Junction City, OR -- Cliff Kresge put an exclamation point on a solid season Sunday with a playoff win over Ricky Barnes at the Oregon Classic Presented by Kendall Automotive Group. Kresge’s third career victory came at the expense of Barnes, who missed a downhill four-foot par putt on the third extra hole. The two players tied at 17-under-par 271 in regulation, one ahead of Tim Wilkinson.

”Once you’re in a playoff, the pressure’s off because the worst you can do is second,” said Kresge, who collected $81,000 for the win and moved to No. 2 on the Nationwide Tour money list. “This feels great and now I’m just one place away from where I want to be.”

Both players halved the first extra hole with birdies on the par-5 18th and then went back to the tee a second time. Each found trouble off the tee and had to settle for pars. The playoff moved to the 362-yard, dogleg 10th hole, where Kresge played it safe and Barnes went for broke and cut the corner to the right. Kresge’s wedge came up 25 feet short of the pin while Barnes was stuck in the heavy rough but only 25 yards from the green. Barnes’ second rolled long and forced him to chip back, where he came up short. Kresge two-putted, tapping in from less than a foot and then watched as Barnes missed.

“You never like to win like that, you always want to make one to win,” said Kresge, who is now 3-0 in playoffs. “Honestly though, we’ll all take them any way we can get them.”

Kresge got it thanks to a solid weekend on the greens. Saturday he rolled in a barrage of lengthy putts and Sunday he saved pars on several occasions when he needed to.

Kresge began the final round one shot back of co-leaders Barnes and Wilkinson and made up ground quickly with birdies on four of his first five holes.

“I did the same thing yesterday,” noted the winner. “I got off to another great start. From there on in I had a lot of good looks at it. My putter was the difference this week. I had a really hot putter on Saturday and Sunday and just rode it from there.”

Sunday’s finish nearly had two other endings. With Kresge having posted a 5-under 67 and in the scoring tent, Barnes burned the edge of the cup on a 25-foot eagle putt that would have given him the title.

Wilkinson then watched as his 15-foot birdie putt to join the playoff also missed, sending Kresge and Barnes into the second playoff in the tournament’s eight years.

Despite the playoff loss, Barnes jumped 19 places on the all-important money list to No. 30 with five events left on the 2006 schedule. Following the Nationwide Tour Championship at the Houstonian, the top-20 money winners will earn PGA TOUR cards for the 2007 season.

Fourth-Round News & Notes: Sunday’s finish marked the 13th straight week on the Nationwide Tour that the 54-hole leader/co-leader has failed to win the tournament. The last to hold the lead and win was Hunter Haas at the Knoxville Open Presented by Food City on June 18…Sunday’s final-round scoring average was 72.015. The scoring average for the week was 72.161…The Nationwide Tour will take a one-week break and return Oct. 2-8 at the Mark Christopher Charity Classic in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.