‘I just kind of went for it:’ Brett Drewitt earns first Korn Ferry Tour win at Lincoln Land Championship

Australian golfer Brett Drewitt thought about skipping the Lincoln Land Championship.

He missed his family in Florida and had only made six of 18 cuts since the start of the season. Thankfully, Drewitt decided otherwise after a chat with his wife, Brianna.

Drewitt capitalized with a one-stroke victory Sunday at 19-under-par, his first win since last year on the Outlaw Tour and first-ever on the Korn Ferry Tour.

“I just kind of went for it,” said Drewitt, who finished the round 3-under. “I said, ‘You know what, I’m doing this for a living and a lot of people would kill for that.’ I just went at it and played my own game.”

Drewitt held off three others who finished at 18-under: Harry Hall, Ben Kohles and Austen Truslow.

Lincoln Land Championship: Leaderboard

Hall, of England, missed a short par putt on the final hole to give Drewitt the advantage while Truslow’s birdie attempt on No. 18 came just a few inches short to seal the win for the Aussie. Charlie Saxon led the previous three rounds but four bogeys — including the opening hole — dropped him to a tie for seventh place at 16-under. Anders Albertson, the 2018 tournament champion, tied Dawson Armstrong for fifth place at 17-under.

Drewitt knew where he stood after watching Hall’s miss in the group ahead of him. Hall didn’t know.

“I didn’t know my position in the field until I looked at the scores after I signed my card,” Hall said. “I think I was just trying to do the best I could all day. I putt great all week. I don’t think I probably missed a putt inside of eight feet all week and it happened on the last hole from four feet, so it was annoying.

“But I think not knowing the score and just doing the same thing that I’ve done all day, that was probably my best chance and I just made a poor stroke. I think when I’m in that position next time, I should probably take an extra breath. I wouldn’t have changed anything today. It just didn’t go in on the last hole.”

Drewitt just needed to finish No. 18 with two putts from outside 30 feet.

“It’s surreal right now,” Drewitt said. “It’s been a hard road definitely the last couple of years and this year has just been a rollercoaster. To be honest, I felt calm out there. Even yesterday, I felt very calm. I didn’t get too nervous. I just knew all I had to do was hit fairways and hit it to the fat side of pins and give myself chances.”

Drewitt collected $108,000 and 500 points in the Korn Ferry Tour standings. He previously had two top-10 finishes this season and his previous win before the Outlaw Tour was in the PGA Tour Series in China in 2014.

He grabbed a two-stroke lead after consecutive birdies on the par-5 13th and par-3 14th. Drewitt used a 9-iron to reach within 8 feet of the pin on No. 14.

“The putt was better because I feel like in these situations, the hardest putts are the straight putts and that was a dead-straight putt,” Drewitt said. “It was nice to see it go in.”

He gutted it out in the end and intends to stick with it for at least one more week for the Evans Scholars Invitational near Chicago beginning Thursday.

“I’m going to go in there and try to win again,” Drewitt said.