Golf: First win for Tataurangi on PGA tour

12.00pm

New Zealand's Phil Tataurangi became the 15th first-time winner on the PGA Tour this year when he won the $US5 million ($NZ10.53 million) Las Vegas Classic 90-hole golf event in Nevada today.

A scorching fifth-round 62 propelled Tataurangi from 12th overnight to the top of the leaderboard where he took a two-shot lead into the clubhouse and a nervous wait.

Two shots behind, Jim Furyk and Jeff Sluman made late charges, each picking up a shot over the closing holes but were unable to birdie the last hole to force Tataurangi into a playoff.

``I feel really good right now,'' an emotional Tataurangi said straight afterwards.
``Right now it doesn't get any better than this but right now I've got these two (children) here to share it with. I'm going home tonight to New Zealand so it's going to be pretty special.''

Today provided the biggest result of Tataurangi's career, which has been plagued by injury and illness in recent years.
He pocketed $US900,000.

Tataurangi had a blemish-free final today round which included 10 birdies and eight pars as he threaded his way through the field.

His 62 tally was 10 under par for the day and 29 under for the tournament, one shot ahead of Furyk and Sluman.

It is the first time two New Zealanders have won a PGA event in the same year after Craig Perks won The Players Championship in Florida in March.

Las Vegas Classic final-round scores:

330: Phil Tataurangi (NZ) 67 66 67 68 62

331: Jeff Sluman 66 66 64 68 67, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 66 68 64 67 66

332: Jim Furyk 66 65 64 69 68

333: Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 69 65 70 64 65

334: Charles Howell 67 65 66 69 67, David Duval 67 66 67 63 71, Dan Forsman 65 71 66 66 66

335: Notah Begay 65 70 70 65 65, Paul Stankowski 65 70 65 67 68, John Cook 69 67 64 67 68, Joel Edwards 72 67 62 66 68

336: Tim Petrovic 68 66 70 67 65, Jonathan Byrd 65 68 68 64 71, David Peoples 69 68 66 67 66

337: Chris DiMarco 66 67 66 69 69, Robert Gamez 67 67 67 70 66, John Huston 65 71 64 69 68

338: Esteban Toledo (Mex) 68 71 63 66 70

339: Carlos Franco (Par) 68 69 67 69 66

340: Edward Fryatt (Gbr) 68 67 69 70 66, Stephen Allan (Aus) 67 67 68 68 70

341: Mike Weir (Can) 66 73 65 70 67, Craig Parry (Aus) 69 68 66 67 71

345: Robert Allenby (Aus) 67 69 70 69 70

347: Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 70 70 65 73 69

348: Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 70 71 64 69 74, David Frost (Rsa) 69 67 70 75 67

353: Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 68 70 79 68

- NZPA