New Zealander Tim Wilkinson earned the biggest pay cheque of his career when finishing in a tie for sixth in the Puerto Rico Open.
The Palmerston North lefthander improved four places on the leaderboard with a round of 3-under-par 69, which featured birdies at his last two holes at Rio Grande.
He ended on 11-under 277, three shots behind the winner, American Greg Kraft, to earn a cheque for $US117,250 ($NZ148,000).
Wilkinson stumbled early with a bogey five at the fourth hole before getting a shot back at the next ahead of birdies at the 10th and 12th, which sandwiched a bogey on the par-3 11th.
It was Wilkinson's first top-10 result in his rookie season on the PGA Tour, which has to date seen him make four of seven cuts.
It lifted his tour income this season to $US211,108, promoting him from 134th to 100th on the tour's moneylist.
With the tour's leading players otherwise engaged in the WGC-CA Championship in Florida, the Puerto Rico field was not the deepest, although the tournament still carried a purse of $US3.5 million. Kraft's share of that was $US650,000.
Along with the fat cheque, Kraft also earned his tour playing privileges until the end of 2010 after closing with a round of 70 to leave him one clear of fellow Americans Jerry Kelly and Bo Van Pelt.
Kelly shot 70 yesterday and Van Pelt 72, while Briny Baird managed 72 and Kevin Stadler 67 to be another shot behind in a share of fourth.
- Australian Geoff Ogilvy clung to a twostroke lead, while Tiger Woods was five strokes back when darkness halted the final round of the World Golf Championships CA Championship in Miami yesterday.
With nine holes yet to play, Ogilvy stood on 17 under par, two ahead of Fiji's Vijay Singh, who had nine to play, and American Jim Furyk, who had eight remaining, with Woods sitting in a share of eighth at 12-under with seven to play.
‘‘I'm sure he [Woods] probably thinks he has a chance and we've seen him do crazy things before,'' Ogilvy said.
‘‘But Jim and Vijay have won a fair few tournaments and there are some pretty tough players right up there.''
After 61 players were forced to complete the third round in the morning due to prior storms, golfers waited out a 2hr 50min weather delay before darkness fell with 24 in the clubhouse and 53 returning overnight (NZ time) for the finish.
New Zealand's Mark Brown is near the tail of the field, sitting at 2-over for his round after 12 holes and 9-over for the tournament.
Following the earlier withdrawals of American Sean O'Hair and Argentine Angel Cabrera, Brown is in 76th place, above only American Heath Slocum, who was at 10-over for the event after 11 holes.
