Brice Garnett went wire-to-wire to earn his first career PGA Tour victory at the Corales Punta Cana Resort & Club Championship.
Battling rainy and windy conditions in the final round in the Dominican Republic, Garnett shot a 2-under 70 to turn a two-shot lead into a four-shot win over Keith Mitchell. The 35-year-old played last season on the Web.com Tour, winning twice, and now has a PGA Tour title in his 88th career start.
“I just wanted to make nine pars on the back. I got off to a great start,” Garnett said. “That (birdie) putt on 11 was huge for me, then I was just trying to pound the middle of the greens the rest of the way in. Hard day, but man, this is a lot of fun to do this.”
Garnett’s previous best result on the PGA Tour came at the 2014 OHL Classic at Mayakoba, where he finished sixth.
Full-field scores from the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship
With the victory, Garnett is now exempt through the 2019-20 season and has spots in The Players and PGA Championship. He’s also exempt for the winners-only Sentry Tournament of Champions in January as well as invitationals like the Fort Worth Invitational, Memorial Tournament and Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Because the tournament was played opposite the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Garnett’s victory does not get him into the Masters.
Former U.S. Amateur champ Kelly Kraft finished alone in third place, five shots behind Garnett, while K.J. Choi, Paul Dunne and Harris English were all among a tie for fifth. Canadian Corey Conners, who began the day as Garnett’s closest pursuer and played his way into the final group for the second time in as many starts, faded to T-13 after a final-round 76.