishii won the 1990 Hawaiian Open, He also moves from 63rd to 21st on the money list and earns a two-year exemption to play. But even more important, he will participate in the 2007 Mercedes Championships, a tournament reserved for 2006 TOUR winners.

"It has been quite a battle," Wilson said. "When I said I wanted to do that, that was my goal. It seems like I heard a lot of people saying it can't be done, you can't beat those guys (from the mainland who played the PGA TOUR), they're so good. It's tough."

Receiving the hummingbird trophy from Castle Pines president and founder Jack A. Vickers after beating the 47-year-old Lehman, Wilson couldn't describe his feelings well enough.

"It's just really satisfying to be here holding the trophy," said Wilson, who became the fourth winner of The INTERNATIONAL to make the tournament his first PGA TOUR victory (Steve Lowery in 1994, Clarence Rose in 1996 and Rod Pampling in 2004 were the others. "I don't know about all the other perks that come with it, but I'm just satisfied, really satisfied, to have a trophy and have my name on it."

The victory also was worth 375 Ryder Cup team points, which moved Wilson from 68th on last week's points list to 22nd, giving him an outside chance to earn a spot on Lehman's 12-man team that plays Europe on Sept. 22-24 at The K Club in Ireland. He'll need a win or a top-10 finish at this week's PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club.

Lehman, who leaped from 29th to 19th on the list with his runner-up performance, was impressed.

Dean Wilson finished second in Putts per GIR at the event. (WireImage)

"In the playoff, Dean played very well," said Lehman, who will have two captain's picks to announce after the standings following the PGA Championship are settled. "I was up first and hit good shots, and he followed suit. He put in the fairway, knocked it on and made a birdie. Outstanding player, and I congratulate him."

Lehman, who hasn't ruled out being the first playing captain for the U.S. team since Arnold Palmer did double duty in the 1963 Ryder Cup matches at East Lake in Atlanta, was more disappointed with the loss. In particular, he lamented his missed 15-foot eagle putt at the par-5, 492-yard 17th hole that fell inches short of giving him three additional points, enough to win for the first time since the 2000 Phoenix Open.

"It's no fun finishing second," said Lehman, whose finish was his fourth Top 10 in 15 events and boosted his 2006 earnings over $1.6 million.

"You know I hit the ball extremely well once again but I didn't make as many putts as I would like to have," added Lehman, who had six birdies and two bogeys. "The big putt today for me was the 17th hole. I had a 15-footer for eagle and it looked so fast and so shiny going down the hill. I hit a beautiful putt right on line and it came up about four inches short. I didn't think there was any way I could leave it short."

It didn't console Lehman, either, when he learned his performance -- he made 21 birdies against eight bogeys for the week -- left him at 13-under 275, good enough to win if The INTERNATIONAL was a stroke-play affair.

Fortunately, Wilson, whose medal score of 279 would have left him in a seventh-place tie, got a chance to use the modified Stableford scoring system to his advantage. In 72 holes, he had 22 birdies, including seven on Sunday, and two eagles, more than enough to offset 11 bogeys and three double bogeys.

"Before the playoff, I had some time sitting up there and Corey (Pavin) came by," Wilson recalled. "He kind of said on TV they made mention (that Lehman was 13 under and Wilson 9 under)."

Steve Flesch missed a birdie putt on the 18th hole that would have made it three-man playoff, scoring 6 points for 32 points to tie for third with Japan's Daisuke Maruyama, whose +13 round was the day's best. Stewart Cink finished in fifth with 31 points and also moved from 20th to 12th in the Ryder Cup points race.

"I knew that if I snuck in here after the last few days in stroke play, I wouldn't be ahead because I made so many mistakes," Wilson said. "I probably had more doubles than anybody else in contention."

At the end, when the points were all added up, it didn't matter. Wilson played the format that was handed him at The INTERNATIONAL.

You can be sure he won't be giving the trophy back.