Brian Gay earns first PGA Tour win at Mayakoba Classic in Cancun, Mexico

From WorldGolf.com News Services

After making 293 starts on the PGA Tour, Brian Gay is winless no more.

Entering the final round with a five-stroke cushion, Gay conservatively played his way to a 1-under-par 69 Sunday and held on for the victory in the Mayakoba Classic at Riviera Maya. He finished the tournament at 16-under 264 to win two shots over Steve Marino at El Camaleon Golf Club.

"It's been a long time," Gay told reporters after earning the win and the $630,000 first-place check. "Obviously a lot of hard work — it took me longer to get out on the Tour after college than I thought.

"Even though I was doing really well on the mini-tours and had my chances through the years, I wasn't able to get it done, so this is really a big, big relief to finally do it."

Only 12 active players on the PGA Tour have more starts without a victory than Gay, 36.

After shooting himself into the lead on Saturday with a closing stretch that included birdies on five of his last six holes, Gay admittedly played with a much more conservative approach in the final round.

"It was a lot different when I woke up today than when I finished yesterday," Gay said. "I was just trying to play smart and not make any mistakes and give any strokes back — let somebody earn it."

Gay made one of his three bogeys of the day at No. 4, but responded with back-to-back pars and then birdied Nos. 7 and 8 to stretch his lead to six shots. His second bogey came at No. 10, but once again he bounced right back, making birdie on holes 11 and 13.

Thanks to a 30-foot par-saving putt on No. 16, Gay was able to overcome a bogey at No. 17 and stave off the hard-charging Marino.

"That was a huge putt," Gay said. "I had a couple of huge putts there on the back, because Steve was really playing good on the back. Gosh, that was the big putt."

Marino closed with a 4-under 66 on his way to a PGA Tour career-best runner-up finish. He made all four of his birdies in the final eight holes to finish at 14-under 266 while playing his last 42 holes without a bogey.

"I just kind of tried to go out there and just play my game and try to hit the best shots I possibly could, and if the putts went in, the putts went in," Marino told reporters. "Obviously I was going to need a little help from Brian, but he played great. Congrats to him. Overall it's a great week for me and I'm pretty happy."

First- and second-round leader John Merrick and Matt Kuchar tied for third place at 12-under 268. Cliff Kresge was fifth (11-under 269), Patrick Sheehan was sixth (10-under 270) and Tim Petrovic and Peter Lonard tied for seventh (9-under 271).

But the day - and the weekend - belonged to Gay, whose previous best finish on the PGA Tour was a pair of runner-up performances. When he looks back on the tournament, Gay said he'll most likely recall his career-best round of 62 on Saturday, which put him position to win.

"Obviously the third round would be the round to stand out," Gay said. "I would say definitely the finish on Saturday is what set it all up."

February 25, 2008